The US is nearing its credit limit according to Henry Paulson, the treasury secretary. Yes, not only have the past seven years turned us from a budget surplus to being in the hole, that hole is now $8.9 trillion dollars. Trillion. With a “T” to be exact. Or in numbers that’s $8,965,000,000,000 — which is what it will be on 10-1 when the US government will exceed its credit limit. I am not making that up. Yep, we’re about to overdraw our checking account. The Senate has approved raising the limit to $9.82 trillion as a temporary fix, the fifth such increase in the past 6 years. The US has never missed a debt payment and has always upheld “the full faith and credit” motto making our currency stronger.
Everyone wants to know why the dollar is currently hovering at record lows against most major currencies. This is a big part of the answer. Not only has Bush sold our integrity, our respect, he’s sold our souls to the highest (or perhaps it’s lowest) bidder.
Sleep easy. If you were to pay this off at $1 million per day and there was no interest, it would take you 26 years to pay it off. And that assumes the budget is miraculously balanced. To put it in different terms, if every living person from newborns to those about die, who was a US citizen were to pay $30 per day, it would take a year to pay it off. Or if everyone paid $11,000 we could do it right now. I’ll ask Bill Gates for his share — you go ask the new baby next door and the homeless guy down the street.
For shame, shame, shame.