August 5, 2011
The federal debt now exceeds the economic output of the entire United States, thanks to the additional $238 billion the Treasury immediately borrowed after the debt ceiling was raised on August 2.
The Heritage Foundation’s Patrick Tyrrell explains in more detail:
Debt as of July 31 totaled $14.342 trillion. That was made up of $9.756 trillion held by the public and $4.587 trillion the U.S. government owes itself (intergovernmental borrowing, largely from the Social Security and Medicare trust funds to the general fund). GDP—the value of all of the goods and services produced in the United States—in 2010 was $14.5265 trillion. With the Treasury’s additional borrowings of $238 billion so far in August, the total of all debt outstanding has now increased to $14.5807. That’s $54.2 billion more than average 2010 U.S. GDP, the last year for which we have final estimates on GDP from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
As it stands, the federal government owes more in debt than we as a nation are producing over an entire year. And we have to pay it all back, plus interest!
Will Congress ever realize that its spending problem — and boy do they have one — cannot be cured by more spending?
Claude Cox - August 6, 2011
There is something so deep in the way many members of Congress filter reality that it must be in their DNA at the cellular level.
Graphs of trends, income/spending figures, the obscene waste in alll programs, all these facts and any other facts have zero effect on such people.