It’s fitting that this milestone occurred during the Democrat Convention. Obama promised he’d cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office. Instead he increased it by over 50%.
Change you can believe in.
Tag Archives: spiraling debt
Japan to overtake China as top foreign owner of U.S. debt
Oh the world of high finance, where one debt-ridden nation can buy the debt of another debt-ridden nation.
(CNSNews.com) – After a 9.0 earthquake struck off the coast of Japan last March and sent a tsunami crashing into the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, causing a Japanese national emergency, some worried the Japanese would stop buying U.S. government debt—or even sell off some of what they already owned—thus precipitating a spike in the interest rates on that debt.
In fact, according to data published by the U.S. Treasury Department, Japan has done just opposite, buying more U.S. government debt–even as China has started to decrease its holdings of U.S. debt.
Data from the most recent 8 months published by the Treasury indicate that between the last day of June 2011 and the last day of February 2012, entities in Japan increased their holdings of U.S. Treasury securities from $881.6 billion to $1.0959 trillion. At the same time, entities in the People’s Republic of China decreased their holdings of U.S. Treasury securities from $1.307 trillion to $1.1789 trillion.
In other words, in just eight months, the Japanese increased their net holdings of U.S. government debt by $214.3 billion while the Chinese decreased theirs by $128.1 billion. On average, from the end of June through February (the last month for which data has been reported), the Japanese have closed the gap between their holdings of U.S. debt and China’s holdings of U.S. debt by about $53.13 billion per month.
At the end of June 2011, the Chinese owned $425.4 billion more in U.S. government debt than the Japanese. By the end of this February, the Chinese owned only $83 billion more than the Japanese. If the June-through-February trend continued through March and April–for which data has not yet been reported–the Japanese may have already overtaken the Chinese in ownership of U.S. debt. Continue reading
Video: Rick Santelli blasts Obama Buffet rule – “How are my kids’ opportunities affected by how many millionaires there are?!”
Speaking truth to Libs.
“How are my kids’ opportunities affected by how many millionaires there are? You know what affects opportunity? $15.6 trillion (in debt)!”
Via Gateway Pundit – Rick Santelli is known for his epic Tea party rant, ripping up the Obama Mortgage plan and recently exposing false job numbers. Now Santelli rips the Buffett Rule live on CNBC.
Apr 12, 2012 by leepresser – CNBC’s Rick Santelli, who sounded the trumpet blast that started the Tea Party movement, uses math and actual numbers to explain why taxing the rich will not generate sufficient income to offset the current U.S. government deficit.
U.S. Debt exceeds that of the entire Eurozone and U.K. combined
Nothing to see here. Move along…
Weekly Standard via Weasel Zippers
As the chart shows, America’s debt is currently $15.1 trillion, while the Eurozone (which includes France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, the U.K., and others) has a combined debt of $12.7 trillion. (All dollar amounts are in U.S. dollars, and the data refers to closing 2011 numbers.)
The Eurozone is larger than the United States, so America’s debt per capita also exceeds the Eurozone’s. According to the Census Bureau, the U.S. has a population of 313 million, whereas the Eurozone has a population in excess of 331 million.
Video: The 2012 National Debt Road Trip
This is a clever way of getting your head around the enormous amount of spending by the federal government, and especially that of the Obama regime.
10000Pennies on Apr 4, 2012
How do the Obama deficits compare with past presidents? And what is his plan moving forward? This video depicts the National Debt as a road trip and visualizes how fast the most recent US Presidents have increased the debt.
This is an update for the National Debt Road Trip video I made in 2009.
For more details on how I got this data and answers to commonly asked questions, see my blog post on this at
New Paul Ryan Video: The Path to Prosperity Budget – Your Country. Your Future. Your Choice.
Well done.
Paul Ryan speaks frank commons sense. Do enough people in Washington have any? Do enough Americans? As for the former, we know the answer to that is a resounding guffaw. As for the American people, we’ll soon find out…
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) the Chairman of the House Budget Committee discusses the Republican budget plan of less debt, lower taxes, and greater opportunity for generations to come. Or, we can choose as a nation to continue down the Democrats’ spend your way to hell plan that kills jobs, increases taxes, and ruins opportunity for future generations.
