Statistics: National Debt
Just thought people might like to know. As of August 1, 2005 our national debt is $7,869,521,621,947.05 (that's over $7.8 trillion). To give you some perspective, U.S. GDP in 2004 was around $11.75 trillion. Total tax reciepts for the Federal Government in 2004 were about $1.8 trillion. Here's a chart for the numerically impared:
This tells me the following things:
If the Federal government did nothing but collect taxes and pay debt, ceteris paribus, it would take about five or six years to pay down the national debt (remember, we're being charged interest on this).
When we did run a surplus, it was around $200-$300 billion a year. So even if we returned to the rouring 90's, and elected a divided government that cancelled out each others programs and tax cuts, then it would still take us around 30 to 50 years to pay down the national debt.
Just saying.
Source: U.S. Treasury
Hat Tip: Calculated Risk (a good econo-politcal blog).
This tells me the following things:
If the Federal government did nothing but collect taxes and pay debt, ceteris paribus, it would take about five or six years to pay down the national debt (remember, we're being charged interest on this).
When we did run a surplus, it was around $200-$300 billion a year. So even if we returned to the rouring 90's, and elected a divided government that cancelled out each others programs and tax cuts, then it would still take us around 30 to 50 years to pay down the national debt.
Just saying.
Source: U.S. Treasury
Hat Tip: Calculated Risk (a good econo-politcal blog).
Labels: Government
posted by SomeGuyInDC @ 7:15 PM
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