Tuesday, November 20, 2012

The National Debt: Late November 2012

`
The National Debt is my overriding concern with respect to our country.

How long will this country elect politicians to continue spending so recklessly, ultimately dooming our children and our nation?

Probably as long as the citizens don't want to face up to the truth, and make choices (or accept choices of elected officials) that will cause some real amount of pain. The essence of the matter is, the longer the out of control spending remains unaddressed, the more difficult and more painful any solutions will be.

Not too long from now, the politicians will have to vote and pass a bill, raising the debt ceiling, if they want to continue to spend more than the government takes in. There will no doubt be a lot of blustering and debate, and promises to address the Federal Government's spending in a responsible manner--as they once again kick the can down the road.

The Gross National Debt

Note:
At 4:40 pm EST on 7/22/11 the debt totalled:      $14,412,536,802,223
At 9:40 pm EST on 11/20/12 the debt it totalled: $16,290,755,341,268 (the time/date this article was posted)
-

6 comments:

  1. Many philosophers believe democracy ends when the majority of citizens decide to vote themselves unlimited handouts. We're there. Either the citizenry gets smarter in electing politicians or the economy will simply collapse and all the entitlements, promises and "free" healthcare will end. What then?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Right. What then? I really don't want to hand over to my daughters (and their generation) a broke(n) nation. It'll be an act born of selfishness.

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. It is scary, and people would rather look away than face up to it. Our generation and the one before us built the debt. We ought to deal with it.

      Delete
    2. The problem is that we have an entire political party that maintains its powere by fostering dependence on government handouts. Those voters now exceed 50% of the population, and the politicians who derive their power from catering to those demands do not have the rudimentary intelligence to understand the risks.

      Delete
    3. I believe the politicians understand the riks, Dean. Or many of them do. It is simply staying in power now, and setting themselves and possibly their family up for what 'might' happen later, after they're retired from politics and won't be blamed for what is to come--at least not directly, being just one of the crowd in Congress.

      Delete