The U.S. government’s debt is bad. How bad? It’s so bad that liberals don’t even pretend to have an answer any more. They used to shrug it off. “We’ll grow our way our of it.” In a recovery this weak? With 8.5% unemployment? They know better.
But Congress does nothing about this. It has no intention of doing anything.
#1 During fiscal year 2011, the U.S. government spent 3.7 trillion dollars but it only brought in 2.4 trillion dollars.
#2 When Ronald Reagan took office, the U.S. national debt was less than 1 trillion dollars. Today, the U.S. national debt is over 15.2 trillion dollars.
#3 During 2011, U.S. debt surpassed 100 percent of GDP for the first time ever.
#4 According to Wikipedia, the monetary base “consists of coins, paper money (both as bank vault cash and as currency circulating in the public), and commercial banks’ reserves with the central bank.” Currently the U.S. monetary base is sitting somewhere around 2.7 trillion dollars. So if you went out and gathered all of that money up it would only make a small dent in our national debt. But afterwards there would be no currency for anyone to use.
#5 The U.S. government spent over 454 billion dollars just on interest on the national debt during fiscal 2011.
#6 The U.S. government has total assets of 2.7 trillion dollars and has total liabilities of 17.5 trillion dollars. The liabilities do not even count 4.7 trillion dollars of intragovernmental debt that is currently outstanding.
#7 During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.
#8 It is being projected that the U.S. national debt will surpass 23 trillion dollars in 2015.
#9 According to the GAO, the U.S. government is facing 34 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities for social insurance programs such as Social Security and Medicare. These are obligations that we have already committed ourselves to but that we do not have any money for.
#10 Others estimate that the unfunded liabilities of the U.S. government now total over 117 trillion dollars.
#11 According to the GAO, the ratio of debt held by the public to GDP is projected to reach 287 percent of GDP by 2086.
#12 Others are much less optimistic. A recently revised IMF policy paper entitled “An Analysis of U.S. Fiscal and Generational Imbalances: Who Will Pay and How?” projects that U.S. government debt will rise to about 400 percent of GDP by the year 2050.
#13 The United States government is responsible for more than a third of all the government debt in the entire world.
#14 If you divide up the national debt equally among all U.S. taxpayers, each taxpayer would owe approximately $134,685.
#15 Mandatory federal spending surpassed total federal revenue for the first time ever in fiscal 2011. That was not supposed to happen until 50 years from now.
#16 Between 2007 and 2010, U.S. GDP grew by only 4.26%, but the U.S. national debt soared by 61% during that same time period.
#17 During Barack Obama’s first two years in office, the U.S. government added more to the U.S. national debt than the first 100 U.S. Congresses combined.
#18 When you add up all spending by the federal government, state governments and local governments, it comes to 46.6% of GDP.
#19 Our nation is more addicted to government checks than ever before. In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7% of all income. Today, government transfer payments account for 18.4% of all income.
#20 U.S. households are now actually receiving more money directly from the U.S. government than they are paying to the government in taxes.
#21 A staggering 48.5% of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of government benefits. Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.
#22 Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.
#23 In 1950, each retiree’s Social Security benefit was paid for by 16 U.S. workers. According to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are now only 1.75 full-time private sector workers for each person that is receiving Social Security benefits in the United States.
#24 The U.S. government now says that the Medicare trust fund will run out five years faster than they were projecting just last year.
#25 Right now, spending by the federal government accounts for about 24 percent of GDP. Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18 percent.
#26 If the U.S. government was forced to use GAAP accounting principles (like all publicly-traded corporations must), the U.S. government budget deficit would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 trillion to $5 trillion each and every year.
#27 If you were alive when Christ was born and you spent one million dollars every single day since that point, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now. But this year alone the U.S. government is going to add more than a trillion dollars to the national debt.
#28 If right this moment you went out and started spending one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.
#29 A trillion $10 bills, if they were taped end to end, would wrap around the globe more than 380 times. That amount of money would still not be enough to pay off the U.S. national debt.
#30 If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 470,000 years to pay off the national debt.
#31 If Bill Gates gave every penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for 15 days.
#32 According to Professor Laurence J. Kotlikoff, the U.S. is facing a “fiscal gap” of over 200 trillion dollars in the future. The following is a brief excerpt from a recent article that he did for CNN….
The government’s total indebtedness — its fiscal gap — now stands at $211 trillion, by my arithmetic. The fiscal gap is the difference, measured in present value, between all projected future spending obligations — including our huge defense expenditures and massive entitlement programs, as well as making interest and principal payments on the official debt — and all projected future taxes.
#33 If you add up all forms of debt in the United States (government, business and consumer), it comes to more than 56 trillion dollars. That is more than $683,000 per family. Unfortunately, the average amount of savings per family in the U.S. is only about $4,735.
#34 The U.S. national debt is now more than 5000 times larger than it was when the Federal Reserve was created back in 1913.
But do our leaders care about statistics such as these?
No.
In fact, Barack Obama says that we need to raise the debt limit by another 1.2 trillion dollars.