Byron York has more on the Republican plan. Tuesday marks the 1,056th day since Congress passed a yearly budget for the federal government.
(h/t Gateway Pundit)
Video: Debt for as far as the eye can see
Doomed.
CBNnewsonline on Mar 12, 2012 Everything Americans produce in a year, it adds up to $16 trillion. Now for the first time in its history, the U.S. owes its creditors that same amount.
Obama regime sets record deficit in February
It’s absolutely criminal what this regime is doing to America’s future.
Washington Times (h/t Weasel Zippers)
The federal government recorded its worst monthly deficit in history in February, according to a preliminary report Wednesday from the Congressional Budget Office that said the deficit in fiscal year 2012 is already more than half a trillion dollars.
The CBO’s figures show that despite repeated efforts to trim spending, the government has borrowed 42 cents of every dollar it spent during the first five months of this fiscal year.
The nonpartisan agency projected the government will run a deficit of $229 billion in February, the highest monthly figure ever. The previous high was $223 billion a year ago, in February 2011.
It is the 41st straight month the government has run a deficit — itself a record streak that dates back to the final months of President George W. Bush’s tenure. Before now, the longest streak on record was 11 months.
For all of fiscal year 2012, which began Oct. 1, the budget analysts said the government has raised $869 billion in revenue but spent $1.5 trillion so far.
Congress and President Obama sparred for most of last year on how to cut spending, but the CBO’s figures show that spending has actually remained flat in 2012 once the timing of certain payments has been adjusted.
Mr. Obama last month released a budget that showed the government averaging $1 trillion deficits for the rest of this decade. House Republicans are working to write their own budget now, while Senate Democratic leader Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada has said he doubts his chamber will write a budget this year.
Clarifying graph of the day: 31 years of debt and four presidential terms
A graph is worth a trillion words.
From Doug Ross@Journal
• The vaunted “Clinton Surplus” was, in fact, the work of a GOP House that was willing to fight for fiscal sanity (current Ohio Governor John Kasich was one of the architects of the surplus); in addition, two events conspired to turbocharge the economy — in spite of Clinton, not because of him.
• Liberals like to talk about Reagan’s deficits, but they ignore the fact that every budget Reagan ever sent to the Democrat-controlled House was declared “dead on arrival”. Reagan supported a Balanced Budget Amendment, sought to eliminate useless agencies like the Department of Education, and otherwise believed in the U.S. spending within its means.
• Since the Democrats took control of Congress in 2007, they have jammed through the most fiscally irresponsible spending programs in world history (I won’t use the word “budget”, because they’ve refused to propose a budget for roughly 1,029 days).
In short, Democrats never propose less spending than Republicans — unless we’re talking about defense. And now, after four years of Democrat-controlled spending, the federal government is forced to borrow 40 cents for every dollar it spends.
And that, my friends, is bound to end badly since the hard left Democrat Party and the RINOs appear ready to turn the spending on auto-pilot — right into the tarmac.
The Obama record in one easy chart
Everything that should be up is down, and everything that should be down is up. A country upside-down and inside-out. Four more years of Obama and company, and we’ll be down and out.
via Doug Ross
Seasons greetings! US debt-to-GDP passes 100%
Watershed.
Zero Hedge (h/t Weasel Zippers) – With precisely one year left for the world and all of its inhabitants, at least according to the Mayans, not to mention on the day of the Winter Solstice, it is only fitting that US debt, net of all settlements for all already completed bond auctions, is now at precisely $15,182,756,264,288.80.
Why is this relevant? Because the latest annualized US GDP, according to the BEA, was $15,180,900,000.00. Which means that, as of today, total US debt to GDP is 100.012%. Congratulations America: you are now in the triple digit “debt to GDP” club!
