This is an increase of $5.4 trilliion since President Obama took office less than four years ago.
We have had a budget deficit of over $1 trillion in each of the last four years. In fact, it has averaged about $1.35 trillion per year over that period.
How much is a trillion?
It is a big, big, big number. How big?
It is 1,000 billion.
If you started counting right now at one number per second you would not reach 1 trillion for 32,000 years.
If you placed a trillion dollar bills end to end it would stretch from New York to Los Angeles and back again ... 40,000 times!!
It would encircle the earth 4,000 times.
It would reach the moon and back 200 times.
That is how much a trillion is.
That is how much we are spending on federal government programs beyond what we have coming in this year alone.
Of course, I mentioned above that we now have $16 trillion in total debt at the federal level. Take all the numbers above and multiply by 16.
Let's bring it a little close to you.
Paying off that $16 trillion debt would require a contribution of $51,000 from every man, woman and child in the country. It is also about $142,000 per household.
Of course, only a fraction of our total population right now are paying taxes. If that burden is borne just by the taxpayers today it amounts to $232,000 for each one. The tab grows to $290,000 for each taxpaying family.
A trillion is no trifle. This election is not trivial. Our time is almost up.
This vast expansion of our federal debt due to deficit spending is not sustainable. The path we are on will not end well. That is a certainty. It does not have to be that way. It is late but it still is not too late right now.
This chart shows the growth of federal debt from 1900 with a projection based on estimates of where we are heading in 2020 based on Congressional Budget Office data.
The American people have what I see as one last chance to control their own destiny on this issue in November. After November 6, it will be too late. Choose wisely.
Scott, I publish Abservd Magazine here in Cincinnati and would love to include an article of yours in our upcoming Election Edition. We will treat both political sides equally, and obviously would like your work to help represent one of the conservative viewpoints. Even this debt article would be great. We print on Sept. 20 so if you have new work for me to review, I'll need it by Sept 17. If you have a previous blog post in mind, let me know.
ReplyDeleteI like "What is there to dislike," "Paul Ryan and the Fourth Turning," "Romney... Rich," or "Dream Team."
Thanks!
Brad
Scott, to take this a step further, how could national debt effect our standard of living and our credibility as a country? With a number so large, I think it is sometimes seen as just a number on paper and unfortunately we don't see the consequences.
ReplyDelete