Politics, Society

$17,618,599,653,160.19

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As of close of business on July 31, 2014, our debt has risen to $17,618,599,653,160.19. That crippling level of debt is itself astonishing but what is equally astonishing is that $7 trillion of that debt has been added in just the five and a half years of the Obama Administration. That $7 trillion is more than the debt accumulated from George Washington through Bill Clinton combined.

I remain in disbelief over the continued spending of Congress and the White House — I was also critical of George W. Bush who was not a fiscal conservative and the wars launched under his leadership contributed to these costs. Despite this mounting debt, neither the Congress nor the White House hesitated to send hundreds of millions more to Israel to pay for part of its defense or billions to places like Afghanistan and Iraq despite the loss of over $4 trillion in those wars.

I readily admit that I am more conservative on spending and taxes than many on this blog. However, I am not fanatically against debt as a concept. I just object to the cavalier attitude toward spending and more importantly the lack of priority. The greatest national security threats in this country are not Afghanistan or Iraq but our crumbling public education system, underfunded science and environmental programs, and such growing menaces as pandemics like Ebola.

As recent report showed that the level of waste in rebuilding Afghanistan alone is far greater than previously thought. John Sopko, the inspector general charged with monitoring aid sent by the U.S. to Afghanistan, found billions of dollars more wasted in Afghanistan. One small example are two $40.5 million C-130 transport planes that the U.S. government gave the Afghan Air Force even though it cannot use the planes. Such moronic forms of waste result in a shocking finding that of $10.6 billion in funding review, nearly $7 billion was potentially wasted. Yet, the money continues to pour in and no one is held accountable for the waste or stupidity. No one accept the American people who will pass this debt on to our children.

Here is the actual debt numbers from the government: Treasury

191 thoughts on “$17,618,599,653,160.19”

  3. Whatever happened to Simpson-Bowles?
    …without leadership, it became Bowles-Simpson…

  4. Lazer:

    All money is just a tally mark anyway. It is a token meant to represent a transfer of worth.
    So what if it is “not legal tender”, that is just a designation by fiat anyway even if it were true.
    The fact that we keep track of these things via numerical bookkeeping, and we have all our financial expectations and obligations scaffolded onto such tally marks, makes it functionally equivalent to legal tender.
    It all comes down to what are our agreements to spend, borrow, earn and owe. The system only works if we adhere to those agreements.
    When we don’t, than, like slohrss29’s said, wars will happen, and deaths will ensue.

  8. All spending originates in the House. Just think if the America people could just vote themselves money to spend. Everyone could than be as rich as those in Congress. Government generally cannot fix anything, and if it does, it usually screws something else up. The idea that we can all benefit at the expense of everyone else is a fools errand filled with graft, corruption and conflict which is really the nature of government. Politics is the art of winning the fight over whose have greatest access to the public treasury.

  9. Exactly, from what I have read, this is the plan. China, India, all those ‘stans over there, and Russia plan to dump the dollar for gold. That’s why we keep kicking the stooge–Russia.

  12. I always appreciate BFM’s input, but I just don’t know how we can do it now. The old “get blood from a turnip” thing.

  13. I asked the questions and received no reply;
    hence, I’m going to bugger all of you.

    There’s NO such thing as legal tender; hence no such thing as debt.

    All are negotiable instruments of fictitious entities. There’s a presumption by a court that you stand in stead of your fictitious (ALL CAPS) persona.

    Canon Law = Central Bank = Countries only go bankrupt when wished to!

    Sheeesssh,

    I’m the one who supposed to know least about the law here….

    China could start world chaos tomorrow, by simply refusing $ for oil.
    (BTW – R U aware it used to be an S with a U overlayed {some debate that meant units of silver, as a dollar was supposed to equal 1 ounce of silver}).

    Our paper is not money as is not backed up by Gold/Silver;
    and hence is re-negotiable – by simply printing more paper.

    We have what is Believed to be – and that is controlled by ……..

    1. Laser – you keep using Canon Law. Canon Law is church law and has nothing to do with secular law.

    1. @slohrss29

      Thanks for the video. i frequently disagree with Rand Paul. But credit where credit is due. I think it is a good thing to know what you are voting for. Maybe we should have pop quizzes on the bills before representatives and senators are allowed to vote.

  15. bigfatmike, if you believe in fixing the economy first, then you will certainly appreciate what New Zealand did to fix their economy during the 80s:

    Go here, then find and click on:
    April 2004, Rolling Back Government:
    Lessons from New Zealand
    by Maurice P. McTigue.
    http://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/archives

  17. I’m basically with you BFM… how do you do this now? I don’t subscribe to the latest rosy economic reports we keep hearing lately. Plus, as others have pointed out, there are worldy situations against our economy that cannot be discounted. Darren makes a good point. Samantha makes a good point as well. I would say “turn off the wars first,” but that may even start a downward cascade. As I have said, in my very depressed area, the people earning a strong material living are employed in 1) healthcare, 2) prison administration, 3) law enforcement, and 4) defense contracting. Do we see a common theme here??? We say “government has to spend more money.” Where I am, the government is already the biggest employer, if indirectly.

  18. “Then I take out a personal loan and hand it to the first person I can find who could have gotten a job on their own but now doesn’t need too.”

    Government debt, sovereign debt, is not like debt owed by families and businesses. Governments have alternatives that are not available to any family or business. As a first consideration it is important to note that government expenditures affect economic activity and tax revenues. Prescriptions that make perfect sense for a family can lead to disastrous results for a nation. The practice of austerity, reducing government expenditures, can have the unintended consequence of making the debt problem worse. That cannot happen to a family. Increasing government expenditures can help resolve the debt problem by increasing economic activity and tax revenues. That cannot happen to a family.

    Anyone who takes the time to read would know that there are three job candidates for every job opening. Many of these people had good jobs, and houses and families to support. The economic facts of life are that much like musical chairs, no matter how hard they try, some of them will be left without a job. We could do much to alleviate that problem by taking sound steps to stimulate the economy.

    We are living through an economic dark ages in which important lessons of the past have been forgotten or intentionally ignored by demagogues.

    If you want to fix the debt then fix the economy first.

    Put people back to work and they will pay taxes.

  19. Nick Spinelli

    Progressives continually show they are not forward thinking people. They will mortgage their grandchildren’s future for protecting the cult leader today.
    ==========================
    Progressives in the Ignorati party that is.

  20. Thank you Pre Rabbit! You just articulated the mindset of many cultist here w/o the balls to actually speak their insane philosophy. You get a medal of valor. You do realize you are free to pay more taxes than you owe. I think that will show you need commitment, err, are committed.

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