Federal Debt

Please report broken hyperlinks using the Reply option at the bottom of each page.

—

[See, also,  this page  for numerous additional references on this issue.]

The Real-Time U.S. National Debt Clock

https://usdebtclock.org/

[If you are a U.S. citizen, every single dollar of that debt was created by people for whom you voted and the bottom right figure on that page — almost half a million dollars as of this writing — reveals how much money you owe the U.S. treasury thanks to the politicians for whom you voted.]

——————

“Consumers will largely bear the brunt of the country’s financial ruin…  While the United States’ official debt is $2[3] trillion [the article was published back in 2018], the fiscal gap is really 10 times larger — $2[30] trillion.  That comes from adding in off-the-book liabilities, including debt that’s in the Federal Reserve’s hands…  It’s not like the rest of the fiscal operation can bail out Social Security…  So when you look at these numbers, you realize we’re Argentina in 1910…  In one century, Argentina went from super rich to super poor… ”
—Laurence Kotlikoff, Ph.D. (Economics, Harvard, U.)

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/08/boston-university-economics-professor-laurence-kotlikoff-wants-to-change-your-retirement.html

and…

Debt Dwarfs China as Top National Security Threat

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/08/debt_dwarfs_china_as_top_national_security_threat.html

and…

Federal Debt Per U.S. Taxpayer [as of this Update]: $190,528

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

… &

“… every American [whether taxpaying or not] owes $50,801on the national debt [as of 8-10-12].  More important[ly], those households that actually pay taxes… owe over $320,000.  By the time Obama completes a second term, if he is re-elected, that figure will have risen to $400,000.”

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/08/debt_drag.html

… &

U.S. Government’s Foreign Debt Now $47,495 Per Household

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/us-governments-foreign-debt-now-47495-household

——————–

National Debt Interest Payments Dwarf Other Government Spending

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/11/19/how-the-nations-interest-spending-stacks-up

——————–

“We’re the brokest nation since before the advent of the Big Bang.”

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/09/the_brokest_nation.html

——————–

“The United States Treasury reports that the total public outstanding debt is: $16,015,769,788,215.80.  This is the first time in American history debt has eclipsed the $16 trillion mark.  The debt has increased approximately $5.4 trillion since President Obama took office…”

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/1601576978821580_651649.html

[ASND would like to do a little math here. Barack Obama has been President for a little over 3.5 years (we’ll call it 4 years just to be generous, though inaccurate).  His administration, his Democrat-led Senate and a Republican-led House (for the last two years; Democrats controlled all three legs of budgetary power during Obama’s first two years as President) are responsible for just under 30% of the total [official, not  actual ] national debt.  That means Barack Obama and his Democrat party — which controls two out of three voting powers on federal budgets (that’s just for the last two years; Democrats controlled all three of those votes during Obama’s first two years) — have been in power for less than 2% of this nation’s history but are responsible for almost 30% of its [official] outstanding debt.]

[BTW, and also FYI, dividing $16,000,000,000,000 owed by U.S. taxpayers to our own government (nearly 30% of which has accrued during the single term of our current President) by 117,422,574 Census-estimated “households” in the U.S. in 2012 reveals that your family, Mr. & Mrs Reader — and every other “household” in this country — owes your own government  $136,260  .]

[Oh, in case you’re still interested (the Democrats are obviously not), that also means every single American in this country now owes our own government  $181,313 .]

[What a country, ‘eh?]

——————–

“The U.S. fiscal gap, calculated (by us) using the Congressional Budget Office’s realistic long-term budget forecast — the Alternative Fiscal Scenario — is now $222 trillion.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-08/blink-u-s-debt-just-grew-by-11-trillion.html

——————–

“Nearly 40% of retired Americans said they… aren’t worried about paying it off [their credit card debt] in their lifetime.”

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/credit/2010-11-21-senior-debt_N.htm?csp=hf

[Retired Americans?  Since when are the  Executive  and  Legislative   branches of  government  “retired?”]

