Guess what: we are ALL headed for BANKRUPTCY

[Jeffersons Ghost]

The National Debt is

$8.2 Trillion!

In Fiscal Year 2005, the Republican controlled U.S. Government spent $352 Billion of your money on interest payments to the holders of the National Debt, which included Iraq, Iran and China. Compare that to NASA at $15 Billion, Education at $61 Billion, and Department of Transportation at $56 Billion. For the current FY06, we've already spent $174 billion on interest payments!

Budget Deficit vs. National Debt

Suppose you want to spend more money this month than your income and create a situation called a "budget deficit." To offset the deficit you borrow and must pay interest on the new debt. If next month you lack enough money to cover your spending it creates another deficit, causing you to borrow even more, and you'll still have to pay the interest on the original loan. If you have a deficit every month, you keep borrowing and your debt continues to grow. Soon the interest payment on loans is bigger than any other item in your budget. Eventually, all you can do is pay the interest payment, with no funding for anything else. This situation is known as bankruptcy.

Social Security is not part of the Federal Budget general fund. It is a separate account and has its own source of income. Social Security payments do not go into the general fund, they go in the Social Security trust fund, and should NOT be counted as general revenue. The trust fund is supposed to be used to pay future benefits. But....keep reading....

Currently, there is more coming into Social Security than is being paid out to beneficiaries. What's left over is routinely being spent as if it were general budget revenue. Government agencies using that money promise to pay it back (IOUs). All of the money in the Social Security Trust Fund has been spent! That's part of the National Debt. So Social Security is now just a very large tax collection tool.