We usually hear about “lies, damn lies, and statistics,” but, in the case of the US national debt, it’s more like “lies, damn lies, and more damn lies.” Bush and Congressional Republicans campaigned on promises of fiscal restraint, but their promises have turned out to be even bigger lies than the ones they gave us about Iraq:
According to the this article, our national debt has ballooned to $8 trillion, or $28,000 for every person in America. That’s more than $110,000 for a family of four, which is more than the cost of a graduate degree at an Ivy League school. Imagine, *every family of four in America* could give one of their kids a graduate degree from an Ivy League school, but instead we’re paying for things like tax breaks for the richest 0.1% of the population, a bridge to nowhere in Alaska, and a needless invasion of a third-world country. That last point is especially troublesome, because the most wasteful of all goverment pork is the US military. The US spends as much on military as all of the other countries on the planet combined, yet, even with all those resources, the Republicans who run our government can’t even control a tiny, third-world country. I don’t know about you, but I want my money back.
The graph you'll find at this link sums up the actual practice of the political party that claims to exercise fiscal restraint.
http://www.cedarcomm.com/~stevelm1/usdebt.htm
We're obviously living high on the credit card right now.
This can't go on forever. The biggest question is not when it all comes due but how much damage it will do to the next two or three generations at a time when medicare and social security obligations are about to explode in red ink. I foresee unceasing wailing and gnashing of teeth. Many of the things that make this country attractive won't be available to our children.
Of course, this massive debt would have been a huge burden even if Iraq had been the resounding success that this administration had promised. In the end, Bush will leave it to "future presidents" to deal with both of these intractable problems.
it is not my debt, I never authorized it nor supported it, but they take my money nonetheless. I am not 100 percent sure but I believe that it is the federal gov that owes the dough, not the american people unless you "volunteer" to be a us citizen which in the irs code says a federal employee.
trouble is while you may "volunteer" have fun trying to unvolunteer, considering they used fraud to get you to "volunteer".
I was under the impression you only owe taxes according to enumeration head count equal for all, not the amount of labor (value put on it) you gave.
rosa: Here's a quote for you.
"It's not my fault but it is my problem."