Subject: FW: One Trillion, Four Hundred Twenty Billion Dollars
Scary, really scary!
One Trillion, Four Hundred Twenty Billion Dollars
Posted by Congressman Frank Lucas (Profile)
Friday, October 23rd at 11:09AM EDT
One trillion, four hundred twenty billion dollars. It’s an astounding number. It’s more than the entire economy of India and enough to give every man, woman, and child in the United States $4700.
It is also our country’s federal budget deficit for 2009. That means that in the fiscal year 2009, which runs from October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009, the federal government spent $1.42 trillion more than it took in. To put this in perspective, last year’s deficit was $459 billion – still an astounding number, but less than half the deficit for this year.
When our nation runs with a deficit like this year, we increase our national debt – or the total debt we owe over the life of our country. Our current national debt is $9.1 trillion, and climbing every day. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has projected that, under President Obama’s spending plans, our national debt will rise to $17.1 trillion by the year 2019, meaning an increase of $8 trillion over the next ten years. Most of this debt is held by foreign countries. China, not known for their great relations with our country, holds the most – more than $800 billion.
If numbers like this don’t shock you, maybe this thought will: what happens when these investors decide they want to cash in their T-bonds and T-bills? It’s not that hard to imagine. Right now, the United States government seems to have no interest in paying off any of our debts, so investors will be much more like to want to cash in their holdings or to purchase less T-bonds and T-bills. This would result in an even further drop in the dollar’s value and the federal government would be forced to pay higher interest rates to attract more investors.
Higher interest rates leads to an even higher national debt. For FY2009, the federal government paid $190 billion in interest. If our total debt rises to $17.1 trillion as the Congressional Budget Office predicts, our interest would quadruple to almost $800 billion by 2019. In comparison, the budget for the state of Oklahoma for FY2009 was $7.1 billion. So the federal government’s interest in 2019 would be more than one hundred times the state budget of Oklahoma.
Even worse, higher interest rates on T-bills and T-bonds would increase interest rates across the board, resulting in higher rates on loans to buy a home or to expand a business, which can lead to fewer new jobs and a decrease in our overall economy. In addition, the continued decrease in the dollar would cause the price of imported goods to rise, increasing costs for consumers, thus increasing inflation.
While I know there are economists who stand by the president’s plan to spend, spend, spend, I think that we must look down the road to see the real long-term effect it will have. Fiscal responsibility cannot just be a catch phrase used during elections. It must be a philosophy that we practice. If not for us, then at least for future generations on whom we are saddling this enormous debt.
Frank Lucas represents Oklahoma’s Third Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. For more Frankly Speakings, please visit Rep. Lucas’ Blog at http://www.house.gov/lucas/
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9 comments:
Yes, Frank, it is quite shocking. How did we get here?
1) Republicans spend like drunken sailors on
shore leave in Thailand. Nixon, Ford, Reagan,
Bush the Elder, and Bush the Lesser all ran up
staggering deficits.
2) Bill Clinton ran 8 years with a SURPLUS.
I didn't hear you railing about fiscal responsibility
when the giggling murderer was president, Frank.
So, how many Jesuses is that?
Yes, I am also concerned about this staggering deficit, and I agree that it is, indeed, staggering.
How nice of you, Mr. Republic Rep from the Red State of Oklahoma, to suddenly wake the eff up and NOTICE this NOW. Where were you and what the eff were you doing from 2001 to 2008??? When your Frat Boy Presnit reduced taxes on the uber rich while spending on a credit card with China like there was no tomorrow???
Too little, too late, Frankie-boy. Thanks for a big fat nothing.
And yes, idiotic RWF'er person, this IS "Scary, really scary" but where the eff were you for the prior 8 years of W's Admin? Oh that's right, you ridiculous teabaggers were all clapping about W's plans to cut taxes and spend, spend, spend on Blackwater/Xe and yelling at us Dimocrats to STFU about spending without taxation.
MORANS. YOU're the reason why we're in such debt. Oh what's the use? It's like talking to a brick wall. Actually talking to a brick wall would be more satisfying and intellectually stimulating than trying to explain facts to teabaggers.
Quote from the Rude Pundit in re to rigtwing outrage over Khalid Sheik Muhammed being brought to NYC to stand trial for 9/11:
"...so much of the anger at Obama is a projection of right wing anger at George W. Bush. Obama has to fail at everything in the right wingers' sad world, just to show that they didn't devote eight years of their pathetic, deluded lives to abetting the destruction of the nation. They are shitting themselves in fear, not just in the intensely unlikely scenario of hot terrorist on terrorist action. They are afraid of what evidence at trial might reveal about how far down the rabbit hole to actual tyranny we fell."
11/13/09 - applies to the trial, as well as applying to this idiotic RWF email. Spot on. Read it and weep.
Rude Pundit is awesome.
Interesting how the deficit exploded in the last fiscal year. I wonder what could have caused this?
Maybe it was the fact that we finally started counting the astronomical costs of our ongoing wars as part of the actual deficit instead of pretending that they didn't really count.
Maybe it has something to do with our 400 billion dollars currently paid out as part of the bailout. You know, the one signed into law by President Bush which was needed because of the damage done to the economy on his watch?
Certainly there's stimulus money in there, which has saved jobs, propped up city and local governments starved of funding, and helped to ease hard times for a lot of Americans.
Not to mention the tax rebates given out this year as part of the Stimulus. Surely the Republicans aren't decrying tax cuts?
I think its especially funny that Republicans are worried about deficits now, yet the only thing they have ever suggested as a policy remedy is "cut taxes!". Since that is exactly what fixes deficits.
Rep Lucas likes to play pretend. Let's pretend that the '09 budget wasn't signed by Bush. Let's pretend, as ANON2 pointed out, that Bush used to count war costs in the deficit like Obama does now. Let's pretend that we weren't already way in debt BEFORE our economy collapsed. Let's pretend that Republicans didn't intentionally put us into debt so we could never have nice things like universal healthcare. Let's pretend that our economy wouldn't have completely collapsed without the bailouts. Let's pretend that the tax cuts for the wealthy benefit everyone. Let's pretend that Republican economic policies haven't been in continuous use since Reagan.
Saw a brief clip of W talking somewhere yesterday, where I believe he commented that he "deeply regreted" the TARP bailouts because it "went against" his whatever blah blah blah, and either RM or KO said: ok, NOW the Republics have "permission" to claim that everything is BHO's fault.
Maybe Lucas was at that W speech?
We don't have to pretend about what Republics, like Lucas, are good at. They are excellent at running our country into the ground, thanks very much. And that is "Scary, really scary."
Also, they think that in the middle of an economic crisis is a great time to talk about the national debt. Howsabout we get out of the crisis and then work on the debt when the economy is strong again, huh?
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