| S T A T S W A T C H : |
U.S. Treasury: National Debt Now Tops
$13.3 TRILLION
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America's Debt Is Rising $ 8.7 Billion EVERY DAY !
Each Man/Woman/Child Currently Owes Nation's Creditors $43,084.
America's Debt Is Rising $ 8.7 Billion EVERY DAY !
Each Man/Woman/Child Currently Owes Nation's Creditors $43,084.
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The Bureau of the Public Debt, an agency of the U.S. Department of Treasury, has as its Mission "to borrow the money needed to operate the federal government and to account for the resulting debt." As such, they are the best source for just how large our National Debt — the amount our Government owes its creditors — has grown. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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T H E D E B T T O D A Y On August 3, 2010 the National Debt ticked past $13.3 Trillion for the first time ever. How much is $13.3 Trillion?
G R A P H I N G T H E D E B T The black line on the graph above maps the Bureau's 4,416 day-by-day data points, showing the movement of the Debt from January 1993 until now. The green line maps the U.S. Gross Domestic Product, as reported quarterly by the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis. At present, our National Debt is 90.4% of GDP.
The blue and red lines at the bottom of the graph show the years that Democrats and Republicans were [P] in the White House, [S] a majority in the Senate, and [H] a majority in the House of Representatives. While the reader may draw whatever conclusions seem warranted about the political issues raised, nevertheless the graph plainly demonstrates a couple of economic facts worth noting. First, the rise of the National Debt leveled off at the end of the Clinton Administration's and the Republican's Congressional "Contract With America" efforts to balance the budget toward the end of the 1990's. It began to rise again (and GDP flattened out) in the aftermath of the attacks on September 11, 2001. Also, by contrast, GDP declined as National Debt rose precipitously following the economic meltdown in late 2008. P R E S I D E N T I A L D E B T Here is a summary of the increase in National Debt levels over the last three Administrations: Clinton: The National Debt during the 8 years of this administration rose an additional $1.5 trillion (+37%). It should be noted that in the last year of the Clinton administration, there was a net $23 billion reduction in the debt. Bush: The National Debt in the 8 years of this administration rose an additional $4.9 trillion (+86%). Obama: The National Debt in the first year of this administration rose from $10.6 trillion to $12.3 trillion (+16%). To put that short time into perspective, the first year of the Clinton administration raised the debt 7% and the first year of the Bush administration raised the debt 3%. In the first year of this administration, the debt rose more than it did in the entire eight years of the Clinton administration. ( NOTE: The above graph shows a slight anomaly in the 107th Congress 2001-2002. For the first five months of 2001, the Senate had 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats, so Vice President Cheney (R) broke the tie. As this had the effect of giving the Republicans a majority, the Senate is shown above as red for that period. However, effective June 6, 2001, Sen. James Jeffords (R-VT) switched to Independent status and announced that he would caucus with the Democrats. This gave the Democrats a one-seat advantage, so from that date until the end of 2002 the Senate is shown in blue. ) |
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| UPDATED: 18 AUGUST 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||