What should be done, if anything, to bring home $5 trillion held overseas by American businesses?

[Boss]

Oh, I know! You fucking commie bastards would love nothing more than to completely disarm our nation. My point is, you're not going to!

Yet again you are wrong, I just explained my thoughts about the importance of our military a few posts ago, slow down and work on comprehension. Then go study economics so you can get your terminologies right.

There's nothing wrong with my terminology. My economy understanding is just as sound. Typical lefty, when someone challenges your religion your instinct is to personally attack.

Let's go through this... Let's say we lose our collective fucking minds and cut our defense budget 33%...that's never going to happen, but let's play along and pretend... Well, that amounts to about $200 billion, or enough to fund our current level of spending for about 17 days.

This is without mentioning a third of the military bases closing and entire towns being left to wither away or the thousands of jobs dependent on defense contracts.

It amounts to really stupid economic suggestion. Borderline retarded.

I never suggested cutting he military by 33% and never suggested closing down bases. Your injecting a false narrative to try and make me sound crazy and yourself sound right. Nice try

Oh, I know you didn't suggest it, I didn't claim you did, moron. I am addressing the very real narrative of the liberal left, that we should make substantial cuts to defense spending. If that's not what you advocate just say so.

I'm simply trying to illustrate the absurdity of the argument here. Even at an insanely high level of cutting it reduces our deficit by very little. So these idiots who jump in to chortle that we need to cut military spending to get the deficits under control are borderline retarded. That will not do it!

The same arguement can be made for cutting the EPA and funding for other government programs that are being slashed

Look... we are currently averaging spending about a trillion dollars more than we take in. Obviously it's going to take cuts to many things to get our budget under control. I don't have a problem with cutting waste in defense spending along with sensible cuts in every area. What I have a problem with are goofball libtards who don't want to touch a damn thing except the military... who seem to be obsessed with the idea this is all it will take to fix things... or that it's really all that significant in the grand scheme of things. It's just a boneheaded argument.

 

[Boss]

Funny that you use the word dimwitted when you apparently don't understand the difference between mandatory and discretionary spending. Do a little homework then we can start the conversation over.

I understand the difference between discretionary and non-discretionary. I never claimed it was not discretionary. You want to tell the class what year congress didn't appropriate funding for defense, or did the dog eat your homework?

They always have and always will... I can only hope. What's your point?

Oh, I know! You fucking commie bastards would love nothing more than to completely disarm our nation. My point is, you're not going to!

Yet again you are wrong, I just explained my thoughts about the importance of our military a few posts ago, slow down and work on comprehension. Then go study economics so you can get your terminologies right.

I admire your patience in conversing with Boss but he exemplifies the right wing tendency to think in binary. He also seems to own some defense industry stock from the look of it.

Why don't you shut your fucking yap if you're not going to debate me? No one is coming here to listen to you pontificate your idiocy.

 

[Boss]

Horrible comparison... Housing costs are primarily mortgage payments or rent and that is comparable to mandatory spending like Social Security and Medicare which are the primary drivers of our debt. In the discretionary spending arena I'd look at my food, entertainment, travel, and commodity purchases... If i was spending more than 50% of my budget on food and much of that was eating out then i'd probably start by making adjustments there. A 10% cut on that is going to be much more effective than cutting 10% on something that only comprises a small fraction of my budget.

I disagree. I think our national defense is mandatory. My example was regarding the complaint that we spend a lot on defense, therefore, this is where cuts should be made. I think that reasoning is invalid.

Sent from my SD4930UR using USMessageBoard.com mobile app

National defense is discretionary spending, thats fact not opinion...

Federal Spending: Where Does the Money Go

Why do we even need Standing Armies during real times of Peace and definitely Not, real times of alleged War; since we can Lower taxes and not Raise taxes to meet any real times of War, exigency.

I'm not quite following what you're trying to say. While I do think there is tremendous waste in our military spending and plenty of opportunity to make cuts. I also believe in maintaining a strong military. We are the world leaders and our military is crucial for humanitarian support, disaster relief, and peace keeping efforts. We also need to be ready should there be an attack or threat to our security.

I don't want to minimize the importance of our military but I also don't think they warrant a blank check and no financial oversight.

I used to see it that way too. These days however, I see it more as empire building and protecting the interests of the elite.

Tell me something.. where is the US building an empire?

 

[Slade3200]

Yet again you are wrong, I just explained my thoughts about the importance of our military a few posts ago, slow down and work on comprehension. Then go study economics so you can get your terminologies right.

