Free Republic

US debt shot up $238 billion to reach 100 percent of gross domestic project after the government's debt ceiling was lifted, Treasury figures showed Wednesday. Treasury borrowing jumped Tuesday, the data showed, immediately after President Barack Obama signed into law an increase in the debt ceiling as the country's spending commitments reached a breaking point and it threatened to default on its debt.

The countries which form the European Union have signed the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) developed by the European Council at the Dublin Summit in December 1996. This agreement outlines the requirements for fiscal budgets. One of the requirements is based on the percentage of national debt versus the country's gross domestic product (GDP): it must be under a 60% GDP/debt ratio. As shown below, most of the EU is not meeting these requirements. The United States has a GDP/debt ratio of 97.78% as of May 17, 2011. This would put the US right behind Portugal in the EU. Portugal...

We all know that our country has a debt problem. Every year, the federal government spends vastly more than it takes in. This year, we are expecting to add over 1.5 trillion dollars of new debt to the books. We've done that for several years now, ever since president Bush started his bail-out mania. Environmentalists and Democrats like to use the word "sustainable" often. They say our pollution, oil usage, and agriculture are "un-sustainable". Whether they are right or not is the subject for another article.