Wow! That's probably the only thing that you can say about it. We're getting final estimates on the federal government's income and expenses for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30th. The experts say that the federal government spent $1.4 trillion more than they took in (source Congressional Budget Office as reported in The Salt Lake Tribune). That's a number that's really hard to get my head around. So I wrote it out: $1,400,000,000,000. (boy that's a lot of zeroes!)
But even writing it out, it's hard to put into any kind of perspective. It occurred to me that maybe I could grasp it if I knew how much of it I was responsible for. So I googled to see how many of us live in these United States. As reported by U.S. News there are 305 million of us (to be precise 305,529,237).
Dividing the $1.4 trillion debt by 305 million people means that during the last 12 months the federal government committed to $4,590 in indebtedness on my behalf. Wow times 2!
I know that it was an unusual year with all the bailouts and stimulus. But, speaking honestly, I wish that they wouldn't commit me and my kids to each repaying $4,590 plus interest in the future.
Then I thought that maybe they wouldn't repay it. After all, they have done much to reduce the federal debt in quite a few years. But even if they don't plan on cutting expenses or raising taxes to repay the debt, the interest payment is $229 a year (assuming 5% interest, which is probably a low estimate). In reality I'll probably have to pay $300 or so every year forever to cover the interest on this year's federal debt.
So as someone who takes debt very seriously I'm having a bit of trouble accepting this news. Given the economy it's been hard not taking on personal debt. But, like many of you, I'm working awfully hard to keep my spending in line with my income.
So if anyone in Washington is listening...please don't take on any more debt in my name. I don't think that I can afford it.