I. Total debt as of December 20: $15,131,979,264,288,80 (source)
II. Net cash settlement of all completed auctions: $50,777,000,000 (source)
III. Total GDP: $15,180,900,000,000 (source)
=> Total Debt/GDP= $15,182,756,264,288.80/$15,180,900,000,000 = 100.012%
Video: 15 Trillion
A new RNC political ad showing what a fraud Barack Obama has been about the debt. He promised to cut the debt by half after 4 years. Instead, the debt has ballooned by a stunning 41% in just 3 years.
h/t Rightscoop
U.S. debt within days of breaking $15 Trillion
That’s a phenomenal amount of debt. It’s so enormous that one can’t even wrap his mind around it.
ABC News — It will be the latest sobering economic milestone that few were hoping to see: The U.S. national debt — any day now — will soar above the $15 trillion mark.
As of this writing, the total debt is $14.97 trillion, so moving beyond the symbolic $15 trillion is a foregone conclusion. When the unwelcome milestone is reached, it will come at a volatile time both in this country and abroad.
Across the Atlantic, President Obama is in Cannes, France, for the G-20 summit that takes place as Europe is trying to finalize a bailout for debt-ridden Greece.
Introducing the scariest clock in the world – The World Debt Clock
Gloom and doom just got gloomier and doomier.
Yet, it gets much worse…
“Should one add the NPV of all “welfare state” obligations (pensions, retirement, healthcare), the number will be well over quarter of a quadrillion dollars.”
Zero Hedge (h/t Weasel Zippers) – By now everyone has had a chance to play with the US debt clock. But what about its global cousin? Courtesy of The Economist, we now have a convenient way to track the hundreds of millions in dollars added each and every hour by the global governments who see to spur global deleveraging by, you guessed it, adding more debt.
Yes, in the process the world’s sovereigns are transferring default risk away from global corporations to sovereigns, but few in the #OWS crowd appear to have yet figured out this rather disturbing and very insidious usurpation of sovereignty by the global corporatocracy, so said risk and leverage transfer will continue until such time as any and all paper backed by these insolvent corporate shells (f/k/a countries) is completely worthless.
Regardless, one should not forget that like in the sandalone case, the “debt clock” below only tracks on balance sheet debt. Should one add the NPV of all “welfare state” obligations (pensions, retirement, healthcare), the number will be well over quarter of a quadrillion dollars. Have fun funding that, never mind paying it off. . .
Play with the global debt clock here.
Video: The price of a U.S. credit rating downgrade
Downgrades have consequences, not one of which is pleasant. Only if the downgrade pressures congress and the White House to get serious about the debt, and it begins a take-no-prisoners approach to spending, might the fiscal slap in the face later look like a blessing in disguise. But we all know that that ain’t gonna happen.
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Daily Caller – The Cato Institute just released this video explaining the possible consequences to a major ratings agency downgrading the US debt. From the video:
“But the rating agencies have explicitly said that the core issue risking the US credit rating isn’t the debt ceiling, but projected spending in the coming years and the growing risk of a default. One small rating agency, Egan Jones has already downgraded US debt, stating its concerns about the high level of debt to GDP — in excess of 100 percent, compared to Canada’s 35 percent. The plan adopted recently by congress and the president will not reduce spending or debt. In fact, the plan would allow the government to rack up several trillion dollars in new debt over the coming decade.”
Video: The weight of money
This clever video was one of the entries in Powerline’s recent contest for the best depiction of the size of America’s obscene amount of debt.
I’ve posted a few of them already. This is another good one, looking at the debt in terms of weight. When we hear of the “heavy burden,” debt puts on our children and grandchildren, that’s an understatement.
(h/t Rightscoop)
The truth hurts chart of the day
Both parties suck, but one party sucks a hell of a lot more. And a split congress where Republicans ‘compromise’ always means spend-spend and lose-lose for America.
• The vaunted “Clinton Surplus” was, in fact, the work of a GOP House that was willing to fight for fiscal sanity (current Ohio Governor John Kasich was one of the architects of the surplus); in addition, two events conspired to turbocharge the economy — in spite of Clinton, not because of him.
