US Debt: A Visual Introduction

[The_GiantNoodle]

Well..... I am now currently depressed.

US debt problem visualized: Debt stacked in 100 dollar bills

 

[waltky]

China not happy `bout it...

China Expresses Disgust Over US Debt Deal
August 03, 2011 : America's biggest creditor -- China -- is signaling deep unhappiness over this week's deal to raise the U.S. debt ceiling and the way it was accomplished.

A Chinese credit rating agency Wednesday downgraded U.S. debt, saying the deal does nothing to address the underlying problem. And the official Xinhua news agency dismissed the negotiating process that produced the deal as "a madcap farce of brinksmanship." Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of China's central bank, used more measured language but issued a similar message. He called for Washington to take concrete and responsible steps to rebuild confidence in U.S. Treasury bonds, saying uncertainties are a threat to the global economic recovery.

Zhou welcomed Tuesday's deal, but said he will be watching closely to see how it is implemented. He also said China will continue seeking to diversify its investments. China's Dagong credit rating agency said it was downgrading U.S. debt from A-plus to A because the deal does nothing to improve the United States' ability to repay its debts. Analysts said the downgrade was unlikely to affect interest rates since better-known American agencies like Moody's and Fitch have decided to leave the United States with its top AAA rating. But Dagong's analysis closely tracked a commentary published a day earlier by the People's Daily newspaper, which speaks for the leaders of China's ruling Communist Party.

Patrick Chanovec, an associate professor at Tsinghua University's school of economics in Beijing, told VOA that Dagong has always been highly critical of U.S. debt. But he said that the "messy" process that led to the debt deal has shaken a lot of nerves among major investors. Xinhua on Wednesday said the United States has a "runaway debt addiction" which has tarnished its credibility and remains as a ticking time bomb. It said Tuesday's debt deal had served only to make the fuse an inch longer.

The agency said the "world rattling" debt fight had exposed a willingness of American politicians to "politicize the economics while trivializing the politics." In their fight for political advantage, it said, Washington politicians are threatening to detonate a "bomb of mass destruction" that will create shock waves around the world. China holds the world's largest foreign exchange reserves at $3.2 trillion, with about two-thirds of that believed to be invested in dollars. Despite the central bank's desire to diversify into other currencies, analysts said China has few viable alternatives for its massive earnings. The People's Daily acknowledged the same point in its commentary Tuesday.

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US Debt Deal Compromise Leaves Many Unhappy
August 01, 2011 - he U.S. House of Representatives has approved a compromise deal to raise the country's debt limit and cutting spending, one day before the government is due to start defaulting on its debt. In a vote Monday night, 269 House members approved the deal and 161 opposed it.

The 11th hour compromise agreed to by President Barack Obama and U.S. congressional leaders late Sunday prevented the United States from defaulting on its debt. But it also left some people on both sides of the political spectrum unhappy with the result. One of the key players in the congressional debt debate drama was the leader of the Republican minority in the Senate, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. It was McConnell who joined forces with President Obama late in the game to forge a bipartisan deal that will cut about $1 trillion over 10 years and will set the stage for additional cuts through a special congressional panel.

McConnell, speaking on the CBS program "Face the Nation", said, “We’ve got a history of robust political debate, but this country has always come together at critical moments and we are at one of those critical moments right now and we are going to come together and we are going to get the job done for the American people.” Public opinion polls showed that Americans wanted a compromise on the debt issue to avoid a default that many fear would have further weakened the U.S. economy.

In announcing the compromise, President Obama said that his appeals to public opinion for a bipartisan compromise helped to convince lawmakers that it was time to end the stalemate over raising the debt ceiling. “It has been your voices, your letters, your emails, your tweets, your phone calls that have compelled Washington to act in the final days," he said.

The Tea Party faction was a major factor in driving the debate for spending cuts, especially in the House of Representatives where many of the 87 new Republican members owe some measure of support to Tea Party activists in their home districts. Some lawmakers with Tea Party backing are unhappy with the compromise because they wanted deeper spending cuts. But many Tea Party organizers are claiming credit for the deal and the scope of the spending cuts included. “It was only eight months ago that the Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress and the White House and they [refused to deal with the issue]," said Amy Kremer of the Tea Party Express, who spoke on the C-SPAN public affairs cable TV network. "They didn’t do anything about it. That is completely irresponsible. The American people want this problem fixed."