There's nothing wrong with my terminology. My economy understanding is just as sound. Typical lefty, when someone challenges your religion your instinct is to personally attack.

Let's go through this... Let's say we lose our collective fucking minds and cut our defense budget 33%...that's never going to happen, but let's play along and pretend... Well, that amounts to about $200 billion, or enough to fund our current level of spending for about 17 days.

This is without mentioning a third of the military bases closing and entire towns being left to wither away or the thousands of jobs dependent on defense contracts.

It amounts to really stupid economic suggestion. Borderline retarded.

Also your understanding of economics is not very sound. You claimed that the biggest driver of our deficit was interest on the debt in response to my claim that military was by far the largest outlay of our descretioary spending budget. First off, servicing the debt costs us 230 billion and military costs us 600 billion, and second the largest driver over our debt is social security/unemployment at 1.25 Trillion

Yes, it's about a third of our defense budget and we get absolutely nothing for it. What's more, at the current deficit rates, servicing the debt is going to quickly become our primary expense. Eventually, we'll get to a point where we can't pay for social security and other non-discretionary items and also service our debt... then, the interest starts to snowball into increased debt... shortly thereafter, our entire economy collapses. This happens rapidly when it all starts coming undone.

Ah yes the famous debt cliff, scary. Question, servicing the debt that does absolutely nothing... where exactly does that money go? Can you explain?

Mostly to Chinese and Japanese banks holding our debt.

How much? Where does the rest go?

 

[Slade3200]

Yet again you are wrong, I just explained my thoughts about the importance of our military a few posts ago, slow down and work on comprehension. Then go study economics so you can get your terminologies right.

There's nothing wrong with my terminology. My economy understanding is just as sound. Typical lefty, when someone challenges your religion your instinct is to personally attack.

Let's go through this... Let's say we lose our collective fucking minds and cut our defense budget 33%...that's never going to happen, but let's play along and pretend... Well, that amounts to about $200 billion, or enough to fund our current level of spending for about 17 days.

This is without mentioning a third of the military bases closing and entire towns being left to wither away or the thousands of jobs dependent on defense contracts.

It amounts to really stupid economic suggestion. Borderline retarded.

I never suggested cutting he military by 33% and never suggested closing down bases. Your injecting a false narrative to try and make me sound crazy and yourself sound right. Nice try

Oh, I know you didn't suggest it, I didn't claim you did, moron. I am addressing the very real narrative of the liberal left, that we should make substantial cuts to defense spending. If that's not what you advocate just say so.

I'm simply trying to illustrate the absurdity of the argument here. Even at an insanely high level of cutting it reduces our deficit by very little. So these idiots who jump in to chortle that we need to cut military spending to get the deficits under control are borderline retarded. That will not do it!

The same arguement can be made for cutting the EPA and funding for other government programs that are being slashed

Look... we are currently averaging spending about a trillion dollars more than we take in. Obviously it's going to take cuts to many things to get our budget under control. I don't have a problem with cutting waste in defense spending along with sensible cuts in every area. What I have a problem with are goofball libtards who don't want to touch a damn thing except the military... who seem to be obsessed with the idea this is all it will take to fix things... or that it's really all that significant in the grand scheme of things. It's just a boneheaded argument.

Now there is a sane argument that I completely agree with. The last part of your statement was never part of my position

 

[Luddly Neddite]

It would be nice to have some of that money come back home.

Start with the cheeto.

Oh yeah, I forgot.

That's different.

(Have you read the link in my sig? Warning - it's not suitable reading for RWNJ traitors.)


Sent from my iPad using USMessageBoard.com

 

[JoeNormal]

I disagree. I think our national defense is mandatory. My example was regarding the complaint that we spend a lot on defense, therefore, this is where cuts should be made. I think that reasoning is invalid.

Sent from my SD4930UR using USMessageBoard.com mobile app

National defense is discretionary spending, thats fact not opinion...

Federal Spending: Where Does the Money Go

Why do we even need Standing Armies during real times of Peace and definitely Not, real times of alleged War; since we can Lower taxes and not Raise taxes to meet any real times of War, exigency.

I'm not quite following what you're trying to say. While I do think there is tremendous waste in our military spending and plenty of opportunity to make cuts. I also believe in maintaining a strong military. We are the world leaders and our military is crucial for humanitarian support, disaster relief, and peace keeping efforts. We also need to be ready should there be an attack or threat to our security.

