The National Debt: What You Need to Know
Monday, March 21, 2011
The National Debt: What You Need to
Know
Many NE Ohioans have contacted me wanting to know the specifics
of our country's debt. Here's some food for thought:
- Our nation's debt stands at more than $14 trillion, which
translates to a $45,500 "birth tax" for every child born in America
this year, or $120,500 for every household.
- This year our annual deficit is expected to reach 1.6 trillion
dollars, the largest in history. Since 2007, median family
income fell by 4.2 percent, which is approximately $2,200 per
family. In the same time-frame, the government's budget grew
by nearly 40 percent.
- The federal government is borrowing 42 cents of every dollar it
spends. Another way to put this: all spending after July 27
of this year is "borrowed" spending.
- Government spending in FY 2011 under the President's FY 2012
budget totals $3.819 trillion. Of that, $2.163 trillion will
be paid for with tax revenue, while $1.645 trillion is deficit
spending paid for by borrowing.
- Approximately 47 percent of our public debt is owed to foreign
sources, which is a 240 percent increase in the last in the last 20
years. China owns 29.2 percent of our debt. With the interest
we pay China from our debt, they can buy 3 Joint Strike Fighters
every week with and still have $50 million left over each
week.
- Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, says that unless
"we as a nation make a strong commitment to fiscal responsibility,
in the longer run, we will have neither financial stability nor
healthy economic growth."
- Erskine Bowles, co-chair of President Obama's National
Commission on Fiscal Responsibility: "'This debt is like a
cancer... It is truly going to destroy the country from
within."
- Admiral Mike Mullen, President Obama's Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff: "I think the biggest threat we have to our
national security is our debt."
The debt crisis threatens to bankrupt our children
- David Walker, former GAO Comptroller General: "So much of their
money will be devoted to keeping the government afloat that they'll
have relatively little for everything else in life. Their homes
will be smaller and drabber. There will be less to spend for cars,
vacations, dinners out and big TV sets, all of which their parents
took for granted. They'll still read about the consumer society and
conspicuous consumption, but mainly in history texts."
The federal government is awash in wasteful, questionable and
duplicative spending:
- The 2009 stimulus bill spent over $1 trillion, including debt
payments, and was supposed to keep unemployment below 8%.
Since it was signed into law, 2.3 million jobs have been lost and
the nation has suffered from 22 straight months of unemployment
near 9%, the longest on record since the Great Depression.
- Stimulus spending was also used to fund questionable projects
in a time of economic stress, such as $1.9 million to the
California Academy of Sciences to identify ant species; $677,462 to
Georgia State University to study primate responses to unfairness;
and $294,958 to Wake Forest University for research on yoga.
- In March 2011, the Government Accountability Office (GAO)
released its first annual report required by Congress to identify
duplicative and wasteful government programs, agencies, and
offices. The GAO report found billions in waste, including 82
federal programs monitoring teacher quality totaling $4 billion, 47
federal programs for job training totaling $18 billion, and 56
financial literacy programs.
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