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How Big of a Mess We Are In
"In our seeking for economic and political progress, we all go up---or else we all go down."
National Debt in Family Terms
In case you'd forgotten, here's some perspective on the incredible size of the U.S. financial problem and what Congress is doing to fix it.
| U.S. tax revenue: | $ 2,170,000,000,000 (per year) |
| Federal budget: | $ 3,820,000,000,000 (per year) |
| New debt: | $ 1,650,000,000,000 (per year) |
| National debt: | $14,271,000,000,000 |
| Recent budget cuts: | $ 38,500,000,000 (over a ten-year period) |
Remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget:
| Family income: | $ 21,700 |
| Family expenses: | $ 38,200 |
| New debt on the credit cards: | $ 16,500 (per year), $1,375 per month |
| Outstanding balance on credit cards: | $142,710 |
| Total budget cuts: | $ 385 (over a ten year period), $3.21 per month |
Funny how adding several zeros makes one glaze over.
By truncating 8 zeros, the numbers become more familiar and easy to understand.
Think this through and you will understand just how inept past and present Congresses have been.
In 2011, Congress proposed to cut $38.5 Billion of budgeted spending over the next ten years. This is the same as being told you MUST cut your budget, and the best you can do is reduce spending $3.21 a month!! So, instead of racking up $1,375 more each month to your credit card, you only charge $1,372. Is that really the best you can do?