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[waltky]

Granny says the biggest losers will be the American public if it don't work out...

Experts Assess Winners And Losers in US Debt Debate
August 03, 2011 - In U.S. politics, Washington is in recovery mode after a bruising fight over raising the national debt limit. President Barack Obama signed a compromise measure into law Tuesday that allows the U.S. government to borrow more money to meet its financial obligations in exchange for Republican demands for significant cuts in government spending. Both sides are breathing easier after averting a debt default, but, another battle over the size of the central government is just months away.

The political debate over the debt limit transfixed the capital for weeks and when the dust cleared most political analysts agreed that Republican demands to begin dramatic cuts to government spending had shifted the political center of gravity in Washington. Republicans believe they are on the upswing after demanding steep cuts as the price for raising the debt ceiling. Many Democrats are discouraged, feeling they gave up too much in the way of cuts, and disappointed that the president did not fight harder in the negotiations.

The debt debate was closely watched by the U.S. public and by many others around the world. What they saw was often a messy demonstration of American democracy in action. “Well, I think it is embarrassing in terms of our world image," said Rhodes Cook, a Washington-based political analyst with years of experience in covering policy debates. "But it is the way we our government is run these days, particularly over the last 15 or 20 years. There has been, for better or worse, more of this high-stakes gambling attitude between the parties and an inability to get along as well as the members did in the past.”

On the other hand, difficult issues are not easily solved by a Congress that represents the desires of a large, complicated democracy, says former Republican congressman Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma. “We are a democracy of 300 million people, very diverse, and that is the way important, major decisions have to be made, by fighting it out," said Edwards. "In the end it worked. It didn’t happen overnight but it happened in time and before any kind of a default took place.”

Republicans felt emboldened after last year’s congressional elections in which they won a majority in the House of Representatives and made gains in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Analyst Rhodes Cook says new conservative members of Congress backed by the Tea Party movement used the debt limit issue to force a debate on the broader question of budget cuts and shrinking the size of the central government. “I think we are finally, for the first time maybe in a generation or so, really getting into the nub of the basic debate that should be going on in this country over what kind of government do we want," he said.

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US Treasury Secretary Defends Debt Deal
August 03, 2011 - U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is defending the compromise deal to cut spending and raise the country's borrowing limit, saying it gives government officials a chance to fix a broken system.

Writing in Wednesday's Washington Post, Geithner says the last-minute debt deal signed Tuesday takes away the threat of a default, which could cause interest rates to rise and force consumers to pay more for credit cards and other needed loans. He says the deal will allow the government to make investments in education, technology and infrastructure that could help the economy grow. The agreement also has some prominent critics.

The chief executive of one of the world's biggest investment firms said Wednesday the deal "darkens an already fragile outlook" for the U.S. economy. Writing in the Financial Times, Pimco's Mohamed El-Erian warns the deal does little to reduce the country's actual deficits and postpones decisions on key issues. The major credit rating agencies are also being cautious.

Moody's Investor Services said late Tuesday it will maintain the United States government's top AAA rating, but warns the outlook for the country is negative. Fitch Ratings said the risk of the U.S. defaulting on its debts remains extremely low but added it wants to see a credible plan to further reduce the U.S. budget deficit. The debt deal signed Tuesday by President Barack Obama allows the government to continue borrowing money through 2012 in exchange for spending cuts of almost $1 trillion over the next 10 years.

The package would also create a bipartisan budget committee that will seek up to another $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction. If the panel fails to reach an agreement, then the deal would trigger drastic spending cuts. Obama says everything will be on the table for the commission, including social safety net programs such as Social Security and Medicare, which some Democrats say are untouchable. He also warns that there can be no more debt reduction without eliminating tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy -- something many Republicans oppose.

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[waltky]

Obama likes to spend dat money...

Obama Increased Debt More in 4 Days Than Truman and Eisenhower Did in 10 Years
Monday, August 08, 2011 - In just four days last week, President Barack Obama’s administration increased the national debt by more in inflation-adjusted dollars than the administrations of Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower increased the national debt over the entire decade of the 1950s.

At the start of business on Tuesday, Aug. 2, according to the Daily Treasury Statement, the national debt subject to the legal limit was $14.293975 trillion. Obama signed legislation that day lifting the limit by as much as $2.4 trillion—with an initial and immediate increase in the limit of $400 billion. By the close of business on Friday, Aug. 5, according to the Daily Treasury Statement, the national debt subject to the limit had grown to $14.536130 trillion.

