THE ACTUAL US TOTAL DEBT
AND HOW TO PAY IT OFF...



For perspective, comparison:

Our whole economy:           $14   Trillion
Our annual budget:                 3.6 Trillion
Current revenues:                   2.1 Trillion
US population                       308 Million
Taxpayers                             217 M

DEBT 
 
For government itself, treasury                                                          $14     Trrillion
For Social Security benefits to be paid                                                17.5
For Medicare to be paid                                                                    89

    Total Debt                                                                                  120.5 Tr

Source:  2009 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Reports.  See discussion of problem at NCPA.org


Debt per person                                $ 391,000
Debt per taxpayer                            $ 555,000

Total debt compared to income, ratio 50+.  Our income is 2% of our debt, which no person could sustain in a personal situation.   We cannot catch up, as we are spending more than our income and not paying down any of our debt.

BUDGET

Budget                                        $3.6 Trillion

Payments required to pay the budger, per year, per taxpayer
  assuming 217 million taxpayers,  including interest but not principal     $16,589


BOTTOMLINE

On average, each taxpayer owes $555,000 on which he/she has to make payments, plus pay average taxes of $16,589 per year BESIDES his/her personal expenses. The numbers don't work - we don't produce enough to do that, unless we truly cut back on lifestyle AND increase productivity for higher incomes.

To pay down the debt, assuming no interest, to get even in 30 years:

                                                                      Person    Taxpayer
Just the National Debt, per year     

COMMENTS:

The unfunded liabilities rose by $5 trillion dollars in 2008.   Note that our total revenue for the US government was about 2.1 trillion.  That would mean we could never catch up. 



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See Printing Money (aka Fed buying our own bonds):  How To Magically Lower The Debt And Increase GDP.