• Liberals like to talk about Reagan’s deficits, but they ignore the fact that every budget Reagan ever sent to the Democrat-controlled House was declared “dead on arrival”. Reagan supported a Balanced Budget Amendment, sought to eliminate useless agencies like the Department of Education, and otherwise believed in the U.S. spending within its means.
• Since the Democrats took control of Congress in 2007, they have jammed through the most fiscally irresponsible spending programs in world history (I won’t use the word “budget”, because they’ve refused to propose a budget for roughly 822 days).
In short, Democrats never propose less spending than Republicans — unless we’re talking about defense. And now, after four years of Democrat-controlled spending, the federal government is forced to borrow 40 cents for every dollar it spends.
And that, my friends, is bound to end badly since the hard left Democrat Party and the RINOs appear ready to turn the spending on auto-pilot — right into the tarmac.
How big is the U.S. debt? Entire world’s GDP couldn’t cover it
Wanna cry?
LearnLiberty – Economics professor Antony Davies illustrates the size the U.S. federal government’s debt and unfunded obligations. He breaks down the total U.S. debt and obligations into parts and compares them with the size of the GDP of countries around the world, showing the magnitude of America’s fiscal situation.
Throwing Uncle Sam over the cliff – a video retort to granny ad
Good one.
A comeback to the despicable ad put out by fearmongering Democrats where granny was dumped over a cliff by Paul Ryan.
UncleSamAmerica - The dollar is going down, and if we don’t change our course, “America the Beautiful” will soon be “America the Bankrupt”. Now, some people say that the conservative plan to slow the growth of government is akin to shoving grandma off a cliff… But who is really shoving who?
h/t Iowntheworld
Debt ceiling made easy
First, a good little video explaining why the Democrats’ fear-mongering about a devastating default is a pile of demagoguing donkery manure.
Next, Doug Ross sums up the situation nicely:
Doug Ross Journal - Under what conditions should conservatives support raising the debt ceiling?
That’s a question I’ve been asking myself for a while.
Here’s my take.
The 111th Congress and President Obama put in place the largest deficit spending package in world history. They created a “stimulus” program — only six percent of which was spent on infrastructure, by the way — and then refused to pass a budget for 812 days (and counting). That was their way of institutionalizing the “stimulus” package as part of the baseline budget — putting that huge, unconscionable loan from our children on autopilot.
It is this insanity that led rating agencies the world over to either downgrade – or threaten to downgrade – America’s credit rating.
Never before, in all of American history, has a political party set the nation on such a course. It is literally economic suicide. And yet that is precisely what the modern Democrat Party has done.
It’s been 812 days since the Democrats have even proposed a budget. And now President Obama claims he wants “balance”. Balance? Balance? You mean balance like Obamacare, which was stuffed down the American people’s throats – replete with secret negotiations, thousands of pages no one bothered to read, passed at midnight, and that slashed half-a-trillion dollars from Medicare? You mean balance like that?
In that spirit, here are my “balanced” conditions for raising the debt ceiling. Pick one, Marxists:
- The Senate ratifies the Cut, Cap & Balance Act already passed by the House; the President signs it; and ***voila*** the debt ceiling is raised.
- The Senate passes the Ryan plan; the President signs it; and ***voila*** the debt ceiling is raised.
- The House and Senate cut annual, discretionary, non-defense spending by $1 trillion – and that, by the way, is basically the amount of the failed “stimulus” program – the President then signs it; and ***voila*** the debt ceiling is raised.
Those are the only conditions under which the House should yield on the debt ceiling.
Here’s the political reality:
- Where is President Obama’s budget?
- Where is the Democrats’ budget?
This crisis is entirely of Obama’s making. The deficit spending. The failure to produce a budget. The failure to lead.
It’s all in Obama’s hands. And he is, as usual, “leading from behind”.
Spenditol: The answer to government spending
This video is by Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee (CWALAC).
“Is your conscience strong enough for Spenditol?”