——————–

Top global accounting firm: US debt crisis ‘bigger than you think’

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/12/leading-global-accounting-firm-us-debt-crisis-bigger-than-think/

——————–

Understanding $16,000,000,000,000 in Debt

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/12/understanding_16000000000000_in_debt.html

——————–

How Much Does the Federal Government Owe?

http://www.ncpa.org/pdfs/st338.pdf

——————–

Federal Government’s Debt Jumps More Than $1T for 5th Straight Fiscal Year

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/federal-governments-debt-jumps-more-1t-5th-straight-fiscal-year

——————–

“Economies with higher debt grow less.“

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/05/an_undergraduate_takes-down_paul_krugman.html

——————–

“Uncle Sam will shell out more than $5 trillion in interest payments over the next decade, according to the latest projections from the Congressional Budget Office.“

http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/05/news/economy/national-debt-interest/index.htm

[Uncle Sam?  Who is that?]

[Oh, right.  You are.  And your children are.  Mea culpa.]

——————–

The Debt Boom

Federal debt held by the public as a share of GDP, 2000-2013

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204883304577221342883636060.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories

——————–

Real federal deficit dwarfs official tally

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-05-18/federal-deficit-accounting/55179748/1

[Yes, ASND is aware that the federal deficit is not the same as federal debt.]

——————–

$12,984–Increase in Debt Per Household Since First 2011 Bipartisan Spending Deal

http://cnsnews.com/blog/terence-p-jeffrey/12984-increase-debt-household-first-2011-bipartisan-spending-deal

——————–

Who Owns the U.S. National Debt?

http://www.american.com/archive/2012/january/why-growth-matters-more-than-debt

[The answer may surprise you.]

and…

Foreign holdings of US debt hit record high

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/foreign-holdings-us-debt-hit-130123964.html

[ASND wonders  what sounds so familiar  about that report?]

——————–

“The [current] deficits are largely the result… of an explosion in spending related to the economic downturn and the rise of Democrats to power in Washington.”

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/article/york-spending-not-entitlements-created-deficits

——————–

“Feel free to compare these charts to Stone’s and to the sources I provide later. I simply do not know where he got his numbers. And he didn’t say.”

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/12/stones_blarney.html

——————–

“… [liberals] have 29% of Americans believing that Tea Party members are ‘economic terrorists. This cannot stand. We know who started the fire , we know who fed and worsened it with their failed ‘solutions, and we know who is utterly out of ideas …”

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/dumping-on-the-tea-party/?print=1

——————–

“We borrow about 41 cents for every dollar that we spend.”

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/04/04/get-your-federal-tax-receipt-along-with-class-warfare-and-misdirections-from-the-obama-white-house/?singlepage=true

——————–

America’s True Debt — The Fiscal Gap

http://www.ncpa.org/pdfs/ib101.pdf

——————–

The Other National Debt Crisis

http://cei.org/sites/default/files/Wayne%20Crews%20-%20The%20Other%20National%20Debt%20Crisis.pdf

——————–

Fiscal Reality Bites

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/01/fiscal_reality_bites.html

——————–

Barack Obama:

U.S. Debt Held by Public Tops $10T for 1st Time—Up 59 Percent Under Obama

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/us-debt-held-public-tops-10t-1st-time-mo

[Did you catch that?  The total debt we Americans owe ourselves (in reality it will be the total debt our children owe each other) is nearly 60% higher — in THREE YEARS — than it was after nearly two and a half centuries.]

and…

“… [President Obama] has accumulated nearly as much debt in just four years as all his predecessors including George W. Bush did in 222 years.”

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/02/the_obama_obfuscation_alliance.html

and…

Obama Has Now Increased Debt More than All Presidents from George Washington Through George H.W. Bush Combined

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-has-now-increased-debt-more-all-presidents-george-washington-through-george-hw

and…

“When Obama took over from President George W. Bush (R) on January 20, 2009 the national debt was $9 [trillion]… it has zoomed up over $6 trillion in just four years.”

