In this article you will find information about american debt consolidation, debt management corp, debt elimination options.

American debt consolidation

American leaders used to be more troubled by government debt, and during various periods they worked to reduce it. One of those periods was the 1820s and 1830s, as described by Carl Lane in A Nation Wholly Free: The Elimination of the National Debt in the Age of Jackson. Lane is a professor of history at Felician College in New Jersey, and he provides an engaging and detail-oriented account of fis- cal policy in the early Republic. Debt reduction was a key policy focus at that time, and it influenced many other issues, including tariffs, internal improvements, and the Second Bank of the United States.In recent years, federal government debt has soared to the high- est levels in our peacetime history. In other countries, rising debt has precipitated economic crises, but these foreign experiences have not yet prompted U.S. policymakers to focus on debt reduction. While policymakers often express concern about the debt, other fiscal pri- orities always seem to take precedence.

America was born with a substantial load of government debt, which had been issued to fund the Revolutionary War. Following Alexander Hamilton’s plan, Congress passed a law in 1790 that trans- ferred state debts to the federal government, creating a total federal debt that year of $75 million. Hamilton and the Federalists were in no rush to pay down the debt, and by the end of the Adams admin- istration in 1800, it had edged up to $83 million.

Debt management corp

Thomas Jefferson assumed the presidency in 1801 promising to end internal taxes, restrain spending, and pay down the debt. In a 1799 letter to Elbridge Gerry, Jefferson said, “I am for a government rigorously frugal and simple, applying all the possible savings of the public revenue to the discharge of the national debt.” Jefferson fol- lowed through on his tax promise, kept total spending roughly flat, and was able to pay down a substantial part of the debt, even though the Louisiana Purchase had cost $15 million. Federal debt fell from $83 million in 1801 to $57 million by 1809.

 After reaching a low of $45 million in 1812, federal debt soared to $127 million by 1816 as a result of the War of 1812. Jefferson’s animosity toward government debt, however, had a lasting influ- ence on policymakers. By the Monroe administration (1817–1825), debt was falling again as the government began running surpluses in most years.

This is the point at which Lane’s detailed narrative begins. Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri said that, after the war, leaders started focusing on the government becoming “wholly free” of debt. By the end of Monroe’s tenure, that dream began to look possible. In his final State of the Union message in 1824, Monroe said that the debt could be fully paid off by January 1835.

Debt elimination options

That prospect caught the imagination of many leaders who believed in the moral and practical benefits of debt freedom. They associated government debt with corruption, and they thought that debt undermined checks and balances and thus eroded liberty. Debt freedom was also favored by the public, which strongly supported frugality in the federal government. Lane says, “When Congress voted itself a raise in 1816, voters retaliated. An overwhelming major- ity of incumbents went down to defeat at the next election.”

With policymakers focused on debt elimination, numerous efforts to expand spending during the 1820s and 1830s failed. Since Alexander Hamilton’s tenure as Treasury secretary, for example, there had been pressure for the federal government to spend on infrastructure, called “internal improvements.” Many members of Congress wanted the government to support roads and canals, either as particular projects in their districts or as a general policy. Henry Clay of Kentucky was a major force in Congress for decades, and he promoted his “American System” of high protective tariffs combined with infrastructure spending.