Our government is not immune to the same problem. In 2003 the interest on the National Debt exceeded $322 billion. Only two departments in the government exceed that spending: the military is one of them.
During 2004 the Federal Government took in 2.5 trillion dollars but spent approximately 3.1 trillion for a 600 billion dollar deficit.
Here are some other interesting figures. Currently the National Debt stands at $8,003,104,666,539.23. To pay this amount off, each and every American would need to come up with $25,000 today. From 1980, when Reagan took office, until 1992 when Bush left office, the debt went from less than one trillion dollars to over four trillion dollars. From 2000 to 2004 the National Debt under our current President Bush has increased more than two trillion dollars to its current level. At this rate when President Bush’s second term is finished we will have a debt of nearly ten trillion dollars. The interest on that debt at five percent interest will be $500 billion. But suppose inflation hits. At ten percent the interest is one trillion dollars. At fifteen percent the interest would be a staggering 1.5 trillion dollars. Think of those numbers. The interest alone would be more than the money required to run the government.
I know that sounds like heavy inflation and more like a depression which surely won’t happen. They probably thought the same thing in 1929. Still, interest did hit double digits as recently as the 1990s. It can and will happen again. But when? How safe are we?
Another sad note is that Social Security is treated like any other tax and has already been spent. Social Security is part of the deficit and really doesn’t exist anymore. Social Security is not part of the Federal Budget Fund. It is supposed to be a separate account with its own source of income and its own separate trust fund. Social Security payments do not go into the general fund, and should NOT be counted as general revenue. The trust fund is supposed to be used to pay benefits. But Congress ordered the Treasury Department to use the money in the Social Security Trust Fund as though it were general revenue, promising to pay it back. Now that promise is part of the National Debt. In reality Social Security is just another very large tax collection tool.
The Social Security Trust Fund is simply a meaningless record of taxes that have been collected for future needs, spent for current desires, and then recorded and counted as an asset. Fraud is a better description.
If something severe ever occurred in the next eight years like a combination of double digit inflation along with double digit unemployment, then the United States of America could possibly reach its darkest hour. The possibility exists for the United States to be bankrupt before the year 2017.
What you will see in the next few years is loss of government benefits to the people, not government employees, and a severe rise in the taxes.
That is exactly what happens in my novel Moon Shadow.
If you are interested in the National Debt go to these websites:
www.brillig.com/debt_clock/www.toptips.com/debtclock.html
www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm
I went to the “toptips” site and found the National Debt increased approximately $20,000 a second. In four seconds the National Debt increases enough to pay my salary for a year. Only four seconds! On November 19, 2004 our Congress had to pass a last minute bill that enabled our government to borrow 8.18 trillion dollars. On average the National Debt is increasing more than 1.6 billion dollars a day.
Sometime on October 18, 2005, our National Debt surpassed $8,000,000,000,000.00 (that is eight trillion). Go to the websites above and see how much the National Debt has increased since this was written.
I’m neither for nor against our presidents. I’m against the debt and the potential problems such a huge debt will bring our country. Did you ever wonder if our representatives have ever told us the truth? They never actually told us a lie but what they said could be classified as lies by omission. Note the years under Clinton and the supposed “surplus.” There never was a surplus. The last year Clinton was in office the National Debt only increased 18 billion dollars. Not bad, but definitely no surplus. Under Bush’s administration the National Debt has accelerated at an alarming rate. From November, 2004 to November, 2005 the National Debt increased in eleven of those months. Of particular interest are nine of those months. The debt in “each” of those nine months exceeded the total added to the National Debt during Clinton’s last year as President. Even more shocking is that on October 5, 2005, the next 24 hours found the National Debt increasing almost as much as the last year of Clinton’s administration. During the month of October, 2005 the National Debt increased almost 100 billion dollars.
On Sunday, October 16, 2005 at approximately 7:58:03 PM, Central Standard Time, the National Debt exceeded 8 trillion dollars for the first time ever.
Below are the years and the National Debt back to 1959.
10/17/2005 $8,003,897,406,911.24
09/30/2005 $7,932,709,661,723.50
09/30/2004 $7,379,052,696,330.32
09/30/2003 $6,783,231,062,743.62
09/30/2002 $6,228,235,965,597.16
09/28/2001 $5,807,463,412,200.06
09/29/2000 $5,674,178,209,886.86
09/30/1999 $5,656,270,901,615.43
09/30/1998 $5,526,193,008,897.62
09/30/1997 $5,413,146,011,397.34
09/30/1996 $5,224,810,939,135.73
09/29/1995 $4,973,982,900,709.39
09/30/1994 $4,692,749,910,013.32
09/30/1993 $4,411,488,883,139.38
09/30/1992 $4,064,620,655,521.66
09/30/1991 $3,665,303,351,697.03
09/28/1990 $3,233,313,451,777.25
09/29/1989 $2,857,430,960,187.32
09/30/1988 $2,602,337,712,041.16
09/30/1987 $2,350,276,890,953.00
09/30/1986 $2,125,302,616,658.42
09/30/1985 $1,945,941,616,459.88
09/30/1984 $1,662,966,000,000.00
09/30/1983 $1,410,702,000,000.00
09/30/1982 $1,197,073,000,000.00
09/30/1981 $1,028,729,000,000.00
09/30/1980 $ 930,210,000,000.00
09/30/1979 $ 845,116,000,000.00
09/30/1978 $ 789,207,000,000.00
09/30/1977 $ 718,943,000,000.00
09/30/1976 $ 653,544,000,000.00
09/30/1975 $ 576,649,000,000.00
09/30/1974 $ 492,665,000,000.00
09/30/1973 $ 469,898,039,554.70
09/30/1972 $ 449,298,066,119.00
09/30/1971 $ 424,130,961,959.95
09/30/1970 $ 389,158,403,690.26
09/30/1969 $ 368,225,581,254.41
09/30/1968 $ 358,028,625,002.91
09/30/1967 $ 344,663,009,745.18
09/30/1966 $ 329,319,249,366.68
09/30/1965 $ 320,904,110,042.04
09/30/1964 $ 317,940,472,718.38
09/30/1963 $ 309,346,845,059.17
09/30/1962 $ 303,470,080,489.27
09/30/1961 $ 296,168,761,214.92
09/30/1960 $ 290,216,815,241.68[2]
09/30/1959 $ 290,797,771,717.63