The absurdity of raising the debt limit when we are already in so much debt is beautifully illustrated by the video posted below….
God, help us. Help us to do the right thing and vote to put the right people in office, to fix what others have gotten us into.
Is a recovery even possible?
The solution is simple and easy to see with a paradigm shift, impossible with out. Obama has exposed big Government for what it is, a parasite dragging everyone down. Government must be limited! Government has only three legitimate functions:
1. Establishing and protecting property rights that all others depend on.
2. Establishing and maintaining a stable Currency for the economy everyone depends on.
3. PROMOTING not providing for the General Welfare.
How Government caries out these tasks must be principled! Separation of power, limited Government and God given rights are principles good Government must follow.
Paradigm shifts.
Wealth is a contract, not a possession.
There are no rights without domain.
Taxing wages is economic slavery.
Government benefits are enslaving.
Government punishing sin is the same as a Government religion.
Government providing welfare is the same as Government religion.
Government giving credit is the opposite of tax and spend.
Government needs to give credit where credit is due to promote welfare.
Taxing people unable to care for themselves is criminal.
etc. Law must be derived from LOVE not FEAR or it will evolve into EVIL.
Run Sarah Run
No, of course not. The United States of America is FUBAR.
The majority of people in this country don't have a clue what we are talking about here. Worse than that, they don't seem to care, and won't until there is no food on the table. So sad a state we are in!
Government in and of itself a necessary evil. It's those that abuse it in their self serving quest to dominate and enslave those whom they see as unworthy that make the an enterprise of evil.
These people of the so called super wealthy lust after gold and once they have achieved so much they can't spend it all and the novelty of their toys wears off they get drunk on the power all that money gives them they lust for more like a high school freshman lusts after the prom queen. They simply can't see the good they can achieve with some of that money and still never want for anything. It's a shame and perhaps that's why they are all so butt ugly the only way they can get a spouse is to buy her/him. Maybe they'll be satisfied when Satan gives them the hottest chairs in the house.
The way the current Government spends money is absurd . But the real absurdity of it all is Barrack Obama , his wildly abusive spending sprees all in what can only be called a deliberate attempt to bankrupt America . But then again perhaps the people of America deserve to reap what they have sown . They elected a unknown based not on his record as a politician (he has none) based solely on a lot of promises in feel good speeches , and because it was Politically Correct . This Political Correctness can and probably be America's down fall . There are times when being PC is warrented and time when it is as dumb as the people sitting in Washington telling Americans what a good job they are doing and how its all going to get better if they can raise spending . America , wake up , pull your heads out of the sand , and sweep the garbage and trash out of the White House , the Senate and , Congress . We have to many career politicians sitting around being comfortable at our expense . At most they work 6 mos of the year if that . Remember it say "We The People" !
The America as we once knew it is doomed!!!
Ron Paul has some excellent ideas, and America should be listening.
Ronald Reagan stated the philosophy of our Founding Fathers was Libertarianism. Back when our Faounding Fathers had the reins our fiscal policy was sensible. Vote for Ron Paul for president!
http://godfatherpolitics.com/3097/senator-jim-dem…
Ron Paul is the only candidate proposing big cuts in spending. I agree with Eric and Ann above. I went to his website and discovered that his views on just about everything is being distorted by media on both left and right. I am as conservative as they come. I voted for McCain only because he was the only choice that wasn't Obama. I'm tired of moderates. They don't stand for anything but getting re-elected. Don't believe the lies and check him out for yourself!
I will vote for Ron Paul the others are to much like what we have now they dont care about us as long as they have what they want. Money is all they care about look how they spend .They dont care because there days are about over and they have plenty they dont care if we go hungy they will allways eat good and live in there big homes and go on there big vacations while we go with out We need to show them we will not vote for the one they pick for us like Mcain the Rino lier he is like Obummer
Speaking of FUBAR, two of my favorite authors have written books on the fall of America. The first is the Ashes series by William Johnstone. The second is a novel by John Ringo called "The Last Centurion." My advice is read and heed.
The U.S.A. goes deeper in debt by something like 4.5 billion every 24 hours. I think the answer to your question is an obvious NO!
Yes!! If the Republican/Tea party dominated congress stop filibustering and instead focus on what is needed to be done in order to re-invigorate the economy as what they have promised to improved the economy by providing jobs during the 2010 midterm election. With the performance of the GOP/TP dominated house right now Pres. Obama will have another 4 years.
God is not going to help you or this country. Only YOU help yourself.
In 1968 Social Security Fund had a surplus of $68 Million dollars. That fund would not have run out even at 1% earned interest. Not ever would it have run out. In stepped Congress and they called it borrowing [I call it stealing] our hard earned money and not they have the audacity to tell us we are running out of money. This is after the congress spent it on junk. Congress represents the government that has been systematically lieing to We the People for a very long time. I think it was two years ago that the social security payroll tax was cut in half to supposedly help the tax payer. What it did was take money from the social security fund.