Title says all: “National Debt Grows $1 Million a Minute”
This article has a number of great statistics, some of which truly put things into perspective. For example:
“We pay in interest four times more than we spend on education and four
times what it will cost to cover 10 million children with health
insurance for five years,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
“That’s fiscal irresponsibility.”
No, madam politician, it’s the definition of insanity. Servicing the interest alone (not the actual principal of the Federal Debt - JUST THE INTEREST) costs taxpayers 4X what we spend on education?!!
Here’s a great little table I made up from information in that article:
Year — US Federal Debt, in trillions
1989 — $2.7
2001 — $5.7 (average of $250 billion per year over 12 years added)
2008 — $10 (average of $600 billion per year over 8 years added)
Ok, so clearly we have an accelerating debt burden. As any “subprime borrower” can tell you, that’s not a good thing. You need to either curb borrowing or increase your ability to make payments. Thankfully, both of these tendencies are right around the corner for Uncle Sam. Yeah, not so much:
Over the next 25 years, the number of Americans aged 65 and up is
expected to almost double. The work population will shrink and more and
more baby boomers will be drawing Social Security and Medicare
benefits, putting new demands on the government’s resources. (…) Aggravating the debt picture: the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates could cost $2.4 trillion over the next decade.
This article is one of the best pieces on public finance that I’ve seen in the mainstream press in a while. The parallels to the current mortgage fiasco are deservedly prominent - a very worthwhile read.