I don't want to minimize the importance of our military but I also don't think they warrant a blank check and no financial oversight.

I used to see it that way too. These days however, I see it more as empire building and protecting the interests of the elite.

Tell me something.. where is the US building an empire?

JFC open your eyes dick weed. Nearly every war we engage in has oil at its root. That's the the elephant in the room. Then there are the lesser commodities that come into play. We didn't care much about Afghanistan until we needed a steady source of lithium. And we won't care about Africa until there's some strategic material we need from there.

 

[Boss]

There's nothing wrong with my terminology. My economy understanding is just as sound. Typical lefty, when someone challenges your religion your instinct is to personally attack.

Let's go through this... Let's say we lose our collective fucking minds and cut our defense budget 33%...that's never going to happen, but let's play along and pretend... Well, that amounts to about $200 billion, or enough to fund our current level of spending for about 17 days.

This is without mentioning a third of the military bases closing and entire towns being left to wither away or the thousands of jobs dependent on defense contracts.

It amounts to really stupid economic suggestion. Borderline retarded.

Also your understanding of economics is not very sound. You claimed that the biggest driver of our deficit was interest on the debt in response to my claim that military was by far the largest outlay of our descretioary spending budget. First off, servicing the debt costs us 230 billion and military costs us 600 billion, and second the largest driver over our debt is social security/unemployment at 1.25 Trillion

Yes, it's about a third of our defense budget and we get absolutely nothing for it. What's more, at the current deficit rates, servicing the debt is going to quickly become our primary expense. Eventually, we'll get to a point where we can't pay for social security and other non-discretionary items and also service our debt... then, the interest starts to snowball into increased debt... shortly thereafter, our entire economy collapses. This happens rapidly when it all starts coming undone.

Ah yes the famous debt cliff, scary. Question, servicing the debt that does absolutely nothing... where exactly does that money go? Can you explain?

Mostly to Chinese and Japanese banks holding our debt.

How much? Where does the rest go?

I'm sorry you don't understand how interest on debt works. It's money paid for money you borrow. We're having to borrow a trillion dollars a year to keep the lights on. Each year, that's another trillion dollars we will have to pay interest on in addition to what we're already paying. At some point we can no longer pay the interest. This isn't a theory or scare tactic, it just happened to Greece a few years ago.

 

[Boss]

National defense is discretionary spending, thats fact not opinion...

Federal Spending: Where Does the Money Go

Why do we even need Standing Armies during real times of Peace and definitely Not, real times of alleged War; since we can Lower taxes and not Raise taxes to meet any real times of War, exigency.

I'm not quite following what you're trying to say. While I do think there is tremendous waste in our military spending and plenty of opportunity to make cuts. I also believe in maintaining a strong military. We are the world leaders and our military is crucial for humanitarian support, disaster relief, and peace keeping efforts. We also need to be ready should there be an attack or threat to our security.

I don't want to minimize the importance of our military but I also don't think they warrant a blank check and no financial oversight.

I used to see it that way too. These days however, I see it more as empire building and protecting the interests of the elite.

Tell me something.. where is the US building an empire?

JFC open your eyes dick weed. Nearly every war we engage in has oil at its root. That's the the elephant in the room. Then there are the lesser commodities that come into play. We didn't care much about Afghanistan until we needed a steady source of lithium. And we won't care about Africa until there's some strategic material we need from there.

You're off your nut.

 

[Manonthestreet]

You just grab it like Venezuela......and pay down the debt......call it fruits of slave labor reparations

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

Horrible comparison... Housing costs are primarily mortgage payments or rent and that is comparable to mandatory spending like Social Security and Medicare which are the primary drivers of our debt. In the discretionary spending arena I'd look at my food, entertainment, travel, and commodity purchases... If i was spending more than 50% of my budget on food and much of that was eating out then i'd probably start by making adjustments there. A 10% cut on that is going to be much more effective than cutting 10% on something that only comprises a small fraction of my budget.

I disagree. I think our national defense is mandatory. My example was regarding the complaint that we spend a lot on defense, therefore, this is where cuts should be made. I think that reasoning is invalid.

Sent from my SD4930UR using USMessageBoard.com mobile app

National defense is discretionary spending, thats fact not opinion...

Federal Spending: Where Does the Money Go

Why do we even need Standing Armies during real times of Peace and definitely Not, real times of alleged War; since we can Lower taxes and not Raise taxes to meet any real times of War, exigency.

