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To Infinity and Beyond

Published 10/09/08 Craig Harrington - Print Article
E-mail - editor@economyincisis.org

As our government wandered listlessly into this economic recession and financial crisis, one thing seemed to go unnoticed: the ballooning national debt. Our debt is skyrocketing; adding well over $1 billion each day, yet no one seems to think it is a problem, as reported by The Huffington Post.

The U.S. Government now borrows nearly $10 million every minute. This is precisely why our national debt crossed the $10 trillion threshold for the first time. The famous “National Debt Clock” in Times Square has run out of digits forcing the operator, the Durst Organization, to remove the dollar sign and replace it with the number “1.” The Durst Organization is now refurbishing the clock to allow up to one quadrillion dollars – a quadrillion is a thousand trillion, a trillion is a thousand billion, and so on. This is a rather bleak outlook for our future budgetary prospects if we are already preparing for our debt obligations to be a hundred times more than their current all-time record.

Most media outlets have been so distracted by coverage of the Treasury and Federal Reserve bailouts, which combine to total well over $1 trillion in expenditures, that they have completely over-looked other equally staggering statistics. Furthermore, after forcing the various bailouts through Congress – against the wishes of the American people – the government failed to explain its plan to pay for this massive new wave of expenses.

Without drastic alterations to spending and tax policies, the only available outcome is to borrow the money from elsewhere. The U.S. is already hugely indebted to many nations around the world; several of which are openly hostile to our ideology and interests. Even in the wake of an economic crisis, responsible spending seems both logical and rational. The United States government seems to be neither.

As we spend ourselves into the abyss we must remember that this trend did not begin with the current administration. Our nation has, as policy, accepted and encouraged the accumulation of gigantic sums of debt for nearly thirty years. We have spent beyond our means domestically and abroad, we have allowed overseas interests to pickoff our wealth producing industries, we have invested little in our education and infrastructure. In essence, we have set ourselves up for a failure of epic proportions. The debt is merely a sign of the times.

Source The Huffington Post:

The national debt broke $10 trillion on Sept. 30, but honestly there was so much going on that we can forgive everyone for being distracted. Including us.

...

With a billion dollars, you could keep about 45,000 people in a four-year college for a year -- or, depending on their behavior, in jail. The College Board says private tuition and fees average $22,218 per year; the Bureau of Justice Statistics says the average cost per inmate is $22,650 per year. With a trillion dollars, you could cover tuition for 45 million people

...

We're adding to the debt at mind-boggling rates. In fact we're spending more on interest on the national debt than we're spending on the Iraq war. For 2008, the deficit was projected to be more than $400 billion - but that was before the Wall Street bailout. Not only did the Congressional Budget Office project a $400 billion deficit this year, they also anticipated a $400 billion deficit, next year, and the year after that, with further deficits for the next decade.

...

At no point during the ragged, torturous congressional debate did we really talk about how the government's going to pay for this. No one's talking about tax increases or spending cuts to cover it. And when politicians don't specify how they're going to pay for something, that means they're going to borrow.

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