The great trickle up: $11 trillion national debt
We have all heard the news that the national debt now stands at $11 trillion . Eleven trillion dollars is such a large number that it is difficult to grasp. The national debt is the amount owed by the government, which is really every citizen of the United States of America:
you and me our children and grandchildren. If we spread this throughout the population of 300 million people, it would mean that each and every one of us would receive a tax bill of $36,666.67 to pay this debt.
Since the money will be borrowed to pay this debt, the $11 trillion debt will increase to cover the interest. Assuming a prime interest rate of 5% per year over one decade, $11 trillion would grow to about $18 trillion, so each and every one of us would pay $60,000; which is $6,000 per year for 10 years, to pay this debt with interest. Over two decades, $11 trillion would grow to about $29 trillion, with a tax bill of $96,666.67; which is $4833.33 per person, per year for 20 years. This is the $11 trillion national debt trickle-up effect.
Assuming a 100 million tax paying workforce, multiply the above dollar cost per person by a factor of 3 to obtain cost per taxpayer for 10 & 20 years.
Bill Momeno
St. Charles
Bill: You are an optimist. You ignore the 10 trillion dollars our new president plans to borrow in the next 8 years, 2 trillion of that this very year. Yet, he said the other day that we must not “kick the can down the road,”, that we “must face our responsibilities.” Insane? Selfish? We are not willing to pay the price for our own irresponsiblity and are asking the next many generations to pay for our selfishness. We should hang our heads in shame.
Bill
All that, plus unemployment at 9.5% and climbing. Hyper-inflation should be kicking in, by the first of the year.
“The Messiah” should be impeached for destroying our economy and country.
Recession, Depression and Recovery
Recession-when your neighbor loses his job.
Depression-when you lose your job.
Recovery-when “The Messiah Obama” loses his job!!!!!
Quick, before it’s too late. We have to cut taxes on the wealthy and increase taxes on the working class while increasing spending, and lets see if we can get into another war or two before things get worse!!!
Time is short!
Good one magnum.
You’re all optimists. What about that $100 trillion in obligations to cover SS & Medicare? What about the unfunded pensions? Getting on the welfare wagon is a death wish. If you’re lucky, you drop dead before the system drops dead and takes you with it.
Bill,
Where have you been? Whew, thought you’d never get here. You did know that G.W. Bush looted over 3 Trillion from the Social Security Trust Fund that is now part of that 11 trillion, right? Oh, and the estimated, long-range cost of the War in Iraq, is 2.7 Trillion, that’s in today’s dollars, not projected for inflation. Oh, and that it was nearly 4 Trillion when Bush 1st left office, Clinton actually started to turn that around, it was slight, but it was a turn-around. It was going down.
We have so needed your input and concern Bill!
4 of every 5 dollars of that 11 Trillion dollars have been accumulated under Republican Presidents. Evidence supports the claim that no Republican administration since 1960 has followed the principle of “keep tax and spending growth low.”
Each of the four Republican administrations since Eisenhower tied to keep taxes low. But, Republicans have run up spending, on average faster than Democrats. Almost the entire accumulation of the national debt since 1960, from $290 billion to more than $10 trillion, is the result of deficits under Republican presidents. Under Kennedy-Johnson and Carter, revenue growth matched spending growth. Under Clinton, as under Truman, spending grew much more slowly than revenues, erasing big budget deficits, and, under Clinton, turning them into big surpluses.
The debt was going down under Clinton.
The ascendancy of President Obama, as the economy plunges into a deep depression and his administration struggles to stop the collapse, has revived the conventional wisdom that Democrats spend like sailors on shore leave, while Republicans fight for fiscally responsible policy. The most common cliché is that Democrats “tax and spend” while Republicans favor “small government.”
Conservatives are only conservative when a liberals control Congress and the Whitehouse. Otherwise, they spend more than liberals.
I guess the Rushpubliklans on here were in a coma the last 8 years. “Facts are a stubborn thing”…Ronnie Raygun
Actually the debt is larger than 11 Trillion since Bush had the Iraq war “off the books”.
“Trickle up?” What the heck are you talking about? Government spending is the ultimate in trickle down economics. You lying, socialist, utpoians crack me up.