Mega Debt
August 16th, 2007According to the US Treasury Department, from 1776-2000, the first 224 years of U.S. history, 42 U.S. presidents borrowed a combined $1.01 trillion from foreign governments and financial institutions, but in the past four years alone, the Bush administration borrowed $1.05 trillion.
While conservatives may still argue that previous lending has not been adjusted for inflation, the fact that President Bush has borrowed more than all previous 42 Presidents, combined, is difficult to refute. The financial report for the US Government is available online (pdf). Besides the eclipsing effects of the ongoing war, according to the financial report, the federal government’s fiscal exposures from social insurance pledges (which include Social Security and Medicare) alone totaled approximately $50 trillion as of September 30, 2006, an increase of about $4 trillion over September 30, 2005, and up from about $20 trillion as of September 30, 2000. This translates into a current burden of about $170,000 per American or approximately $440,000 per American household.
The US really needs to elect a fiscally conservative President. Related to this piece of information and going back to spending and debts incurred from the current war efforts, the Fox News interview with former President Bill Clinton on September 22, 2006, is an interesting one to assimilate (yes, I know, on Fox News).
