US National Debt

How bad is it?

Some statistics, please! (courtesy of Glenn Beck)

$200 billion is the approximate total amount of write-downs announced so far as a result of the current credit crisis.

$14.1 trillion is the size of the entire U.S. economy

And $53 trillion is (drum roll please) the approximate size of this country's bill for the Social Security and Medicare promises we've made.

A million seconds is 12 days. A billion seconds is 32 years. A trillion seconds is 32,000 years. And 53 trillion seconds? 1.7 million years.

The problem will first make impact in the year 2019 when the Medicaid trust fund becomes insolvent.

Only an immediate 122 percent increase in Medicaid taxes and a 26 percent increase in Social Security taxes can prevent (or more likely, delay) its impact (not very likely!).

US Treasury Secretary:

"Rising costs will ... consume nearly all projected federal revenues ..."

Translation: Every single tax dollar that is sent to Washington will be used to pay for just these two programs.

That means no money is left for anything else. Nothing. No Department of Defense or Homeland Security, no Department of Energy, no Department of Justice, no Environmental Protection Agency.

Former Comptroller General of the United States David Walker tries a different tactic. He writes that our unfunded promises translate into "an IOU of around $455,000 per American household."

PS Check out the current Cost for the War in Iraq.

PPS On Wednesday, April 2, 2008, we find the following (emphasis in the original):

Yes, your tax dollars will be used to bail out BEAR STEARNS

from digg

Today CNBC and other news outlets reported that Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson confirmed what we have suspected. Since this loan was backed by Bear Stearns' worst collateral, worthless assets consisting of subprime mortages, YOUR TAX DOLLARS, $100 PER CITIZEN, WILL BE USED TO BAIL OUT RECKLESS INVESTMENT BANK BEAR STEARNS.