National debt of the United States

Under President Obama, the National debt surpassed 106% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Under President Trump, the U.S. Government sent hundreds of billions to private citizens to ensure the economy would not suffer the shutdown costs of losing momentum during the lockdowns prescribed by epidemiologists for the global Wuhan Virus pandemic. By September 2020, the unemployment rate had recovered to no worse than the level during the Obama/Biden Administration in September 2012, and the Congressional Budget Office called the measure successful. The Greek Debt Crisis of 2010 was precipitated when Greek debt reached 115% of GDP, but in the form of non-fiscal-related emergency measures it now takes, today's jump in debt ratio has little effect on U.S. Government creditworthiness.^[1]

Federal spending allocation in 2011

Federal spending allocations in 2018

The National Debt is the amount of money the United States Federal government owes various creditors due to deficit spending.

As of December 2021, the National debt of the United States is about $31 trillion in national debt]]. In December of 2021, that was about  $96,371 per American.^[2]  

In addition, American taxpayers have been paying into the USA retirement program Social Security and its medical program for seniors called Medicare for decades.  The Social Security and Medicare programs are now unfunded liabilities. If one combines the United States national debt with the unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare, each American owes more than $500,000.^[3]  Many USA taxpayers will be unable to collect the amount they put in Social Security and Medicare by the time they need it because the programs will be cut back by then. In all likelihood, the Social Security and Medicare programs will become means tested. See: Prof. Antony Davies: 10 Myths About Government Debt

Debt of the US - Analysis of Bush and Obama presidencies[edit]

On January 20, 2001, the day of George W. Bush's inauguration into office, the national debt of the United States was 5.7 trillion dollars, and by the end of his run in office (January 19, 2009) it was at 10.6 trillion dollars.^[4] Five years into Barack Obama's term, Obama had already outborrowed Bush's entire debt load during his 8-year term at about $7.0 trillion borrowed vs. $4.9 trillion, but comparing these figures masks an important distinction—slower economic growth.

The production of the U.S. economy is measured by its gross domestic product or GDP, and its increase (and during recessions its decrease) from year to year measures economic growth (or decline) in the form of goods and services produced. GDP figures generally become more accurate over the years as more precise accounting is employed. The latest GDP revisions to measurements for recent years are from 2016.

From April 1, 2001 to March 31, 2009, the economy produced $18.4 trillion over and above March 31, 2001 GDP levels which was its productive growth for that time period. Relative to that amount, the U.S. Government went $4.9 trillion into debt for U.S. Government consumption or redistribution (or rather "pre-distribution" since the money to this day hasn't been collected yet from taxes) or an amount equal to 27% of the entire productive growth of the U.S. for that time period.

From April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2017, the U.S. economy produced $18.5 trillion (actually less than the Bush Administration due to inflation) over and above March 31, 2009 GDP levels which was its productive growth for that time period. Relative to that amount, the U.S. Government went $8.7 trillion into debt for U.S. Government consumption or redistribution (again, "pre-distribution" because to this day not collected from taxes) or an amount equal to 47% of the entire productive growth of the U.S. for that time period. In other words, for the eight years of Obama's administration, every new dollar produced by the U.S. economy above the productive level at the beginning of the Obama administration was matched by forty-seven cents borrowed on behalf of the government (over and above all federal taxes collected during that time) and dedicated to government consumption or redistribution.

Some have made the remark that under high taxation, we are slaves to the government. If slavery is defined as having all the fruits of one's production seized, it is not true that a person is a slave to the government in America, but given these facts, it is hard to deny that under the eight years of the Obama administration our country's productive growth may figuratively nearly hold the status of one, the consequences of whose was to be applied in the future. This is because its federal government spending entailed having 47% of it financed (dedicated to be paid for) by future taxes and other revenue, and whose debt is considered to be especially misapplied unless used largely for the sake of probable future requirements and growth rather than spending in the present day as much money as can be made available.

Assignment of responsibility[edit]

This comparative analysis, made to fit the time periods of the figures of the first paragraph of this section, is not without its rough edges. The percent of growth spent under Obama may be higher when it is factored in that much of Bush's spending in his last year in office ($0.6 trillion) took the form of a series of loans to mostly private companies, not new consumption or redistribution, that, taken together, was completely paid back to the government during Obama's administration.^[5]

A second factor is that it was Obama who signed legislation for much of budgeted Fiscal Year 2009 (which begins October 1, 2008), when under normal circumstances it would have been all signed into law by Bush.