Over just four days, the debt had jumped $242.155 billion. By contrast, according to the Bureau of the Public Debt, over the ten-year period from the end of fiscal 1950 to the end of fiscal 1960, the national debt grew from approximately $257.36 billion to approximately $286.33 billion—an increase of approximately $28.97 billion.

Using the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator, $28.97 billion in 1960 dollars equals $220.92 billion in 2011 dollars. Thus, the $242.155 billion in 2011 dollars that the Obama administration increased the debt between last Tuesday and last Friday is more in inflation-adjusted terms than the combined debt increases of the Truman and Eisenhower administrations in the ten-year period from the end of fiscal 1950 to the end of fiscal 1960.

Obama Increased Debt More in 4 Days Than Truman and Eisenhower Did in 10 Years | CNSnews.com

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Gallup: Disapproval of Obama Ties All-Time High
Monday, August 08, 2011 - The percentage of Americans saying they approve of the job President Barack Obama is doing tied its all-time low of 42 percent in the week of Aug. 1-7, while the percentage of Americans saying they disapprove of the job Obama is doing tied its all-time high of 50 percent, according to the Gallup poll.

The record-high 50-percent level in Obama’s disapproval came in the same week he signed legislation to increase the federal government’s debt limit by $2.4 trillion and Standard & Poor’s downgraded U.S. government debt from AAA to AA+ for the first time ever.

Obama weekly disapproval in the Gallup poll had previously hit its record high of 50 percent in the week of Aug. 16-22, 2010. It has never exceeded that percentage. The percent of Americans saying they approve of the job Obama is doing has now been at its record-low of 42 percent for back-to-back weeks. It first hit that all-time low in the week of July 25-31.

Gallup also publishes a three-day rolling average of Obama’s approval and disapproval. In the three-day averages, Obama’s approval has dropped as low 40 percent in the 3-day periods ending July 28 and July 30, and his disapproval has risen as high as 52 percent in the three-day periods ending July 29, July 30, and Aug. 4.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/gallup-obama-s-weekly-disapproval-ties-a

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dem politicians got us swimmin' in debt - only we's drownin'...

U.S. Debt Held by Public Tops $10T for 1st Time—Up 59 Percent Under Obama
Friday, September 02, 2011 - At the close of business on Aug. 31--for the first time in the history of the country--the publicly held debt of the federal government topped $10 trillion, according to data released by the U.S. Treasury Department at 4:00 p.m. yesterday.

During Obama's presidency, debt held by the public has now increased by $3.71694 trillion--or almost 59 percent from the $6.3073 trillion in debt held by the public that the government owed to its creditors on Jan. 20, 2009, when Obama was inaugurated. Also, according to the most recent reports available from the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, approximately $6.1 trillion of that debt—or about 61 percent of it—is owned by foreign interests (led by the Chinese and the Japanese) and by the Federal Reserve.

At the close of business on Aug. 30, as reported by the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Public Debt, the federal government’s debt held by the public equaled $9,990,126,772,846.86. By the close of business on Aug. 31, it was $10,024,253,354,407.07. The Treasury divides the debt of the U.S. government into two general categories: “debt held by the public” and “intragovermental” debt. The “intragovernmental” debt is money the Treasury has borrowed out of government trust funds—including the Social Security trust fund—to use on federal expenses other than those the trust funds were set up to cover. This “intragovernmental” debt is money the government owes itself.

The ‘debt held by the public,” according to the Treasury, includes “all federal debt held by individuals, corporations, state or local governments, foreign governments, and other entities outside the United States Government.” Among the types of Treasury securities included in the “debt held by the public” are Treasury bills (which mature in one year or less), Treasury notes (which mature in two to 10 years), Treasury bonds (which mature in 30 years), U.S. Savings Bonds, and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities. At the close of business on Aug. 31, the total outstanding debt of the U.S. government—including both the debt held by the public and the intragovernmental debt--equaled $14,684,292,994,743.93.

Of that $14,684,292,994,743.93 in U.S government debt, $10,024,253,354,407.07 was debt held by the public and $4,660,039,640,336.86 was intragovernmental debt. From Obama’s inauguration as president on Jan. 20, 2009 through Aug. 31, 2011, the total debt of the U.S. government increased $4.05742 trillion. But most of that increase—roughly 92 percent—has been from the increase in debt held by the public as opposed to an increase in intragovernmental debt.

