Congrats GOP "Fiscal Conservatives": US Debt now 8 Trillion +

[RobertSeattle]

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

[Walt Starr]

1. See, that's something Joe Barcalounger understands

Joe knows an 8 trillion dollar national debt is bad even if he cannot comprehend what a billion dollars is, let alone a trillion.

[paineinthearse]

11. earlier post in GDP

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2164692&mesg_id=2166559

[rock]

2. Wow! Wouldn't you like to have

that much cash in your wallet!

[ixion]

3. hmmm... and if China makes us pay back 1% of principal every month

our country would be broke.

[MindPilot]

4. Thanks to Klintoon and the tax & spend liberals

Even though Republicans control the entire federal government, they are still powerless to stop Democrat's fiscal irresponsibility.

:sarcasm:

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Ah yes the power of the clenis

you do "owe me" a keyboard

:spray:

[LetsGoMurphys]

5. Just to think the Repubs used to run on

"You can't trust democrats with money." HAHAHHA! How far they have been led astray.

[Lasher]

6. Democratic Superiority, by the Numbers

The party with the best record of serving Republican economic values is the Democrats. It isn't even close.

The Republican values I refer to are universal. We all want prosperity, oppose unemployment, dislike inflation, don't enjoy paying taxes, etc. These values are Republican only in the sense that Republicans are supposed to treasure them more and to be more reluctant to sacrifice them for other goals such as equality and clean air.

Statistics back to 1959 make this clear. A consistent pattern over 45 years cannot be explained by shorter-term factors, such as war or who controls Congress. Maybe presidents can't affect the economy much, but the assumption that they can and do is so prominent in Republican rhetoric that they are stuck with it.

<snip>

Under Republican presidents since 1960, the federal deficit has averaged $131 billion a year. Under Democrats, that figure is $30 billion. In an average Republican year, the deficit has grown by $36 billion. In the average Democratic year it has shrunk by $25 billion. The national debt has gone up more than $200 billion a year under Republican presidents and less than $100 billion a year under Democrats.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20059-2005Apr1.html

[TahitiNut]

7. That's a 50-year high as a percentage of the GDP.

Not since 1954, or so, has the federal debt exceeded 65% of the GDP.

[lapfog_1]

8. that would be

$26,904 for every person in America...

or, assuming that only the under 30 generation will actually pay this
off... and assuming that they have families of 3.5 people... this
would be about $240,000 per family under 30.

Another way to think about it is that if we could tax every person
in our "empire" (think global empires now), we would have to collect
$1,236 per person.

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. How much is $8 trillion?

Imagine bundles, each consisting of 100 George Washingtons. That's a package about 3" tall.
A box (about the size of a photocopier paper box) containing 100 of those bundles is worth $10,000.
A pallet holding 100 of those boxes is worth $1 million. To most of us, a pallet of money would be a lot.

But we don't stop there.

A very large shipping container holding 100 of those pallets is worth $100 million.
A trainload of 100 of those shipping containers is worth $10 billion.
100 trains (10,000 containers) deliver their freight onto a container ship. That ship now holds bundles, boxes, pallets and shipping containers worth $1 trillion.

When our debt comes due, eight of those ships will set sail for China.

Have a nice day.