USAinDebt

$8,993,695,814,457.91 or almost nine trillion us dollars. This is the current debt that our government is liable for. That’s more than the national debt of Japan, Germany and Italy combined. And even though Bush’s administration recently announced that 2007 deficit has dropped $90 billion below the reported in 2006, we’re still up to our ears.

Why is the government sinking in debt? Why is there a deficit? The federal budget deficit is the yearly amount by which spending exceeds revenue. So, they dropped the deficit. Great accomplishment! But in the real world reducing the deficit only means that less is added to the current national debt. Until deficit exists, this thirteen-digit number will continue going up. In the beginning of 2004, it was just above the 7 trillion mark. By November of 2005, this sum was way above 8 trillion. With the an estimated population of the United States already above 300,000,000 souls, each citizen’s share of this debt averages to about $30,000. But that is not all. As every other loan, the US national debt comes with an interest. And for the fiscal year of 2006, $406 Billion of taxpayer’s money were paid in interest to the holders of the national debt.

Who are the lenders? The number one holder is the US government itself including Social Security & Medicare savings accounts, with it almost $4.5 trillion share. Another 2 trillion dollars are held by foreign governments - Japan, followed by China and UK are the ones on top of the list. The rest of the national debt is shared between state and local governments, individual investors, pension funds, insurance companies, banks & credit unions.

On September 12th this year, in response to a request by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the Senate Committee approved $850 billion debt limit increase. The Government has never defaulted on its debts, so why not give it a credit increase?

  Tags: us | dollar | debt | national debt | deficit | federal budget | treasury | henry paulson | senate | medicare | social security | bush