I'm not quite following what you're trying to say. While I do think there is tremendous waste in our military spending and plenty of opportunity to make cuts. I also believe in maintaining a strong military. We are the world leaders and our military is crucial for humanitarian support, disaster relief, and peace keeping efforts. We also need to be ready should there be an attack or threat to our security.

I don't want to minimize the importance of our military but I also don't think they warrant a blank check and no financial oversight.

I used to see it that way too. These days however, I see it more as empire building and protecting the interests of the elite.

Funeral March for America: PROUD TO DIE TAKING A RICH KID'S PLACE

Don't just criticize a matter of life and death; take all means necessary to stop it. Demand that the sons of the elite get drafted at age 18 and get sent to the front lines or patriotic Americans will bring the front lines to the HeirHeads' fraternity houses.

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

National defense is discretionary spending, thats fact not opinion...

Federal Spending: Where Does the Money Go

Why do we even need Standing Armies during real times of Peace and definitely Not, real times of alleged War; since we can Lower taxes and not Raise taxes to meet any real times of War, exigency.

I'm not quite following what you're trying to say. While I do think there is tremendous waste in our military spending and plenty of opportunity to make cuts. I also believe in maintaining a strong military. We are the world leaders and our military is crucial for humanitarian support, disaster relief, and peace keeping efforts. We also need to be ready should there be an attack or threat to our security.

I don't want to minimize the importance of our military but I also don't think they warrant a blank check and no financial oversight.

I used to see it that way too. These days however, I see it more as empire building and protecting the interests of the elite.

Tell me something.. where is the US building an empire?

JFC open your eyes dick weed. Nearly every war we engage in has oil at its root. That's the the elephant in the room. Then there are the lesser commodities that come into play. We didn't care much about Afghanistan until we needed a steady source of lithium. And we won't care about Africa until there's some strategic material we need from there.

NYETO and PNAC

The NeoCon Cold War nostalgics occupied Afghanistan as an outpost against Putin and his Central Asian allies. Behind the scenes, the Second Cold War has been waged ever since the first one ended.

 

[Slade3200]

Also your understanding of economics is not very sound. You claimed that the biggest driver of our deficit was interest on the debt in response to my claim that military was by far the largest outlay of our descretioary spending budget. First off, servicing the debt costs us 230 billion and military costs us 600 billion, and second the largest driver over our debt is social security/unemployment at 1.25 Trillion

Yes, it's about a third of our defense budget and we get absolutely nothing for it. What's more, at the current deficit rates, servicing the debt is going to quickly become our primary expense. Eventually, we'll get to a point where we can't pay for social security and other non-discretionary items and also service our debt... then, the interest starts to snowball into increased debt... shortly thereafter, our entire economy collapses. This happens rapidly when it all starts coming undone.

Ah yes the famous debt cliff, scary. Question, servicing the debt that does absolutely nothing... where exactly does that money go? Can you explain?

Mostly to Chinese and Japanese banks holding our debt.

How much? Where does the rest go?

I'm sorry you don't understand how interest on debt works. It's money paid for money you borrow. We're having to borrow a trillion dollars a year to keep the lights on. Each year, that's another trillion dollars we will have to pay interest on in addition to what we're already paying. At some point we can no longer pay the interest. This isn't a theory or scare tactic, it just happened to Greece a few years ago.

So you think our debt is like a credit card bill that we are paying interest on right? I understand how it works but you apparently do not. Try one more time to answer a simple question. You say our interest payments are mostly going to the Chinese. I'm asking how much of it is going to the Chinese and where is the other percentage going?

 

[Boss]

Yes, it's about a third of our defense budget and we get absolutely nothing for it. What's more, at the current deficit rates, servicing the debt is going to quickly become our primary expense. Eventually, we'll get to a point where we can't pay for social security and other non-discretionary items and also service our debt... then, the interest starts to snowball into increased debt... shortly thereafter, our entire economy collapses. This happens rapidly when it all starts coming undone.

Ah yes the famous debt cliff, scary. Question, servicing the debt that does absolutely nothing... where exactly does that money go? Can you explain?

Mostly to Chinese and Japanese banks holding our debt.

How much? Where does the rest go?

I'm sorry you don't understand how interest on debt works. It's money paid for money you borrow. We're having to borrow a trillion dollars a year to keep the lights on. Each year, that's another trillion dollars we will have to pay interest on in addition to what we're already paying. At some point we can no longer pay the interest. This isn't a theory or scare tactic, it just happened to Greece a few years ago.

