What We Owe: $64 Trillion, And Counting

IBD Editorials ^ | May 29, 2009

[Kaslin]

Debt: OK, take a deep breath. You might need it after we tell you this: You now owe more than half a million dollars, not counting your home mortgage, credit cards and other debt. Don't remember running it up?

---

Well, technically, you didn't. The government did it for you. And USA Today has done us all a favor by taking out a calculator and doing the basic math. It's beyond ugly.

Each household owes an additional $55,000, thanks to the soaring spending by the federal government on retirement programs just in the past year.

All told, each household at the end of 2008 owed $546,668. That's four times what American households owe for mortgages, car loans, credit cards and other debt.

Looking long term is where it really gets scary. Recently, we learned the U.S. had $101 trillion in retirement and health care obligations over the next 75 years. The only problem is, at current tax rates we'll have only $53 trillion to pay for it all.

That leaves a gaping hole of $48 trillion.

It gets worse. The stimulus plans and bailouts pushed into the budget by President Obama and congressional Democrats will add $9 trillion to our national debt over the next 10 years alone.

[whitedog57]

Outrageous and disgusting.

[BGHater]

Thanks again R’s and D’s.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Just peel a few $1 Trillion Zimbabwean notes off your wad and just pay it off.

[nomad]

Good post,the true size of the gov.debt is staggering,isn`t it?And the worst part is the “party of less government”,and “fiscal responsibility” is responsible for a good chunk of that.

[the invisib1e hand]

Thankfully they don’t sell debtors any more.

[nomad]

Yet the cool-aiders say the Republicrats` debt is ok.

[qam1]

Xer Ping

Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.

Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.  

[Big Horn]

The teleprompter in chief can talk the creditors out of 50 trillion in about 5 minutes.

[NotSoModerate]

More brutal was last week's assessment of Russia's Pravda, the former house organ for the Soviet communist regime: "The American descent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed."

Obama only attended a marxist church for twenty years... I wonder where he got his economic ideas from?

[TwelveOfTwenty]

I can give Bush some slack since he inherited the WOT and an economic downturn from his predecessor, but that only goes so far. There wasn't any excuse for running up the debt beyond what the WOT cost, if at all.

We went from tax-and-spend to borrow-and-spend, and now we have both, not to mention print-and-spend.

[tsmith130]

“A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.”

[Leisler]

We got all the paper we need to print. What president you want on your paper?

Right? What could go wrong?

/sarc

[blam]

Is this related to this?:

Hitmen Contracts to Bust Comex

[silverleaf]

Will it still be “Bush’s fault” in 4 years?

[ak267]

I remember Glenn Beck mentioning this last year. my co-worker laughed...he isn’t laughing now.

[dadgum]

The crash is coming. Get ready.

I feel sorry for the people who think that our “society” is stable and that the neighbors wouldn’t try to kill them for the contents of their pantry in a famine. They will learn....

[blam]

Or this?:

Faber: 100% Sure US Will Have Zimbabwe-Style Hyperinflation

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

For crying out loud, why don’t we just sell California off to the Chinese and be done with it?

[hatfieldmccoy]

For crying out loud, why don’t we just sell California off to the Chinese and be done with it?

Now that is a fabulous idea!