Leonard Hartman - September 5, 2012

Question: Our Government owns vast amount of unimproved real estate? Has consideration been given to putting this on a market with the proceeds used for debt retirement?

R H Simonsen - September 5, 2012

The politicians have raped the SS fund for many years to suit their needs. They used the $ and did not pay the interest supposedly guaranteed. That’s why SS is going broke!

Why does anyone expect that they will now “see the light” and become frugal. They don’t know the meaning of the word!

George Perkins - September 5, 2012

If I divide $i6 billion by the population of 311 million, I get $51,447 per person. Please help me with your number of $37,437.

Janet - September 5, 2012

THEY MUST STOP, NOW!!!
Stop over regulating the Citizens of the Country! When the people of entitlements, drive better cars & have the up-to-date i-phones, & then buy their groceries with a link card??? That says it ALL. The working class in the United States is soooooooooo over burden & doing it the right way & what they get is “work harder & work more!!!!

Orlando Krueger - September 5, 2012

The spending spree will stop when it costs more to print the money than what is will be worth. Study Germany in the period of 1919 to 1923

Barb Boyer - September 5, 2012

The only thing to save us, is to stop all the spending, government can’t get us out of this since government got us into this mess. Let’s go back to where churches, families, charities etc helped short term to get people back on their feet and then they went from there. We use to be a proud nation when you were embarrassed to collect unemployment funds or get public assistance. Too many of us were just trying to make a living and didn’t pay attention to what Washington was doing. I have often wondered how did so many smart people just go along with getting on trains, taking off clothing and going into showers and not question why. Here we Americans seem to be just accepting our fate and going along. Where this country is going has me scared, I want to get off the train.

Peter LaPlaca - September 5, 2012

Out of control spending will NOT stop until there are term limits for all Congrespeople! First and foremost these people are politicians (Democrats, Republicans, Independents) and they will do anything to stay in Washington. The number one tool for them is bringing home the bacon. They are only happy when every district is receiving more from Washington than they are paying to Washington: hence a permanent deficit.

Chuck - September 5, 2012

I have 20 Years to retire
I”M SCREWED! and dont want a kiss

Lloyd Smith - September 5, 2012

Let’s be clear. The debt was not created by “liberals” alone, and the spending spree is not a Democrat or Republican thing alone. Both political parties have contibuted to run away spending. To stop the spending spree America needs to reset on its foundation and objectives, then cleanse the “progressive” (both parties have progressive attitudes) attitudes that have been endoctrinated into the entire population though our educational system. The preservation of the “opportunity” to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness will make a difference. We continue to give these “rights” to everyone regardless of effort. We should only offer the unrestrained opportunity. We are on the brink of destroying our great nation (as has been demonstrated time and again throughout the world) by spending ourselves into an ever decreasing spiral. Your graph shows a rate of increasing spending that will destroy us long before the 20 years when each of us will have a $100,000 stake in the debt. This a national emergency. Vote now to get America back on a sound fiscal basis.

Mr Greg Wofford - September 5, 2012

I do not think the congress will balance the budget until forced to by a balanced budget amendment.

Don - September 5, 2012

As long as Obama and the current crop of Democrats are in office, America is going off the cilff. I don’t what made the Democrats so crazy these past four years; maybe it is Obama who liberated from responsibiliy. It is problematic with Republicans. I really don’t know if they can control themselves in future years. We’ll see.

Ellen - September 5, 2012

The only way lawmakers in Washington will stop their out of control spending is if WE the voters hold them accountable. They have no reason to stop spending because none of the spending effects them personally. If we keep electing the same people we will keep getting the same result. Washington will change when we change who’s in charge.

JPR11 - September 5, 2012

What happens when we go through the next cycle of high interest rates and these people will need to refi? What insanity!

George J. Caramic0 - September 5, 2012

You need to add a graph that shows where the money is going, and where it’s coming from. The whole story will really blow a great big hole in the Democrats theories that the cause of this is military spending.

Ron Benoliel - September 5, 2012

Obama is trying to play Santa Claus only his gifts are coming from we, the taxpayers – not the North Pole. Tell your kids where they should shop.

Ken Marx - September 6, 2012

Yes, they will stop the spending spree as soon as the country collapses altogether. It’s only a matter of time. Our American society and system is doomed – unless – we elect many more true conservatives to fill House and Senate seats along with our new President and Vice President. They will have to act fast to begin the healing process, but it will take many years to fully accomplish.

nelson - September 6, 2012

Does that 37k+ represent all in the country or only those that actually pay taxes? Those in DC have no reason to stop spending…it’s not their money. We have lost our ability to do anything about it.

Jack Dayley - September 6, 2012

Thank you for your information. I will pass this on to my friends to try to help turn this around.
Jack Dayley

Lyle Friedman - September 6, 2012

Use against Obama: If BO is for middle class why is BO creating more debt for “our” children, grand, great grand children etc using “our credit cards” to increase “our personal debt” to $47,437 and plans further increases. Try explaing a trillion dollars: if you had trillion dollars you can spend a billion dollars a year for 1000 years, 16 trillion it takes 16,000 years spending a billion per year not including interest. Just remember Dems controlled both houses Congress from ’86 thru ’88. “Last two years” during Bush’s administration.

