One reason for a variety of the exaggerated or false claims by Republicans against President Obama, lie in the effectiveness of scare tactics on the public.
She is right. It should be much more effective than it is to tell people that the US debt has risen to 14 Trillion dollars (which is rapidly approaching the GDP).
Unfortunately the bulk of the voting public is entirely ignorant of fiscal matters. Then there is Obama’s core voter who is a net recipient of the government’s largess who even if they are knowledgeable of fiscal matters does not care because it is tin heir own self interest that the fiscal bleeding of the country continue.
But the claims of the economic danger of Obama’s fiscal policy are neither exaggerated nor false. This country is staring down the barrel of a Russian Roulette gun with five chambers loaded as far as debt is concerned. This country is primed for a bout of hyper inflation (real inflation is already around 10% but is being camouflaged by the accounting methods of the Fed). Just a little scare is all it will take to tip the trigger to a full blown economic melt down.
With so many of the other industrial countries in the boat with us if one falls all will fall together and we will see an economic depression that will make us look on the 1930’s with nostalgic longing.
As of Thursday, May 17th, the federal debt was almost $16 trillion. To be more exact, it was $15,712,823,135,725.84, as provided by the U.S. government's Treasury Direct website.
At the rate that it is increasing, it should break $16 trillion around the election in November.
As to GDP, according to the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis in the Commerce Department, it's at $15.462 trillion (that link is to an Excel spreadsheet at BEA rather than a webpage.)
The U.S. federal debt is already in excess of its GDP.