[manwiththehands]

Either I'm reading this wrong or there is a gap in your story. How did you get from the first 224 years of U.S. history, 42 U.S. presidents borrowed a combined $1.01 trillion and but in the past four years alone, the Bush administration borrowed $1.05 trillion to When the government next reports these numbers Dec. 15, the total is expected to reach $46 trillion to $50 trillion ...

How do we get a "total" of "$46 trillion to $50 trillion"?

[Robert Drobot]

Interest.

[wideawake]

The number of $46T to $50T is bogus and it's even sadder to try and justify it with "interest".

Compunded interest on $6T of debt over ten years (the vast majority of US debt is between 1 and 10 years) results in a total debt number 0f 9.75T.

Take it out to 15 years - which is a gross overexaggeration of the term of US debt - and it's 12.5T

46-50 is a crackhead's pipedream.

[humint]

the first 224 years of U.S. history, 42 U.S. presidents borrowed a combined $1.01 trillion... "How do we get a "total" of "$46 trillion to $50 trillion"?

If you adjust for inflation, under the Lincoln administration, $1 was equal to $76 billion in today's dollars, just kidding... As I understand it, we could start making these again. I understand they are very valuable!

DAMN, someone already did - Collectors set to stampede banks for new buffalo nickel

[Kellis91789]

manwiththehands,

I interpreted the $1T before and another $1T after 2000 to be only the portion borrowed from Foreign sources.

There is a lot of government debt held by Americans that would not figure into that.

Still, how they get from a total reported current National Debt of $8T to $46T-$50T owed is beyond me. If they mean that is what it will take to pay off the $8T plus additional interest while it is being paid off, then they would need to show an awful lot more details. What assumptions were made about when deficits would end and surplusses would begin ? What interest rates will the government have to pay on any additional borrowing beyond the $8T already on the books ? Etc.

It is disingenous to say every man, woman, and child owes $166K, when the total "payoff amount" as of today is only $8T. That $8T divided by 300M Americans is only $27K each if paid off today.

If nothing else changed except to hold government spending to today's level -- zero inflation increases allowed in spending while the economy grows at a net 3% -- then it would take less than 15 years the existing tax revenues to generate surplusses that would have completely paid off the $8T plus interest.

It isn't an unsurmountable problem, and Chicken Littles that run around screaming the sky is falling don't really contribute to a solution. People won't even look for solutions if they think the problem is insoluable.

[Toddsterpatriot]

How do we get a "total" of "$46 trillion to $50 trillion"?

It's called publik skool math.