We all know we have to pay taxes to the federal government. Most of us believe taxes are too high. But what we are paying in taxes is far less than what we are letting our federal government spend.
As a result, we have a huge national debt of $13.6 trillion!
How can we really understand such a figure? It doesn’t seem to bother President Barack Obama and a majority of the members of Congress that we are having to pay massive interest on that debt, while it is growing bigger.
Our national debt began with the American Revolution, when early Americans had to borrow $75 million to win our independence.
President George Washington, in his Farewell Address, urged that we use debt “sparingly as possible, avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace.”
Well, we haven’t followed Washington’s advice very well, have we?
Today, Obama and a majority of the members of Congress are presiding over our $13.6 trillion national debt – and are adding to it tremendously and irresponsibly each year!
What would each of us have to pay to eliminate the national debt?
It would it take more than $43,000 from each of us!
All individuals do not pay taxes, however. Children don’t, for instance. Family incomes are taxed as a unit for one tax return. So what would it take “per taxpayer” to eliminate the national debt?
That shocking figure to eliminate the debt is $122,172!
We’re not even trying to reduce the debt, however. But is it responsible to keep adding to our debt?
President Franklin D. Roosevelt said disarmingly, “We only owe it to ourselves.” But that’s not true today.
Did you know that we – the government of the United States of America – owe Communist China $868.4 billion?
We owe Japan almost as much, $836.6 billion.
Should American citizens – and our U.S. officials – be “comfortable” owing so much to foreigners, and “to ourselves,” having to pay so much interest on it?
Unfortunately, we are not about to reduce our national debt. But shouldn’t we at least begin to think about not increasing it?