What Federal Debt?

One of the issues that the politicians ran with this election year is that we need give money to third world countries to help educate their children. While this is a very admirable goal, I wonder how we can afford to give money to other countries while we are so deeply in debt.

The Federal debt is approximately 10 trillion dollars, and climbing. This is what it looks like: $10,000,000,000,000. I had to look the number up because I didn’t know how many zeroes to add, which puts my American education into question. What about you? Do you know enough math to check if I’m wrong?

Test scores are showing that many other countries are higher than us in math and science, foreign language and various other subjects. At the same time, Federal funding for our schools have reached record lows, and, as a result, many schools have flipped the burden of textbook and supply buying to parents so that they can cover other costs. So what about our schools, Uncle Sam? Do we have any money for them?

I sit and ponder this while I decide what to pay: my dentist bill or my cable bill. I cannot afford cable. And yet like any good American, I still want it. I decided on paying my cable bill, since they can shut that off but can't take out my dental work. I hope. I am going to pay the dentist, I tell myself, just not right now. Many American families are doing what I’m doing right now: deciding which bills they can pay, and which ones that they'll put aside for later.

I wanted to see how I was doing compared to everyone else, so I checked online to see what the average personal debt is in America. In 2007, it was approximately $122,000 per household. The breakdown was interesting: among other things, Internet sites listed mortgage payments, car payments, and Christmas shopping to be our highest spending.

It appears to me that our representatives are doing exactly what we are doing: spending money we don’t have. More money goes out than tax money comes in. And since the Federal government represents us, we are responsible for what they do. Okay, so considering there are 305,325,163 people in America, and we owe $10 trillion dollars to foreign investors, that leaves each American with a bill of…carry the one…$32,751.96. Oh, and interest increases that amount every single day. $32,751.96 plus $122,000 plus our regular taxes plus interest. I really wish I had better math skills. Then I could add that up.

Whatever that adds up to, I’m very certain we can’t afford to pay it. Not without a complete reversal of our spending habits. Not without a re-write of our Federal budget. Not without a tax increase. No wonder our politicians would rather talk about Iraq, whether abortion should still be legal, and any other controversial subject than talk about the budget. No wonder our news sources would rather go into too much detail about the local street crime. Who wants to deal with that big, complicated, and worse, boring mess? I know I’d rather watch Dancing with the Stars than contemplate exactly what needs to be cut out of the budget. And I don’t even like that show.

It won’t go away. We need to talk about this. We’re going to have to turn off the cable. And cut down the military spending. That nice piece of social security you had your eye on, and even put in for a few down payments? Some of us won’t be getting it. We’re going to have to start talking about tough choices, most of which are not nearly as interesting as the ones I’ve mentioned above. But if we’re going to have a discussion about the budget, I want to be part of it. Don’t you?