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[waltky]

What you need to know about the nat'l. debt...

National debt: The five-minute primer
September 6, 2011: A small, bipartisan group of lawmakers will be hunkering down this fall, negotiating ways to reduce deficits by at least $1.2 trillion over the next decade.

With the country's fiscal future coming under the microscope -- and the spin that is sure to surround the so-called congressional super committee on debt -- here is what you should keep in mind.

How much debt does the U.S. have today? About $14.6 trillion. Nearly $10 trillion of the national debt is held by the public: individual bondholders, big investors such as mutual funds or universities, and foreign governments such as China, the United Kingdom and Brazil. The rest represents money owed to government trust funds -- primarily Social Security.

Is $14.6 trillion too much to handle? The real problem is not that the country owes $14.6 trillion today. It's that the number could grow to $23 trillion by 2021 and keep rising thereafter.

Just how unsustainable is the national debt? By the end of this decade, barring any policy changes, the vast majority of federal tax revenue will be eaten up by just four things: interest on the debt, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. In other words, a third of the federal budget, which includes spending on defense and all other discretionary programs, will have to be financed mostly with borrowed money. Less than three decades from now, the picture worsens considerably. Tax revenue will only be sufficient to pay for interest on the debt and most, but not all, of Social Security.

Okay, but aren't jobs a much more urgent problem?

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Seems like the plan is to get us more in debt...

Obama Has Now Increased Debt More than All Presidents from George Washington Through George H.W. Bush Combined
October 5, 2011 - The Obama administration passed another fiscal milestone this week, according to new data released by the Treasury Department. As of the close of business on Oct. 3, the total national debt was $14,837,099,271,196.71—up about $44.8 billion from Sept. 30.

That means that in the less-than-three-years Obama has been in office, the federal debt has increased by $4.212 trillion--more than the total national debt of about $4.1672 trillion accumulated by all 41 U.S. presidents from George Washington through George H.W. Bush combined. This $4.212-trillion increase in the national debt means that during Obama’s term the federal government has already borrowed about an additional $35,835 for every American household--or $44,980 for every full-time private-sector worker. (According to the Census Bureau there were about 117,538,000 households in the country in 2010, and, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were about 93,641,000 full-time private-sector workers.)

When Obama was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009, according to the Treasury Department, the total national debt stood at $10,626,877,048,913.08. At the end of January 1993, the month that President George H. W. Bush left office, the total national debt was $4.1672 trillion, according to the Treasury. Thus, the total national debt accumulated by the first 41 presidents combined was about $44.8 billion less than the approximately $4.212 trillion in new debt added during Obama’s term.

As of Monday, Obama had been in office 986 days—or about 32 and a half months. During that time, the debt increased at an average pace of $4.27 billion per day. Were that rate to continue until Obama’s term ends on Jan. 20, 2013, the debt would then stand at about $16.86534 trillion—an increase of more than $6.2 trillion for Obama’s four years. That would equal nearly $53,000 for each American household or more than $66,00 for each full-time private-sector worker. That total national debt did not exceed $6.2 trillion until 2002, when George W. Bush was president.

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GOP worries they’ll have to accept massive spending measure
10/05/11 - Congress way behind on passing FY12 appropriations bills, lawmakers have 6 weeks to figure out a solution

Frustrated House Republicans are grappling with the possibility that they will be forced to swallow the kind of massive spending package many of them campaigned against when Democrats were in power. The House on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a stopgap spending bill to carry the federal government through Nov. 18, ending the latest spending crisis on Capitol Hill. But with both the House and Senate woefully behind schedule on passing appropriations measures for fiscal 2012, lawmakers have only six weeks to figure out a solution — and few desirable options.

The Senate has passed just one of 12 annual appropriations bills, while the House has passed six. If the two chambers cannot make significant progress, the most likely fallback option is to combine the 12 bills into one omnibus measure. “I think everybody expects that,” said Rep. Austin Scott (Ga.), president of the House GOP freshman class. The prospect of signing off on a bill that could exceed 1,000 pages and appropriate about $1 trillion in federal spending is a sore subject for Republicans, particularly the freshmen who pledged not to vote for legislation too bulky even to read. “I didn’t vote to create the debacle and the train wreck that’s coming,” freshman Rep. Jeff Landry (R-La.) said. “So we’ll have to wait to see what happens.”

