The Catholic Message Board

The federal budget is around $3 trillion a year, and the single largest line item consumes over a third of that total. $1.2 trillion is the interest on the national debt. The federal government spends more on interest than defense, Social Security, or Medicare.



For May, the government borrowed $154 billion, a number which will while astronomical, is lower than the year before. And for June, the government has a surplus of $27 billion.


Democrats and the media (but then I repeat myself) have spent the last 6 months insisting that not one penny of government spending can ever be cut under any circumstances or else all life on Earth will come to an end. And yet they offer no suggestions on how we can avoid national bankruptcy without massive spending cuts.

Yet despite all the ear shattering catwauling and temper tantrums, the spending cuts have already turned a massive deficit into a surplus. This sounds like success to me.

I don't know how this happened but apparently I put this in the wrong forum

It's in the right one now.

Recently I have become fascinated by the phenomenon of pervasive and exploding personal debt ... across all demographics. The most obvious facets are student loans, cars, and credit cards. The attitude, personal and national, seems to be, in the immortal words of Scarlet O'Hara -- "I can't think about that right now... I'll think about that tomorrow."

I could ruminate on all sorts of currents pervasive in contemporary society, but I offer one -- someone else is obliged to take care of it and that someone else cannot never be me. In terms of national debt, that sentiment seems to be expressed as -- there are special classes which the Government is obliged to take care of and one of those classes is me.

The expectation that student debt should be forgiven is based upon many good reasons. They boil down to that paying one's debts is very inconvenient. The Lannister's would not do well in our society.

"Fiddle-dee-dee!"

Debt worldwide is estimated at $213 trillion, which is 300-400% greater than the known wealth that is believed to exist on the planet, currently estimated to be around $60-$80 trillion.

I recall a factoid.

Circa 1900 the GNP of Argentina and the US were just about the same. Since then, Argentina has repudiated its national debt several times; the US never has. See where the two stand today.