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/01/the_historic_debt.html

and…

Obama’s Hockey Stick: The Federal Debt

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/05/obamas_hockey_stick_the_federa.html

——————–

The Budget: How We Got Here

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/05/the_budget_how_we_got_here.html

—————–

U.S. funding for future promises lags by trillions

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-06-06-us-owes-62-trillion-in-debt_n.htm?loc=interstitialskip

—————–

A Simple Way to Think About the U.S. Debt and Deficit Problems

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/01/a_simple_way_to_think_about_the_us_debt_and_deficit_problems.html

—————–

DEBT AND DEFICITS: THE SYMPTOMS, NOT THE DISEASE

http://mercatus.org/sites/default/files/publication/de%20Rugy.house_.ways_.means_.3.30.11.pdf

——————

A do-nothing Congress could solve deficit woes, CBO says

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jun/22/a-do-nothing-congress-could-solve-deficit-woes-cbo/

——————

Size Matters:

Video: How Big is the U.S. Debt?

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/146220

and…

“How high would a stack of million dollar bills reach to pay off the national debt if they were layered one on top of the other?  That’s million dollar bills, not thousands, not hundreds, but millions.”

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/02/how_much_is_fifteen_trillion_dollars.html

——————

“… what would the federal debt crisis look like if you set it up as a household budget?”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/27/tea-party-group-casts-national-debt-as-household-budget/

——————

Do The Math, Mr. President

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/05/do_the_math_mr_president.html

——————

The Hidden Cost of the U.S. National Debt

http://www.mygovcost.org/2011/05/26/the-hidden-cost-of-the-u-s-national-debt/

——————

Myth-Busting the Debt Limit

http://links.heritage.org/hostedemail/email.htm?h=6da1c5aa3c0b4182ab60a3ad348c9d93&CID=8783615724&ch=5DC9D306E41795CF72FC3B8E6326E010

——————-

Ben Bernanke:

Bernanke: We ‘urgently’ need to fix the debt problem

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2011-06-07-ben-bernanke-speech_n.htm

and…

“Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that the current trajectory of the federal budget – marked by large annual deficits – was ‘clearly unsustainable’ and that ‘serious economic consequences’ could result.”

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/bernanke-points-increased-possibility-sudden-fiscal-crisis

——————

Morning Bell: Pictures of a Budgetary Disaster

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/04/27/morning-bell-pictures-of-a-budgetary-disaster/print/

and…

Morning Bell: [More] Pictures of a Budgetary Disaster

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/06/21/morning-bell-pictures-of-americas-fiscal-nightmare/print/

——————-

New Report Offers Grim or Grimmer Picture of Nation’s Long-Term Debt

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/22/budget-gimmicks-may-be-trick-to-getting-debt-deal/

——————-

Our Debt Binge Is Ending — And The Middle Class Will Get Clobbered

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/debt-binge-ending-middle-class-clobbered-20110405-094510-405.html

——————–

Maxed Out America: Coming Sooner Than You Think

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/maxed-out-america-coming-sooner-than-you-think/?print=1

——————–

US Worse Off Financially Than Euro Nations: Walker

http://www.cnbc.com/id/43134077

——————–

Debt Projection Under Various Fiscal Reform Plans

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/04/graph_for_the_day_for_april_30.html

——————–

China Has Divested 97 Percent of Its Holdings in U.S. Treasury Bills

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/china-has-divested-97-percent-its-holdin

——————–

China ratings house says US defaulting

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/china-ratings-house-says-us-defaulting-report-054309883.html

——————–

Mobius Says Financial Crisis ‘Around The Corner’

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-30/mobius-says-fresh-financial-crisis-around-corner-amid-volatile-derivatives.html

——————–

The American Experiment Is Failing

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-american-experiment-is-failing/?print=1

——————–

The Insolvency Index

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/06/new_key_number_the_solvency_index.html

——————–

Despite all of the above information (none of which is secret but little of which is publicized in the mainstream media), as of summer, 2011…

“In spite of the rhetoric being thrown around, the real debate is over how much government spending will increase.”

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-a-budget/174717-when-a-cut-is-not-a-cut

and…

“The ‘debt ceiling’ is as phony as a 3 trillion dollar bill.”

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/08/just_say_no_to_raising_the_roof.html

and…

The Facts About the Debt Ceiling

Separating economic myths from economic truths

http://reason.com/archives/2011/07/18/the-facts-about-the-debt-ceili/print

and…

Obama’s Debt-Ceiling Scare Tactics

The Social Security ‘coffers’ are very far from running dry..

