My only intended audience for my rhetorical analysis is really only my professor and my peers/classmates. This assignment was not meant to be personal like the previous one, so was not trying to connect to any other audience members or anything like that.

This phase helped me a lot because it showed me how to properly communicate my thoughts into my writing which was helpful for the assignment we were given.  The assignment we were given was to write a rhetorical analysis on any text of our choosing.  Doing the assignment helped me to analyze the text I was reading and to detect rhetorical strategies and how the authors used them, like ethos, pathos, and logos, which I previously mentioned that we learned about.

The text that I chose to analyze was “US National Debt Tops $31 Trillion for First Time”, and article written by Alan Rappeport and Jim Tankersley.

Rhetorical Analysis

In October 2022,  the US’s national debt reached $31.12 trillion.  This was a new record in American history.  National debt had never been that high until now.  Many economic researchers and experts have been looking into this news.  Two of these people happen to be Alan Rappeport and Jim Tankersley.  Rapperport and Tankersley are reporters for “The New York Times”, and they mainly write articles about economic policy and events concerning the American economy.  On October 4, 2022, an article called “US National Debt Tops $31 Trillion for First Time” was published.  In the article, they talk about the US National Debt and why it is concerning, and they are able to do so through their use of logos and ethos.

When it comes to ethos, that is to say the credibility of the text,  a lot can be said.  As previously mentioned, the authors are very well versed in economics.  Alan Rapperport is an economic policy reporter at The New York Times, and he covers the Treasury Department and writes about taxes, trade and fiscal matters, and Jim Tankersley is a White House correspondent for The New York Times with a focus on economic policy.  When it comes to the actual contents of the article, the authors provide additional information about inflation when it is only briefly mentioned a few times throughout the article.  

“Inflation is a loss of purchasing power over time, meaning your dollar will not go as far tomorrow as it did today…It can be the result of rising consumer demand…Rapid inflation typically spells trouble for stocks. Financial assets in general have historically fared badly during inflation booms, while tangible assets like houses have held their value better.”

As people who mainly focus on economics in their articles, it’s not surprising that the authors would not only mention inflation, but explain what it is.  However, they decided to go even further and explain the causes and effects of it, which shows how well-versed they are in economics.  Additionally, they even talk about other economic topics/events, such as interest rates. “Federal debt is not like a 30-year mortgage that is paid off at a fixed interest rate. The government is constantly issuing new debt, which effectively means its borrowing costs rise and fall along with interest rates.” (Rappeport and Tankersley 2022). Overall, the authors of the text and the text itself have high credibility.

In addition to their credibility and knowledge on various economic topics, there is a lot of logic (use of logos) behind some of the claims that the article makes.  For example, the authors draw different effects that the new national debt can cause for the American economy based on the current event of the high national debt, as well as their own knowledge on economics.

Higher rates could add an additional $1 trillion to what the federal government spends on interest payments this decade, according to Peterson Foundation estimates. That is on top of the record $8.1 trillion in debt costs that the Congressional Budget Office projected in May. Expenditures on interest could exceed what the United States spends on national defense by 2029, if interest rates on public debt rise to be just one percentage point higher than what the C.B.O. estimated over the next few years.

The authors are able to come up with a possible effect of the $31 trillion national debt to show the reader how circumstances like this can affect America’s economy.  They do this again later on in the text after talking about a warning given by the Congressional Budget Office on the matter.

The C.B.O. warned about America’s mounting debt load…could cause ‘interest rates to increase abruptly and inflation to spiral upward.’ Rate increases could cut short what has been a brief period of improvement for the nation’s fiscal picture as it relates to the economy as a whole…the national debt, measured as a share of the size of the economy, will shrink slightly through the coming fiscal year before growing again in 2024. That is because the economy is expected to grow faster than the debt.

Overall, the authors use their knowledge on the current situation, as well as their prior knowledge on economics to come up with possible effects of the current national debt with logical explanations.

To conclude, Alan Rappeport and Jim Tankersley’s article on the US national debt reaching $31 trillion is effective because as the authors. They have high credibility due to their extensive knowledge on economics as reporters who specifically write about economic topics, and they are able to come up with possible effects that the high national debt can have on the economy with logical and realistic explanations.