Congressional leaders have yet to decide on a path forward, and senior appropriators in both chambers are working feverishly to inch closer. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), said he spoke on Tuesday morning with his Senate counterpart, Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii). To avoid combining bills or another stopgap bill, the House and Senate would have to agree upon and pass 12 separate bills. For now, House leaders have no plans to move more appropriations bills until they see what the Senate plans to do. “We demonstrated we were able to get whatever it is that we set out to do done. They have not done a thing,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told reporters Monday. “I think it will all come down to what is doable in the Senate.”

Neither Cantor nor Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has ruled out an omnibus bill. “We’ve done our best to move appropriations bills in an open and regular process. If the Senate fails to do so, we’ll have to consider other options,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said Tuesday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Monday he hoped to pass three additional appropriations bills before the end of October — those funding the departments of Agriculture, Commerce and Transportation. The Senate GOP conference is balking at the possibility of an omnibus package, and appropriators are considering the possibility of combining the 12 appropriations bills into what aides have dubbed “minibuses” — a few bills that would be more manageable to complete than a dozen separate measures.

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[Zander]

What's a few trillion amongst friends?? We have nothing to worry about.....hope and change.....

 

[KissMy]

Federal retirement plans almost as costly as Social Security

Retirement programs for former federal workers — civilian and military — are growing so fast they now face a multitrillion-dollar shortfall nearly as big as Social Security's, a USA TODAY analysis shows.

 

[waltky]

Granny says dem politicians don't know what dey's doin' - ya don't get outta debt by goin' deeper into it - we gonna end up like Greece...

Debt Increased $203 Billion in Oct.--$650 for Every Man, Woman and Child in America
November 2, 2011 - The federal government’s debt increased by $203,368,715,583.63 in the month of October, according to the U.S. Treasury.

That equals about $650 per person for each of the 312,542,760 people the Census Bureau now estimates live in the United States. At the end of September, the total national debt stood at $14,790,340,328,557.15, according to the Bureau of the Public Debt. By the end of October, it had risen to $14,993,709,044,140.78.

The debt increased far more this October than it did last October. Between the last day of September 2010 and the last day of October, the debt rose from $13,561,623,030,891.79 to 13,668,825,497,341.36—for an increase of $107,202,466, 449.57.

October is the first month of the federal fiscal year. If the debt were to increase by an average of $203 billion for the remaining 11 months of the year, the national debt would increase by $2.436 trillion for the year.

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Trying to Spend Billions in Stimulus Funds Like 'Putting A Lawn Hose on a Fire Hydrant,' IG Tells Congress
November 2, 2011 – Inspector Generals with the Departments of Energy and Labor told a House panel on Wednesday that reports compiled at Congress’ request show that billions of dollars in stimulus funding given to the agencies to create green jobs have failed to achieve that goal.

DOE Inspector General Gregory Friedman told the House Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight and Government Spending that his agency received $35.2 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2009. Friedman’s office found that as of Oct. 22, 2011 about 45 percent of the agency’s stimulus funds had not been spent – mostly by state and local recipients of stimulus funds. The reasons, Friedman said, are that few “shovel ready” jobs actually existed and that the infrastructure and personnel were not in place at the state and local level to put funding and programs in place. He compared it to “putting a lawn hose on a fire hydrant.”

The majority of grants and loan guarantees were given to “green” technology programs or research, including those that focused on “energy efficiency and renewable energy” and “environmental management,” which Friedman described as “high-risk areas.” Moreover, Friedman said that the end of stimulus funding would lead to “significant downsizing of the contractor workforce.” Friedman said, “The department estimates that with the end of Recovery Act funding, over 4,000 workers at Environmental Management sites … will be displaced by the end of 2011.”

Friedman also testified that $5 billion of the stimulus funds his agency received were for weatherization programs that did not always succeed. “Weatherization work was often of poor quality,” Friedman said in his prepared opening remarks. “In a recent audit performed at the state level, 9 of 17 weatherized homes we visited failed inspections because of substandard workmanship.”

Elliott Lewis, assistant inspector general for the audit office of the Department of Labor, said the agency received $500 million in stimulus funds for its Employment and Training Administration (ETA) for “competitive grants for research, labor exchange and job training projects to prepare workers for careers in the energy efficiency and renewable energy industries – the department’s Green Jobs program.”

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[editec]

It might help you to envision the debt as loaves of bread.

Dollars have no intensic value, but bread does.

 

[KissMy]