fbpx

Putting the National Debt in Perspective

President Barack Obama has managed to double the federal debt

By Nick Chickering

With all the smoke, chatter and mirrors thrown up over the coming election, overriding everything is one word: DEBT. In just 7 1/2 years, President Barack Obama has managed to double the federal debt, adding more debt in his one term than all other presidents combined since our founding! To put this into perspective, so that there can be no doubt what this means to our future:

U.S. tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
.

Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000

New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000

National debt: $19,271,000,000,000

Recent budget cuts: $ 38,500,000,000

Let’s now remove eight zeros and pretend it’s a household budget:

Annual family income: $21,700

Money the family spent: $38,200

New debt on the credit card: $16,500

Outstanding balance on the credit card: $192,710

Total budget cuts so far: $38.50

So, when a candidate calls for more spending, always couched as “investment,” understand what a disaster this is for our country. Only two choices then remain: The federal government defaults on repayment, or prints enough money to make the payment. Germany tried the latter in 1921-1924. Google “Germany Hyperinflation” and you will get the picture.

Nick Chickering
Whitefish