Amazing and Depressing Stats on our National Debt

The national debt is the amount that the United States has borrowed and is currently paying interest on. The national debt of the U.S. is now over $14 trillion, a number that is larger than the gross domestic product of China, the United Kingdom, and Australia combined.

Here’s a list stats that are amazing but that you may not want to read:

•    In 2010, the United States accumulated over $3.5 billion in new debt each and every day. That’s more than $2 million per minute.
•    The cost of executing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is well over $1 trillion and counting.
•    The Treasury Department estimates that our debt to China is approximately $843 billion and counting.
•    According to the January 2010 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, the federal budget deficit in 2009 was $1.4 trillion (9.9% of GDP). The 2010 deficit was approximately $1.3 trillion (9.1% of GDP). Not since 1945 have deficit been that high relative to GDP.
•    According to the March 2010 CBO report, at proposed spending levels, the national debt will increase to 90% of GDP by 2020, at about $20 trillion.
•    The government is also borrowing from itself, having borrowed from Social Security and Medicare, which have had surpluses.
•    In 2009, according to the CBO, $187 billion of tax receipts were used to pay interest on the national debt. This is interest only and does nothing toward reducing the debt.
•    The share of the national debt for each employed American is more than $90,000.

Recession and extended war efforts have exacerbated the numbers attached to the national debt as tax receipts have decreased while war and entitlement spending have increased. It’s entirely possible that these expenditures could be decreased (by ending the war effort) while tax receipts increase in an improving economy.

The issue at this point is that both parties seem intent on blowing up the national debt regardless of the factors in play at the present time. Politicians seem intent on continually delivering the message to their constituents that spending can continue and that we’ll deal with the debt monster at a later date. This shifts the debt burden to future generations who will suffer as the debt piled on by earlier generations consumes the lion’s share of the country’s GDP. It seems that everyone is living for today while leaving the bill for our kids, grandchildren, and the generations that follow.