Howard Woods - September 6, 2012

Our currency is wrecked. Stockpile gold and lead.

Cheryl - September 7, 2012

We are in trouble in the spending arena because we Americans are spoiled rotten with this entitlement mentality that grows more into a monster every year. Politicians on both sides of the isle want to keep their constituents happy so the entitlements keep flowing. We Americans need to grow up and start fending for ourselves and let the government go back to protecting our rights to do so as the constitution guarantees. We have become lazy, couch potatoes and think of the government as our “sugar daddy”. This has got to stop!

John Gavin - September 21, 2012

Under our present monetary system, our money is created by the Fed and our private banks as debt. So, as the economy grows, it demands a constant growth of the money supply and ergo, the debt. And since the debt grows exponentially with the interest it requires, then eventually the debt will always grow to become unsustainable. And it has done so. When this happens, a recession is needed to reset the debt to lower levels and the growth of debt continues again. Debt cannot be outgrown or reduced by the economy under this system.

This system guarantees that the debt can never end, that inflation is required to manage it, that it will interfere with economic growth and the recessions will become more severe as the debt grows. Thank goodness this debt-based monetary system is unnecessary.

Fortunately, we can create money without using debt. A new interest-free money supply would be exactly like the Greenbacks used by Abe Lincoln when he needed to finance the Civil War. Without these unnecessary debt service payments, we would save hundreds of billions of tax dollars each year paid to lenders that could then be spent on government’s needs.

Under the money system of Lincoln, the Treasury would become the lender into the banking system and no Treasury debt securities would be issued for investors/lenders. Muni’s would replace them and provide the needed investment for the states to recover. And no more federal debt service money would be exported to foreign lenders and thereby weaken our economy.
Secondly, the use of fractional reserve rules that allow private banks to create their own money using leverage should not be continued in order to allow the new central bank to achieve full control of the money supply and interest rates. Banks would then borrow from the Treasury and investors to fund their needs rather than create free money using accounting gimmicks that cause constant inflation and transfers risk onto the taxpayers. The resulting banking competition would reduce the risk for the banks, the investors and the citizenry and provide better banking for consumers.

With the US Treasury as the ultimate lender, the federal government would become the beneficiary of all economic growth, reducing the need for income taxes. This explains why the 16th amendment creating income taxes was passed in the same year, 1913, as the Federal Reserve Act. This added interest income to the Treasury is exactly the opposite of the revenue spending we now must make to service the debt. This means that spending becomes income for the Treasury – much more than simply saving the interest payments that must now be made to the Fed’s lenders. The interest income from the growing economy will greatly reduce the need for income taxes.

This is a better solution than any other proposal we have seen. We still need to cut government spending, manage the money supply, fix the tax system and move savings back to the states to allow them to manage local needs. We also need a new central bank to make this happen – a central bank that does not use lenders and charge interest for our own money supply. But without interest, the way Lincoln did it. However, we’d still need a solution that keeps Congress out of the money printing business. The Fed certainly isn’t helping us here when it just prints whatever amount Congress wants to spend. A better central banking solution is therefore needed/

I’ve studied the state Bank of North Dakota because it has operated to provide local needs for the citizens of North Dakota and for the state government. They have assisted farmers, small business with loans and private individuals with mortgages. For more than 100 years this state-owned bank has allowed North Dakota to avoid the serious affects of recessions and unemployment. So, there is something good in this state-owned bank that we can use as a model for a new central banking system.

I’ve proposed to members of Congress that we ask each state to create a state-owned bank that can operate as one of 50 reserve banks for the new central banking system to replace the Fed. The directors of the system can be chosen/elected from within these 50 state banks and we can retain the chairman’s appointment by the US President with senate confirmation. This central bank system would then operate to manage the money supply, interest rates, money distributions, banking oversight, etc and also provide low-cost banking services for each state.

The function of the central bank would be similar to the Fed but without the use of Treasuries. The experience of North Dakota shows that private banks would not be adversely affected and can continue to operate profitably. And finally, the power of the Fed would return to the people so that the federal government would no longer be corrupted by power of the lender’s money. This is a very serious problem that we can solve this way.

If we all would give some study to these ideas that can help us create a truly democratic central banking system then the spending problem of Congress that could be balanced by the new central banks controlled by the states. This new system would reduce the need for taxes, reduce the inflation of prices, reduce the risk in the banking system, and provide income for the Treasury as the economy grows. We can all benefit from such a change. And, I believe this will provide us with a better distribution of wealth for our society as it develops.

We could also locate the oversight of insurers and financial institutions within these state-owned banks and thereby create a uniform nationwide system of regulation and oversight of these critical operations that manage Other People’s Money. A better protection of the people’s needs.