Via Hotair, which writes:
CWA will air this ad on television in four states: Florida, Montana, Nebraska, and Ohio. These states have key Senate races in 2012, which conservatives would like to frame as a referendum on spending and debt, much the way they successfully did in 2010′s midterms. The ads will also run on the national cable news outlets. That’s a pretty impressive commitment (especially for a 60-second spot as opposed to a 30-second spot), but then again, this particular ad is impressively written and produced, too.
Every single Democrat voted against raising debt ceiling when Bush was president
What a bunch of hypocritical hacks.
(h/t GWP) - Drudge posted this debt vote reminder from 5 years ago.
Every single Democrat opposed raising the debt limit when George W. Bush was president.
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Every one of them, including Barack Hussein Obama.
Now that Obama has TRIPLED the deficit, they are all in favor of raising the debt ceiling.
So, borrowing under a Republican gets a collective, No way! But, borrowing 3 times more under a Democrat gets a, Hell yes!
CIA: U.S. current account balance ranks dead last out of 191 countries
Well this can’t be a good thing.
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WND - The United States ranks last among all nations in the world when it comes to its current account balance, astronomically lower than every other economy, the CIA reports.
According to the most recent figures in the CIA World Factbook, America sits at the bottom of 191 nations, with a listed account balance of an astonishing negative $561 billion.
The next closest nation to the U.S. is Spain, and though it’s ranked at No. 190, its account balance is negative $66 billion, far less than the American figure.
The CIA defines current account balance as “a country’s net trade in goods and services, plus net earnings from rents, interest, profits, and dividends, and net transfer payments (such as pension funds and worker remittances) to and from the rest of the world during the period specified.”
Topping the list on the positive side is China, with an account balance of $272 billion. It’s followed by Japan, Germany, Russia and Norway.
Rounding out the top ten are Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Singapore and Taiwan.
Besides the U.S. and Spain at the bottom of the list, the remainder of the worst ten are Italy, France, Brazil, United Kingdom, Canada, Turkey, Australia and India.
Greece, which has been making headlines for its financial problems for months and has seen economic-related violence escalate in recent days, is ranked at 180 with an account balance of negative $17 billion.
The U.S. is not at the bottom of every CIA list. In fact, it’s ranked No. 1 in the world when it comes to external debt.
With a whopping $13.98 trillion as of June 2010, the U.S. holds the dubious distinction of top debtor, just ahead of the European Union, whose debt is listed at $13.72 trillion.
The top 20 countries with the highest debt can be seen in this CIA chart:
The U.S. ranks second only to the European Union when it comes to gross domestic product, or GDP. The U.S. GDP is estimated at $14.66 trillion for 2010.
When it comes to unemployment, the U.S. is about in the middle of the pack, ranking 106 out of 200, with a jobless rate of 9.7 percent.
The Central Intelligence Agency notes on its website that it’s “an independent U.S. government agency responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior U.S. policymakers.”
Marco Rubio: “We Don’t Need New Taxes, We Need New Taxpayers!”
Florida Senator Marco Rubio (Repub. Conservative) has put into words what few other Republicans seem able to do. He shreds the myth that by raising taxes on the “millionaires and billionaires,” as Obama keeps repeating, that this would solve America’s debt problem.
Rubio says, “I have never met a job creator who told me that they were waiting for the next tax increase before they started growing their business. I’ve never met a single job creator who has ever said to me I can’t wait ’til government raises taxes again so I can go out and create a job.”
Loads of common sense from the common man. You go, Marco!
