Friday, February 20, 2009

$11,027.77 per second wasted!

This is what we spend every second 24/7/365 on Federal debt interest.It works out to about $325 billion annually since 1988 based on U.S. Treasury statistics.We get absolutely nothing in return for this.At least the wasteful stimulus bill provides some infrastructure.Yet at the same time the stimulus contributes to this interest dilemma as well.

We are bailing out all sorts of industries with reckless deficit spending and social program expansions not related to economic growth.Yet the problem of the Federal debt and it's interest is discarded as a problem for another day,another generation to solve.That strategy is running out of gas.

The actual debt is apparently based on your point of view.The debt categorized as public debt is agreed upon as fact.It is approximately $6.5 trillion today.This is debt owed to private investors,corporations,Governments,etc.Yes,this includes China,Russia,Japan,Saudi Arabia,etc.The other category is intragovernmental holdings which is a gray area.The current total is about $4.3 trillion.This is debt owed to other Government agencies.Some refer to this as a simple accounting trick by shifting funds around.However,if you do include it as legitimate,the $2.6 trillion owed to the SS and Medicare trust funds are not included and should be.This makes the total $13.4 trillion overall.This doesn't include any of the bailout spending currently happening.

We spent $131 billion in the first quarter of this year on Federal debt interest,a pace of $524 billion for 2009.Add in the $271 billion we spent last year and guess what?The $795 billion wasted in just these 2 years would have paid for the hotly debated stimulus bill.Think about that for a minute.We have seen all of the examples trying to put in perspective how large the $789 billion dollar stimulus is,and that very amount is going down the toilet without a word said.Those that continue to say the debt and the interest don't matter should shut their pie holes.

Have you been watching the evening news?Governments around the world are in trouble and many in far worse shape than us.The day is coming very soon when these Governments stop financing our debt spending due to their own internal problems.That will leave the Federal Reserve itself as the only buyer left for financing our debt.Talk about accounting tricks.There really are limits to Government spending.President Obama,are you listening?The fallout will be dramatic.More to come...

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