Tops 14 Trillion $
The good news is that it took 7 full months for the National Debt to increase from $13 trillion on June 1, 2010 to $14 trillion on Dec. 31, 2010. The bad news is it took only 7 months for the National Debt to increase from $13 trillion on June 1, 2010 to $14 trillion on Dec. 31, 2010.
At this rate we’ll soon be at $15,000,000,000,000. (Trillion = 12 zeros by the way)
The estimated population of the United States
As is reflected above, the national debt currently stands at more than $14 trillion, with much of that money being owed to foreign nations and foreign investors. Our interest payments alone on the debt are enormous: $414 billion in 2010 alone. Over the course of the next decade our payments are expected to quadruple, which will mean even more tax dollars will be flowing overseas.
Would you believe that of that $14 Trillion we owe, $4.5 Trillion is dew to numerous foreign governments, etc. The largest foreign holders of US debt include countries with which we have complex or even hostile relationships with, such as China (26%), Russia (3%), Iran , and Venezuela
We even owe what is simply termed as “Oil Exporters”, 5% of the $4.5 Trillion. Continued deficit spending leaves Americans no choice but to pay a large portion of our taxes to foreign governments. A few others that we owe huge sums: Japan (20%), Americans owe the United Kingdom 6%, Brazil and Taiwan
I suppose the good news here is that the percentages referenced in the above paragraph, only includes the borrowed funds of $4.5 Trillion rather than the total debt of $14 Trillion. So, in short, we owe ourselves more than we owe Foreigners.
The concept of not spending more than you earn (tax monies collected) is not a new or innovative way of thinking, in fact as recently as March of 1995; a Balanced Budget Amendment passed the House of Representatives and came within one vote of passing the Senate.
But a recession, foreign aid, tax cuts, and huge increases in the military budget (primarily due un-popular wars) along with other spending increases such as the two “Stimulus Packages” singed by both former President Bush and current President Obama, have effectively eliminated the possibility of budget surpluses in the near future.
A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report published in October 2007 stated that the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
Americans typically hand over to the federal government in the form of personal income, social security insurance, corporate income and excise taxes, something to the tune of 2,000,000,000,000.00 Dollars (that’s 2 Trillion) every year.
About 35% of that 2 Trillion is a special tax called FICA and is collect by the IRS for the governments costs associated with Social Security and Medicare. That figure comes to $700,000,000,000.00 (700 Billion) if you were wondering. I make this point not because I think it’s a waste of tax payer’s money but because I think it is important for all of us to realize that Social Security benefits as well as Medicare costs more or less stand alone in the overall scheme of things.
So what do we do? Well first things first, we need to recognize that this rather deep “red hole” we’re in didn’t just happen over-night but we have little choice but to climb out, ever so slowly, if we plan to continue as a free nation.
While most all successful politicians gain wide spread support by promising change, it does not require a rocket scientist to conclude that the status quo is not working, so yes “change” is most definitely needed.
So here’s a short list of things we as a nation must do: 1st we are addicted to foreign oil, no-one to my knowledge has called this character flaw a good thing, this can and must be ended; 2nd stop waging war on other nations un-necessarily; 3rd dramatically cut foreign aid to all nations unless they are native American; 4th stop borrowing money so as to “spend” our way out of recession, though many economists insist that this works, it takes too long and as well as costs too much.
Beyond these difficult tasks you might consider reminding each of your elected representatives in the U S Congress of the following: You Still vote!
Just in case they need a little refresher in the concept of negative numbers (if they’re average Americans, they probably don’t), anyway I suggest using these 2 examples as potential lesson plans ... Simple but right out of the 4th grade, so most of the folks in DC should be able to understand them.
(1) $220,000.00 (An American husband and wife’s combined income)
$350,000.00 (A husband and wife’s combined expenditures)
_______________________________________
-$130,000.00 (That same husband and wife’s combined earnings and debt, ouch!)
(2) $2.2 Trillion ($2,200,000,000,000.00) amount of
$3.5 Trillion ($3,500,000,000,000.00) amount of money U.S.
-$1.3 trillion (-$1,300,000,000,000.00) amount of debt U.S. added last year to our nations debt, which now stands well beyond 14 Trillion Dollars.
You can easily obtain your congressman's e-mail address, fax number, phone number, etc. by clicking on the following link: http://www.conservativeusa.org/mega-cong.htm .
Sources …
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20027090-503544.html http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/ http://www.defeatthedebt.com/understanding-the-national-debt/who-do-we-owe/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_Budget_Amendment http://www.ssa.gov/history/hfaq.html
http://washingtoncouldlearnalot.com/2011/08/4th-grade-math/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_cost_of_the_Iraq_War
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