Click to Watch
Let’s stop talking about new taxes and start talking about new taxpayers, which means jobs. This debt is the No. 1 issue on everyone’s minds and rightfully so. It is a major issue, but everywhere else, in the real world, the No. 1 issue on people’s minds is jobs. And I tell you, every other problem facing America — a mortgage crisis, a home foreclosure crisis, this debt problem — all of these issues get easier to deal with if people are gainfully employed across America. And the impact that unemployment is having across this country is devastating. …
Our job here [in Congress] is to do everything we can to make it easier for them to find a job, not harder. And I think that’s what we have to do when it comes to ‘a balanced approach’ and when we talk about revenue. We don’t need new taxes, we need new taxpayers, people who are gainfully employed, making money, paying into the tax system and then we need a government that has the discipline to take that additional revenue and use it to pay down the debt and never grow it again. …
So you look at all these taxes that are being proposed and here’s what I say: I say we should analyze every single one of them through the lens of job creation, issue No. 1 in America. I want to know which one of these taxes they’re proposing will create jobs. I want to know how many jobs will be created by the planes tax. I want to know how many jobs will be created by the oil company tax that I’ve heard so much about. How many jobs are created by going after the millionaires and billionaires that the president talks about? I want to know! How many jobs do they create? …
I traveled the state of Florida for two years campaigning. I have never met a job creator who told me that they were waiting for the next tax increase before they started growing their business. I’ve never met a single job creator who has ever said to me I can’t wait ’til government raises taxes again so I can go out and create a job. I’m curious to know if they say that in New Hampshire because they don’t say that in Florida. So my view on all that is, I want to know how many of these tax increases the president proposes will create because if they’re not creating jobs and they’re not creating new taxpayers, they’re not solving the problem.
Video: Obama’s WTF debt
Right Change has a new video about the mind-blowingly huge debt that Obama has run up, more than all the other governments in the world – combined.
video h/t Hotairpundit
YouTube description: RightChange.com new video. With the Debt Ceiling issue facing Americans, this video takes a look at how Obama’s “Winning the Future” is bankrupting our country. Americans can’t afford anymore debt – It’s simple math.
That was good, but I like this one even better.
World’s largest bond fund: U.S. in worse financial shape than Greece
Greece has become the economic joke of Europe, but it is the U.S. who is going to die laughing.
U.S. debt and future liabilities is some $100 TRILLION, greater than the combined debt of the entire universe.
CNBC (h/t Weasel Zippers) – When adding in all of the money owed to cover future liabilities in entitlement programs the US is actually in worse financial shape than Greece and other debt-laden European countries, Pimco’s Bill Gross told CNBC Monday.
Much of the public focus is on the nation’s public debt, which is $14.3 trillion. But that doesn’t include money guaranteed for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, which comes to close to $50 trillion, according to government figures.
The government also is on the hook for other debts such as the programs related to the bailout of the financial system following the crisis of 2008 and 2009, government figures show.
Taken together, Gross puts the total at “nearly $100 trillion,” that while perhaps a bit on the high side, places the country in a highly unenviable fiscal position that he said won’t find a solution overnight.
“To think that we can reduce that within the space of a year or two is not a realistic assumption,” Gross said in a live interview. “That’s much more than Greece, that’s much more than almost any other developed country. We’ve got a problem and we have to get after it quickly.”
Gross spoke following a report that US banks were likely to scale back on their use of Treasurys as collateral against derivatives and other transactions. Bank heads say that move is likely to happen in August as Congress dithers over whether to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, according to a report in the Financial Times.
The move reflects increasing concern from the financial community over whether the US is capable of a political solution to its burgeoning debt and deficit problems. Continue…
U.S. debt to the moon and back…twice!
And yet, and yet, no one in the Obama Administration or among the mainstream media thinks we have a problem. They want more debt.
Mars, here we come!
Reuters (h/t Weasel Zippers) – President Ronald Reagan once famously said that a stack of $1,000 bills equivalent to the U.S. government’s debt would be about 67 miles high.
That was 1981. Since then, the national debt has climbed to $14.3 trillion. In $1,000 bills, it would now be more than 900 miles tall.
In $1 bills, the pile would reach to the moon and back twice.
The United States hit its legal borrowing limit on Monday, and the Treasury Department has said the U.S. Congress must raise the debt ceiling by August 2 to avoid a default.
The White House is trying to hammer out a deal with lawmakers to cut federal spending in exchange for a debt-limit increase.
Most people have trouble conceptualizing $14.3 trillion.
Stan Collender, a budget expert at Qorvis Communications, said the biggest sum most Americans have ever handled — in real or play money — is the $15,140 in the original, standard Monopoly board game.
The United States borrows about 185 times that amount each minute.