So you think our debt is like a credit card bill that we are paying interest on right? I understand how it works but you apparently do not. Try one more time to answer a simple question. You say our interest payments are mostly going to the Chinese. I'm asking how much of it is going to the Chinese and where is the other percentage going?

Yes, it pretty much works the same way as your credit card. It's far more complex and there are some nuanced differences, but it's fundamentally the same.

I don't know the actual percentage of debt the Chinese hold, it's a chunk. I don't understand your questions here... the part not held by China is held by other countries. Are you trying to make a point? Spit it out! Stop trying to act like a sleazy trial lawyer trying to trick me into some incriminating answer. Interest on debt is just that... it's not something else. We get nothing for it other than use of the money we borrowed.

 

[danielpalos]

I disagree. I think our national defense is mandatory. My example was regarding the complaint that we spend a lot on defense, therefore, this is where cuts should be made. I think that reasoning is invalid.

Sent from my SD4930UR using USMessageBoard.com mobile app

National defense is discretionary spending, thats fact not opinion...

Federal Spending: Where Does the Money Go

Why do we even need Standing Armies during real times of Peace and definitely Not, real times of alleged War; since we can Lower taxes and not Raise taxes to meet any real times of War, exigency.

I'm not quite following what you're trying to say. While I do think there is tremendous waste in our military spending and plenty of opportunity to make cuts. I also believe in maintaining a strong military. We are the world leaders and our military is crucial for humanitarian support, disaster relief, and peace keeping efforts. We also need to be ready should there be an attack or threat to our security.

I don't want to minimize the importance of our military but I also don't think they warrant a blank check and no financial oversight.

I used to see it that way too. These days however, I see it more as empire building and protecting the interests of the elite.

Tell me something.. where is the US building an empire?

Military conflict in the Middle East, Only increases market risk and creates price inflation for fuel, not wages. Now do you understand?

 

[danielpalos]

China had been buying Treasuries as a way to keep its currency, the yuan, pegged to the U.S. dollar. That helped lower the value of the yuan and made China's exports more competitive in foreign markets.

But in recent years, partly due to U.S. pressure and partly as an effort to curb its own inflation, China has allowed the yuan to rise in value.

Closer to home, there's another major buyer of U.S. debt: the Federal Reserve. At last count the central bank owned around $2.5 trillion worth of Treasuries, up from around $800 billion at the end of 2007.

Source: Japan now holds more U.S. debt than China

 

[Slade3200]

Ah yes the famous debt cliff, scary. Question, servicing the debt that does absolutely nothing... where exactly does that money go? Can you explain?

Mostly to Chinese and Japanese banks holding our debt.

How much? Where does the rest go?

I'm sorry you don't understand how interest on debt works. It's money paid for money you borrow. We're having to borrow a trillion dollars a year to keep the lights on. Each year, that's another trillion dollars we will have to pay interest on in addition to what we're already paying. At some point we can no longer pay the interest. This isn't a theory or scare tactic, it just happened to Greece a few years ago.

So you think our debt is like a credit card bill that we are paying interest on right? I understand how it works but you apparently do not. Try one more time to answer a simple question. You say our interest payments are mostly going to the Chinese. I'm asking how much of it is going to the Chinese and where is the other percentage going?

Yes, it pretty much works the same way as your credit card. It's far more complex and there are some nuanced differences, but it's fundamentally the same.

I don't know the actual percentage of debt the Chinese hold, it's a chunk. I don't understand your questions here... the part not held by China is held by other countries. Are you trying to make a point? Spit it out! Stop trying to act like a sleazy trial lawyer trying to trick me into some incriminating answer. Interest on debt is just that... it's not something else. We get nothing for it other than use of the money we borrowed.

I'm not trying to trap you I'm just asking to see what you understand. The US is a sovergn country in control of their own currency, it's economy very different than that of a private citizen or business racking up a credit card bill.

Foreign countries own about a third of our debt, not the majority, the rest is held by domestic governments, the federal reserve, and domestic private investors. So when your 401k buys treasury bonds, which most do because they are a stable low risk investment, you own a piece of the debt. This means part of servicing the debt is paying for our citizens retirements and funding our state governments and banks.

You didn't read the link I posted did you? Do yourself a favor and give it a look. It does a great job breaking down what the debt is and how we borrow.

