What upsets me more than the actual debt is what it represents. The government sells bonds to finance the debt, the interest on those bonds is paid by selling more bonds (pyramid scheme). by borrowing and by printing more money, with taxes coming in a poor fourth.
Government Bonds, are usually worth more in the country of issue. So in effect the government is selling off pieces of America to finance the debt.
More bonds, if the bond holders loose confidence or use the bonds as political leverage. It could rock the whole structure.
Borrowing, the government borrows from the same pool as everybody else, supply and demand. Only so much money to go around.
The more you print the less the value, with the side effect of devaluing existing bonds. Print too much money and your bonds become much less attractive.
Taxes and fees, are a larger part of your earnings than you think. Besides working a quarter of the year just to pay your share, you are taxed multiple times on the same money. Sooner or later it just doesn't pay to work anymore.
I'm sure Mike can explain it better than I can and likely has a better grasp of the larger picture.
Where are we and how did we get here?
It's typical for the Democrats to try and get money flowing in new directions, Typically they add more government, because in general most government emplyees vote Democrat. They also cultivate the near rich, pass out favors (money) which can have some benefits, but can also weaken the foundations of the system. Democrats have a tendency to throw money at a problem.
On the flip side, Bush trying to secure an oil source, while actually necessary in the short term (it is a strategic resource), was from the beginning a stop gap and not a solution. If the Democrats and the media would have butted out, it would likely have been resolved in half the time, with half the unnecessary deaths and at half the cost. Whatever the fine points, it just about broke America. It also rocked most Americans confidence in the truthfulness of their government. I'd give the Republicans an "F" in media manipulation and plausible misdirection. I'd give them a "B" in getting the attention of our enemies.
One of the predictable results of the Democrats vowing to tax the rich, was capital flight to safe havens. The bacon often ends up stashed in a tax haven. They convinced Switzerland to open thier books (for about 10% of their largest depositors) and then set a due date of 23 September (so they have plenty of time to rehide it), wanna bet there is a rash of wire transfers and/or alot of digging going on? LOL I'm sure there is a plethora of fine points to the problem, but the obvious consequences are "Well? obvious" and really makes me wonder at the competence of our elected officials.
I have like zero confidence in the Bimbo running the Senate (Speaker of the House). She seems to swing from perplexed to dumbfounded and then back again. Maybe she has more going on than appears to the casual observer, but she seems like to type to answer the front door and ask, "did you ring the bell?"
