Political clash expected soon over rising U.S. $12 trillion dollar debt

[unhappycamper]

Political clash expected soon over rising U.S. $12 trillion dollar debt
By Rob Hotakainen | McClatchy Newspapers


WASHINGTON — In the past, members of Congress never have been particularly eager to remind the public that they regularly vote to raise the ceiling on the national debt, which now exceeds $12 trillion.

That's $12,000,000,000,000.

The debt has more than doubled since 2002, and in the last two years it's been rising at a clip of more than $3.8 billion a day. Each U.S. citizen now has a share that's estimated at more than $39,000.

With so much red ink, Congress has been racing to keep up. In the last eight years, members have voted seven times to increase the statutory debt limit to allow more borrowing, oftentimes doing it quietly, attaching the measure to broader spending bills to avoid an unpleasant debate.

That could change in December, when Senate Democrats and Republicans alike are expected to resist the latest plan to raise the ceiling by nearly $1 trillion.


Rest of article at: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/washington/story/79679.html



unhappycamper comment: Double stacked pallets of $100 dollar bills:

[no_hypocrisy]

1. That's staggering

[notesdev]

2. Nice demo

and to think someone actually unrecced this, like an unemployed compulsive spender who doesn't want to acknowledge that his credit card has a limit.

[tabbycat31]

3. where was this outrage when Bush was spending like a drunken sailor?

[Toots]

4. Imagine if Interest rates go up even a single percentage point

Interest on our Debt is already at about the same level as the Defense budget and both of those amounts are just money being thrown away IMO. Imagine how well off this country would be if we eliminated the debt and reduced spending on Defense by 75%..