The Ten Trillion Dollar Debt is Coming so Don't let Republicans Forget it!

If you go to http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/ you will find that our national debt has amassed to a staggering and sobering 8.7 Trillion dollars. It grows at a rate of 1.79 billion per day. If my calculations are correct; the day Bush leaves office, we will be really close (9.78 trillion) to a 10 trillion dollar national debt. To clarify, the national debt is the sum of all annual budget deficits.

It looks worse with the zeroes: $10,000,000,000,000

That means every man, woman and child in the U.S. will owe over $30,000. Although we will not be writing checks, we will have to pay one way or another. That means a continued decline in our public schools, uncertainty in Social Security pay-outs, and the reality that we will never have Universal Health Care until we address this problem.

The vast majority of this debt was accumulated under Republican presidents at the same time that they were cutting taxes to the richest Americans. When Bush took office there was a 5.6 trillion dollar debt. When Clinton left office, there was a 10 year, 5 Trillion dollar projected budget surplus. Meaning we would almost be debt free today had Gore been president. I remind people and especially Republicans that Gore was highly effective at cutting government waste in the early Clinton years. Also the annual budget deficit had already been reduced substantially before a Republican majority was sworn into office in 1995. It was the 1993 Clinton Budget that accomplished that. The same budget we were still essentially using in 2000.

So next time one of your annoying conservative friends talks about how much the deficit has come down or the record increases in tax revenue, remind them about the principles of regression statistics where large swings in deviation from the mean will always attempt to return to the mean. We are seeing a ever so slight return to the mean right now. Bush had already set the record for budget deficits so reducing it by a 100 billion or so still puts us in a 200-300 billion dollar hole every year. That staggering number, plus interest on the debt gets piled onto the existing debt. When the baby boomers start retiring in masses in a few years, a few things will happen: social security payments will go up dramatically, stock markets will see large volume decreases as people cash out 401K’s, and Medicare spending will balloon. All of these things will worsen the deficits thus pile on more debt.

In reality personal income tax revenue increases in the past year are not very impressive. Even given there are many more people in the work force now, the government took in 972 billion in 2005 vs. over a trillion in 2000. Oh, yeah, the 2005 number isn’t even adjusted for inflation. The trickle down advocates are as delusional as the anti-global warming nuts.

I think 10 Trillion should be the '08 campaign slogan. We need to repeat it 10 Trillion times between now and November of 2008. Along with the environment, these are the two most pressing issues that Republicans love to ignore. When our debt level passes the point of no return like global climate change, we are doomed.

we are suffering the concequences of having two "oilmen" in the whitehouse. Do a little sabre rattling towards Iran and see how much you can make the price of oil go up.

Republics "keepin' us safer" and the "party of fiscal responsibility" are two of the biggest frauds perpetrated on the american public.

BS. That has never been the case but if repeated enough times people will believe it.

Our markets will never be stable while China owns a significant amount of our debt.

Tell us again how you are "conservatives."

Bwaaa ha ha ha ha. Your republicon lies are so transparent.

You have enriched your selfish selves, and screwed the USA. Traitors.

Yep, Ol JC and his Sonshine band gonna do THE GREAT FLOAT OFF® of all the rich white Christian Bible beating Republicans, and they won't have to deal with the debt. We will.

"Lower taxes for the rich, higher deficit for us all".

without citing any sources and totally ignoring trade deficits, Iraq, tax cuts, tax evasion, etc.

It is alarming to me that my friends that are in the financial game don't understand the profound impact this is having on our economy. We really haven't even seen the damage yet because we have been compensating. Much like the liver of an alcoholic which is very resilient to a point. By the time you realize you have damaged your liver, it is way too late.

At least, that is what John McCain tells me.

As the GNP grows, the overall fraction of the debt will decrease. The booming economy that we have will ensure that even though the debt increases it will never be a burden on our economy!

Just like the average worker.

I am sure that everyone that can work has a good paying job and is getting raises every year so that their net income after debt is ever increasing! Who cares if personal debt is increasing! Gotta keep shopping to fight them terrists.

:party::party::party::party::party::party::puke:

Greg

For example, George W. Bush holds a few million in T-bonds.