I'm kinda tired of watching democrats and republicans snipe at each other on cable news programs about everything from health care to who's responsible for Bin Laden having skid marks in his underwear. I heard one guy describe it as two men swimming in the ocean and arguing about who is going to drown first. So I want to give some context, a backdrop if you will, to the rhetorical masturbation that has Washington in a death grip lately.
- Current federal debt is $12 trillion dollars (and rising fast)
- Total debt (personal, business, local governments, etc) is $54 trillion dollars ($679,000 for every US family)
- The Federal budget for this year is $3.55 trillion... Of that...
- Social Security is the largest single budget item at $695 billion
- Medicare and Medicaid (health care) is at $793 billion
- Defense counts for $663 billion
- Interest on the debt is $164 billion (4% of 2010 budget)
- "Earmarks" account for 1-2% of annual federal spending according to the GAO
- If nothing changes, in 2020 the US debt will be $20 TRILLION dollars. The interest on this debt will consume 80% of the annual federal budget.