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903554904576458294273264416.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

and…

Debt Ceiling’s Impact is Overrated

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/07/debt_ceilings_impact_is_overrated.html

and…

US borrowing to surge after debt cap raised

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.0d79a84244dc2d4f0de55e87d89bcbfb.811&show_article=1

——————–

Who Owns the Deficit?

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/07/who_owns_the_deficit.html

——————–

Considering a Balanced Budget Amendment: Lessons from History

http://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/2011/pdf/bg2581.pdf

——————–

“The United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print money to do that.”

http://www.cnbc.com/id/44051683

[And what would be the result of that?]

——————–

The Bitter Fruit of Insolvency

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/08/the_bitter_fruit_of_insolvency.html

and…

The Credit Downgrade: Symptom of the Marxist Disease

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-credit-downgrade-symptom-of-the-marxist-disease/?print=1

——————–

“… these events did not come out of the blue. They all have the same root cause. Debt.”

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/statement_chx_110811.htm

——————–

The National Debt Relief Amendment

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/09/the_national_debt_relief_amendment.html

——————–

More Tricks than Treats in Democrats’ Deficit Reduction Plan

http://pjmedia.com/blog/more-tricks-than-treats-in-democratic-deficit-reduction-plan/?print=1

——————–

Immediate Medicare Reforms Could Slash Nation’s Debt

http://www.nationalreview.com/critical-condition/280967/immediate-medicare-reforms-could-slash-nation-s-debt-robert-moffit?utm_source=strategicmarketing&utm_medium=enewsletter&utm_campaign=FHCP

——————–

How to fix the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio

http://reason.com/archives/2011/10/24/upgrading-the-usa/print

——————–

Federal borrowing mounts while household debt shrinks

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/story/2011-11-06/federal-borrowing-rises-sharply/51097800/1

——————–

US Government Spiraled Deeper into Debt This Fiscal Year

http://www.cnbc.com/id/45776248

——————–

You Can’t Solve A Debt Problem With More Debt

http://www.businessinsider.com/mauldin-collateral-damage-2011-12?op=1

——————–

“To a very large extent, [Social Security disability] is our big welfare program’”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204296804577121392750460030.html

and…

“If we keep using general revenue to pay for Social Security, we should turn the program into just another line item in the budget and force it to compete with other programs for its share of budget resources.”

http://www.aei.org/article/economics/retirement/social-security/lets-make-social-security-pay-its-own-way/

——————–

Medicare Spending Is the Largest Driver of Future Deficits

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/12/26/chart-of-the-week-medicare-spending-is-biggest-cause-of-future-deficits/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email;utm_campaign=StrategicMarketing

——————–

Spending Bills Passed by GOP House Increased Debt $1T in 10 Months

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/spending-bills-passed-gop-house-increased-debt-1t-10-months

——————–

Treasury dips into pension funds to avoid debt

http://news.yahoo.com/treasury-dips-pension-funds-avoid-debt-limit-202850021.html

——————–

Federal Debt Has Already Grown $700B in FY12; $40 Per Day Per Full-Time Worker

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/federal-debt-has-already-grown-700b-fy12-40-day-full-time-worker

——————–

Geithner Asked What Would Be Very Last Debt Ceiling Request; Says “A Lot, Would Make You Feel Uncomfortable”

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/03/21/geithner_asked_what_would_be_very_last_debt_ceiling_request_says_a_lot_would_make_you_feel_uncomfortable.html

——————–

Japan on Track to Overtake China as Top Foreign Owner of U.S. Debt

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/japan-track-overtake-china-top-foreign-owner-us-debt

——————–

“... those operations which succeed will create a flow of money into the federal treasury which will pay off the national debt and create real, tangible wealth which can give us honest hope again.“

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/05/real_hope_for_ending_federal_debt.html

[ASND reminds readers that each of “those operations” will bring significant environmental impacts.  Therefore ASND asks, “Which of ‘those operations‘ are supported by the Obama administration?]

——————–

Advertisement