Start with this one to understand the debt:
Federal Spending: Where Does the Money Go

Then this one to break down how we borrow and who we owe:
Borrowing and the Federal Debt

 

[Moonglow]

What should be done, if anything, to bring home $5 trillion held overseas by American businesses?

Waterboarding is a start...

 

[danielpalos]

Mostly to Chinese and Japanese banks holding our debt.

How much? Where does the rest go?

I'm sorry you don't understand how interest on debt works. It's money paid for money you borrow. We're having to borrow a trillion dollars a year to keep the lights on. Each year, that's another trillion dollars we will have to pay interest on in addition to what we're already paying. At some point we can no longer pay the interest. This isn't a theory or scare tactic, it just happened to Greece a few years ago.

So you think our debt is like a credit card bill that we are paying interest on right? I understand how it works but you apparently do not. Try one more time to answer a simple question. You say our interest payments are mostly going to the Chinese. I'm asking how much of it is going to the Chinese and where is the other percentage going?

Yes, it pretty much works the same way as your credit card. It's far more complex and there are some nuanced differences, but it's fundamentally the same.

I don't know the actual percentage of debt the Chinese hold, it's a chunk. I don't understand your questions here... the part not held by China is held by other countries. Are you trying to make a point? Spit it out! Stop trying to act like a sleazy trial lawyer trying to trick me into some incriminating answer. Interest on debt is just that... it's not something else. We get nothing for it other than use of the money we borrowed.

I'm not trying to trap you I'm just asking to see what you understand. The US is a sovergn country in control of their own currency, it's economy very different than that of a private citizen or business racking up a credit card bill.

Foreign countries own about a third of our debt, not the majority, the rest is held by domestic governments, the federal reserve, and domestic private investors. So when your 401k buys treasury bonds, which most do because they are a stable low risk investment, you own a piece of the debt. This means part of servicing the debt is paying for our citizens retirements and funding our state governments and banks.

You didn't read the link I posted did you? Do yourself a favor and give it a look. It does a great job breaking down what the debt is and how we borrow.

Start with this one to understand the debt:
Federal Spending: Where Does the Money Go

Then this one to break down how we borrow and who we owe:
Borrowing and the Federal Debt

Do you have anything that simplifies the concept regarding expatriate funds? It seems more complicated than it should due to the complexity of our tax codes; especially in regard to foreign subsidiaries of US firms.

 

[Slade3200]

How much? Where does the rest go?

I'm sorry you don't understand how interest on debt works. It's money paid for money you borrow. We're having to borrow a trillion dollars a year to keep the lights on. Each year, that's another trillion dollars we will have to pay interest on in addition to what we're already paying. At some point we can no longer pay the interest. This isn't a theory or scare tactic, it just happened to Greece a few years ago.

So you think our debt is like a credit card bill that we are paying interest on right? I understand how it works but you apparently do not. Try one more time to answer a simple question. You say our interest payments are mostly going to the Chinese. I'm asking how much of it is going to the Chinese and where is the other percentage going?

Yes, it pretty much works the same way as your credit card. It's far more complex and there are some nuanced differences, but it's fundamentally the same.

I don't know the actual percentage of debt the Chinese hold, it's a chunk. I don't understand your questions here... the part not held by China is held by other countries. Are you trying to make a point? Spit it out! Stop trying to act like a sleazy trial lawyer trying to trick me into some incriminating answer. Interest on debt is just that... it's not something else. We get nothing for it other than use of the money we borrowed.

I'm not trying to trap you I'm just asking to see what you understand. The US is a sovergn country in control of their own currency, it's economy very different than that of a private citizen or business racking up a credit card bill.

Foreign countries own about a third of our debt, not the majority, the rest is held by domestic governments, the federal reserve, and domestic private investors. So when your 401k buys treasury bonds, which most do because they are a stable low risk investment, you own a piece of the debt. This means part of servicing the debt is paying for our citizens retirements and funding our state governments and banks.

You didn't read the link I posted did you? Do yourself a favor and give it a look. It does a great job breaking down what the debt is and how we borrow.

Start with this one to understand the debt:
Federal Spending: Where Does the Money Go

Then this one to break down how we borrow and who we owe:
Borrowing and the Federal Debt

Do you have anything that simplifies the concept regarding expatriate funds? It seems more complicated than it should due to the complexity of our tax codes; especially in regard to foreign subsidiaries of US firms.

It's a good question and a complicated subject. I'm not very familiar with tax loopholes and foreign accounts. I'll do some research and share anything I find that's informative