National Debt Tops $7 Trillion

[TakebackAmerica]

This is unbelievable!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&ncid=749&e=1&u=/nm/20040218/bs_nm/economy_treasury_debt_dc

[RobertSeattle]

1. Pretty disgusting

Debt is 24K per capita?

http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm

It goes up 1.77 Billion PER DAY
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

Hit refresh for the update...

[Fargin Ice Hole]

2. I thought we were the wealthiest Country on earth?.....Doh

[htuttle]

3. Yes

We were.

[sandwitchman200000]

12. WELL WELL THATS TRUE I SHOULD SAY WE WERE N/T

[Tim4319]

4. Poor Bill Clinton

All of his hard work to clean up "Daddy's" mess, went out of the window!

[snippy]

5. But isn't all $7 trillion Bill Clinton's fault?

Actually, of the over $3.5 trillion added to the publicly held debt since 1960, over $3.2 trillion was added under republican presidents. Just a few hundred billion was added under democratic presidents. These figures are based on the accumulated deficits during that time. They do not include the various trust fund debts.

[RobertSeattle]

6. Intesting

But the debt back in 1960 was "only" 290 Billion, now it is 7 Trillion.

Using the stats from (Since 1987)
http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm

I figure it as
Republican President: 3.06 Trillion
Democrat President: 1.60 Trillion

(This is skewed since it doesn't include the first 6 years or Ronald Reagan - who AMAZINGLY ran on a campaign plank that the deficit was bad)

For those who want to play with the figure, here's an interesting url:
http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdhisto4.htm

[snippy]

8. Your numbers include the portion of the debt owed to government

trust funds like the Social Security trust fund. The numbers I mentioned do not include that portion of the debt since it is not affected by the president's budget. I used numbers from this site. http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2004/sheets/hist01z3.xls

By the way, these numbers show that Reagan had accumulated deficits of over $1.1 trillion in his first six years. The increase to the total debt was around $1.3 trillion.

A great site for federal budget info is at this url. http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2004/hist.html

[Sandpiper]

7. Ronald Reagan is the all time National Debt Champion

In 8 years, he increased the National Debt by 189%.

[Dying Eagle]

9. what was it when Clinton left

I thought it was under 5 trill. and going down??

[Kitsune]

10. Hooray for fiscal responsibility!

We have a ridiculous national debt because the American public has this insane complex about taxes, yet also demands more and more government services. Therefore, a politician is liklier to urinate on an electric fence than he is to suggest a tax hike (regardless of which party he is a member of). However, at the same time, said politicians also divert billions in pork-barrel spending and give sweetheart deals to lobbyists who contributed to their election campaign.

This is akin to me maxing out my credit card. Why no politician ever uses this analogy, I'll never know, because credit card debt is a BAD thing. It's why I don't have one of the damned things; I don't TRUST credit.

[ozone_man]

11. Lets make a run for $10T.

I think we can make it by 2008, Democrat or Republican in office.

[gmoney]

13. That does it, I'm maxing out my credit cards...

Might as well have some cool crap around the house when the economy collapses, right?

[Lindsay]

14. A trillion here,

a trillion there...pretty soon you're talking about real money.

[Moderator]

15. Kick!

:dem:

[TakebackAmerica]

18. thanks for the kick!

[cosmicdot]

16. "it may signal some tough political times for Bush’s ... fiscal policy"

as it should

[mobuto]

17. A Public Debt is a Public Blessing

I bet Alexander Hamilton's wishing he hadn't said that just about now.

[74dodgedart]

19. Bush's friends better start chipping in or their boy will be out in '04

The democrats need to pound the repubs over the head with this figure every chance they get. This is an issue that resonates with both sides of the aisle, and its not going away anytime soon.