nizo's Journal: National Debt Grows by 1 Million Dollars a Minute

Like a ticking time bomb, the national debt is an explosion waiting to happen. It's expanding by about $1.4 billion a day -- or nearly $1 million a minute.

What's that mean to you?

It means almost $30,000 in debt for each man, woman, child and infant in the United States.

Even if you've escaped the recent housing and credit crunches and are coping with rising fuel prices, you may still be headed for economic misery, along with the rest of the country. That's because the government is fast straining resources needed to meet interest payments on the national debt, which stands at a mind-numbing $9.13 trillion.

Read the rest here and weep:
http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2007/12/03/1137590-national-debt-grows-1-million-a-minute

Another way of looking at it

[benhocking]

It's expanding by about $1.4 billion a day -- or nearly $1 million a minute.

What's that mean to you?

It means almost $30,000 in debt for each man, woman, child and infant in the United States.

Another way of looking at it is that it's growing at $4.67 per day per person or, $1,700 per year per person. So, we're each $30,000 in debt right now, but next year it'll be $31,700, etc. It's enough to almost make me want to have another Clinton in the White House. Almost.

Re:

[andy314159pi]

Another way of looking at it is that it's growing at $4.67 per day per person

This is terribly disconcerting.

All of this makes me wonder what percentage of this debt is caused by the Iraq war.

Re:

[Dannon]

Here's the real scary thought:

Even if you take Defense spending completely out of the equation, federal spending has risen faster under Bush [boortz.com] than under any other recent president.

Back when Clinton had the White House, and the Republicans had Congress, they limited each other. Congress always sent him a smaller budget than he asked for. But they've always sent Bush a bigger budget than he asks for, he threatens vetoes to try and get them to cut it down, but then he goes and signs it anyway. And it hasn't got

yup

[Bill Dog]

As if the looming rapid rise in entitlement spending won't be enough to kill us on its own, interest payments on the national debt are supposed to rise even faster, and much faster.

TFA's analogy of consumer maxed-out credit cards and adjustable-rate interest-only mortgages on more home than we can afford is right on -- how govt. manages its finances is just a proportionally enlarged version of how its citizens do. Live for today, have everything we want, and worry about tomorrow then.