One Trillion, Four Hundred Twenty Billion Dollars

One trillion, four hundred twenty billion dollars. It’s an astounding number. It’s more than the entire economy of India and enough to give every man, woman, and child in the United States $4700.

It is also our country’s federal budget deficit for 2009. That means that in the fiscal year 2009, which runs from October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009, the federal government spent $1.42 trillion more than it took in. To put this in perspective, last year’s deficit was $459 billion – still an astounding number, but less than half the deficit for this year.

When our nation runs with a deficit like this year, we increase our national debt – or the total debt we owe over the life of our country. Our current national debt is $9.1 trillion, and climbing every day. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has projected that, under President Obama’s spending plans, our national debt will rise to $17.1 trillion by the year 2019, meaning an increase of $8 trillion over the next ten years. Most of this debt is held by foreign countries. China, not known for their great relations with our country, holds the most – more than $800 billion.

If numbers like this don’t shock you, maybe this thought will: what happens when these investors decide they want to cash in their T-bonds and T-bills? It’s not that hard to imagine.

U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK

The Outstanding Public Debt as of 23 Oct 2009 at 04:10:13 PM GMT is:

$ 1 1 , 9 5 5 , 3 0 9 , 6 2 5 , 0 3 1 . 6 2

The estimated population of the United States is 307,153,740
so each citizen’s share of this debt is $38,922.88.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$3.90 billion per day since September 28, 2007!
Concerned? Then tell Congress and the White House!

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

Maybe it is time for a CONSERVATIVE party.

From one of the comments at the site. I found this interesting:

[From Cato Institute Study

“According to the latest figures, the average private sector worker compensation: $53,289. The average compensation for federal employees: $106,579. You can expect to be reading in editorial pages across the country that federal employees now make exactly twice the amount of private sector workers. The figures include both wages and benefits.

And how about salaries without including benefits? The average private sector employee now takes in $43,917. The average federal employee: $71,114.”

Why don’t conservatives in congress bring up a bill to end the automatic pay raises? Lead the charge.]

Take this test: How many dollars does the Federal Government raise per year in total? (Seriously, stop now and get a number into your brain. Rough answer to follow.)

Why think about this? Because an annual deficit is only meaningful when related to annual income. If your family runs a $10,000 deficit for a few years due to schooling costs, buying a new house, etc., that $10,000 means one thing if your annual income (and expected income) is on the order of $100-200,000, but quite another if you’re on a path to making only $25,000 to $50,000 over the next several years. This should be obvious.

So, how’d you do on the test? How much does the Federal Govt take in? Got a number in your head? Good.

The total take is around $2.7 trillion dollars. And since the real deficit when all the funny money is added back in is closer to $1.8 trillion for the fiscal year just ended, that means that our family is in the $15,000 to $20,000 category in the example above, and borrowing faster every year to boot.

My point is that no one can understand what a deficit of $1.4 ($1.8 really) trillion means without having a clear picture of the big picture in mind when considering it, and the big picture is that we are currently taking in less than $3.0 trillion per year! In other words, we’re in the soup; actually we’re the proverbial frog in the soup, still living and sort of getting used to the rising temp of the liquid. It’s almost pleasurable, in fact; so pleasurable that I might just take a little nap......oops.

So, take it upon yourselves to begin to inform people, columnists included, that they need to learn the size of the total receipts if the deficit is to have meaning to them. It should appear in EVERY article written, or that article will fail to transmit meaning. Hell, half the commentators on television will change the “t” to a “b” or a “b” to an “m” in trillion, billion or million and never even realize they are off by a factor of 1,000. The big numbers have no meaning, but the ratios do, and our spending/income ratio is way, way out of whack.

It would be interesting to hear some actual guesses/answers. Please consider posting yours.

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