TMI.... Way TMI...
Sep. 16th, 2003 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sethrakSometimes my political science geekiness can be downright painful.
I was reading a newsarticle on Slate.com about the accounting tricks Bush and Congress as a whole are trying to pull in order to finance the war and still claim to be holding to their earlier claims that they haven't raised spending. Methods which the author compared to Enron's accounting procedures, but I don't feel like ranting about that just now. Appended to the article was a link to the US Treasury's website on the National Debt.
The nation's total debt is close to 7 trillion. My head swims trying to think of that big a number. In an attempt to break it down more easily, I put the exact amount into a calc, then went to the US Census website to see what the estimated US population is. It's close to three hundred million. I divided the debt by the population as of 2000.
Every man, woman, and child in the US has 24,198.82$ worth of debt.
O_O And that's just for the debt as of today. They adjust the website's figures daily based on info received from various banks across the country.
Don't most individual citizens declare bankruptcy when they have credit card debt that high? I don't think I've ever made close to that much in a single year in my life. I realize we're not literally indvidually responsible for 'our' portion of the National Debt - and thank God for that. But still. Ye flipping gods!
How the hell can Bush keep pushing for tax cuts in the face of this? Shouldn't he be focusing on spending cuts and efficiencies in government? He's a Republican! I can concede he'll have social policies I decry, environmental policies that I loathe and abhor, and foreign relations policies that I can't entirely agree with. But I ought to be able to count on a Republican President for some fiscal responsibility and conservatism in spending, damn it! Grrr.....
I was reading a newsarticle on Slate.com about the accounting tricks Bush and Congress as a whole are trying to pull in order to finance the war and still claim to be holding to their earlier claims that they haven't raised spending. Methods which the author compared to Enron's accounting procedures, but I don't feel like ranting about that just now. Appended to the article was a link to the US Treasury's website on the National Debt.
The nation's total debt is close to 7 trillion. My head swims trying to think of that big a number. In an attempt to break it down more easily, I put the exact amount into a calc, then went to the US Census website to see what the estimated US population is. It's close to three hundred million. I divided the debt by the population as of 2000.
Every man, woman, and child in the US has 24,198.82$ worth of debt.
O_O And that's just for the debt as of today. They adjust the website's figures daily based on info received from various banks across the country.
Don't most individual citizens declare bankruptcy when they have credit card debt that high? I don't think I've ever made close to that much in a single year in my life. I realize we're not literally indvidually responsible for 'our' portion of the National Debt - and thank God for that. But still. Ye flipping gods!
How the hell can Bush keep pushing for tax cuts in the face of this? Shouldn't he be focusing on spending cuts and efficiencies in government? He's a Republican! I can concede he'll have social policies I decry, environmental policies that I loathe and abhor, and foreign relations policies that I can't entirely agree with. But I ought to be able to count on a Republican President for some fiscal responsibility and conservatism in spending, damn it! Grrr.....
