Why Is a $30 Trillion Debt No Problem?

Covering politics each week on the radio I’ve talked about many issues over the years. But the one elusive topic that all politicians seem to shy away from is our national debt.

Why?

Wouldn’t you think a $30 trillion debt would get at least some lip service rather than crickets?

It’s hard to wrap my feeble mind around that much money. A trillion dollars is one thousand billions, ten thousand millions.

And we find ourselves owing 30 one thousand billions.

Bernie Sander might have mentioned it a time or two during the 2016 election cycle and Elizabeth Warren was all over the banks, but both are strangely silent as the 30 trillion mark is now visible in the rear-view mirror.

What Is Debt?

In our personal lives we know when we owe money right? Every month the mortgage is due, light bill, water, phone, credit cards, etc.

We budget to live within our means. Or to put it another way we live as well as we possibly can with the income we have.

Bankruptcies are currently at 525,000 and 39 million are living in poverty. We have 126 poverty programs that barely move the needle toward relief.

Those who oppose our massive debt always decry, “My kids and grandkids will be stuck with this bill.” I know exactly how they feel.

My parents stuck me with paying off the national interstate highway system and the space program. How can there be an interstate highway in Hawaii?

Maybe that’s another article.

I guess there is good debt and bad debt. But government while living within its means doesn’t seem to be the best stewards of our tax dollars.

Why Do Politicians Ignore Debt?

They ignore it because it’s manageable. No pain — and therein lies the problem. If there is pain, we react, we protest, we riot, even if the pain doesn’t affect everyone.

So, what do I mean when I say the debt is manageable?

Let’s remove some zero and put this debt in real life numbers. Assume you own a 3,000,000 home and the payments on that home are 4,250.00 per month. Your income is $240,000 (or $20,000 a month) would you have a problem making your mortgage payment?

Right now, we have a $30 trillion dollar debt and a $24 trillion dollar income.

For the US Government to stay solvent, we must pay the interest on the debt which is $425 billion. We have 24 thousand billions to pay that $ 425 billion in interest.

Are you beginning to see why politicians keep raising the debt ceiling to keep the government in the gray? To them it’s no big deal — to either party.

Some Final Thoughts

Right now, our debt ratio to GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is 124 percent. We’re in the hole financially. It was 150 percent during WWII. We didn’t pay it off the WWII debt— we outgrew it.

No credit card company in their right mind would give the US government a credit card.

Many people are under the impression that China owns us — they do not. It’s Japan who holds the largest foreign portion of our debt.

We own about 65 percent of the debt to ourselves. It’s in our right pocket and should be in the left pocket.

But if the bulk of the debt is in OUR pockets the politicians are satisfied.

If American voters keep sending eighty-six percent of incumbents back to Washington nothing much will change.

While most American’s are feeling the pain of inflation, higher gas prices, less business profits we still feel handcuffed.

Until Americans really feel pain the torches and pitchforks will remain in the closet, and we’ll continue to worry about who will win “The Masked Singer.”

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