Debt per capita[edit]

The national debt per capita, which means what an individual's debt burden would be if each member of the U.S. population were assigned an equal share of the U.S. federal debt, as of March 31, 2017, was $61,000 (or $244,000 per family of four) assuming a U.S. population of about 325,000,000.^[6] These values jumped by $2,000 and $8,000, respectively, in the single month of November 2015. The new debt accrued in the single fiscal year 2014 was $3,400 per single member of the U.S. population or $13,500 per family of four, and the new debt accrued from April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2016 was $25,200 per each member of the U.S. population or $101,000 per family of four. See table below.

Debt to GDP ratio[edit]

Instead of measuring an absolute number, the debt to GDP ratio is the measurement of the national debt as a percentage of the gross domestic product. It is a measure of the debt in relation to the economy and of our capacity to carry and repay debt.^[7] The US Debt to GDP ratio was getting larger (during Fiscal Year 2015, it shrank slightly due to irregularities in debt issuance, but quickly regained its upward trend), as the US economy's debt was growing faster than the GDP. The debt-level has recently stabilized, and the debt to GDP ratio has accordingly begun to drop slowly in a growing GDP economy.^[8] This has not always been the case: During the last 8 presidential administrations (pre-Obama), the US Debt to GDP ratio was reduced under Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton; but increased under Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush.

Debt ceiling[edit]

For a more detailed treatment, see Debt Ceiling.

The debt ceiling is a limit imposed on the Treasury by Congress. The Treasury may not issue debt in excess of this amount to fund government operations. In February 2014, the debt ceiling was suspended altogether until March 2015, and was last raised on February 7, 2014 to $17.212 trillion, a nearly 5 trillion dollar increase in less than four and a half years in spite of attempts by conservative Congressmen to reduce spending.^[9]

Raising the debt ceiling is not the same thing as going further into debt to spend more money, since spending is dictated by the Federal Budget or continuing resolutions, but it does allow the Federal Government to meet any new financial obligations up to the ceiling, if and when new spending arises, through accepting money from new debt-holders. It is not certain what would happen if the national debt reaches the debt ceiling without action by Congress. Liberal politicians and pundits, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, claim that government would default on its obligations, causing global financial markets to collapse. Many financial market experts and conservatives, especially TEA Partiers opposed to raising the debt ceiling, see no evidence that a default would occur in such a situation.^[10] However, in 1983, when Congress was debating whether to raise the debt ceiling, Ronald Reagan said:

“The full consequences of a default — or even the serious prospect of default — by the United States are impossible to predict and awesome to contemplate. Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and the value of the dollar in foreign exchange markets. The Nation can ill afford to allow such a result. The risks, the costs, the disruptions, and the incalculable damage lead me to but one conclusion: the Senate must pass this legislation before the Congress adjourns.”^[11]

The national balance sheet not only reflect borrowing by the Treasury to reflect fiscal policy, it can also be affected by the Federal Reserve system to reflect monetary policy. The overall impact of national debt on the national standard of living can be moderated by interest rates and tax policy. This is because the federal government must pay the interest on the debt and then collect it from taxpayers to varying degrees.

United States bond rating[edit]

On August 5, 2011, the bond rating service Standard and Poor's, a company which rates the ability of institutions to repay their debt, lowered the United States federal government's long-term debt rating from AAA to AA+ for the first time since their ratings began in the early 1940s (a decrease never occurred even during World War II) and gave the government's credit a negative outlook, warning that unless the rate of new government spending were reduced, there would be grounds for lowering the rating again.^[12]

Notes[edit]

See graph caption at top of page for information on current debt to GDP ratio.

The symbol "~" means "about" or "approximately".

In May 2019, FY 2018 debt figures and dependent statistics were revised in this table to reflect updated information from the Treasury Department.

GAO audit report of total debt for FY 2016, completed in November 2016, added to the end of FY 2016 figures as a correction.

In July 2016, the BEA released a revision to 2013-2016 GDP figures. The figures in this table were corrected in February 2017 for the years in that range of figures (at the same time the July 2016 monthly preliminary figures for FY 2016 were added).

On July 30, 2015 the BEA released a revision to 2012-2015 GDP figures. The figures for this table were corrected [1]
on that day with changes to FY 2013 and 2014, but not 2015 as FY 2015 is updated within a week with the
release of debt totals for July 31, 2015.

In December 2014, the source for the U.S. population was changed to include armed forces living abroad, and the
two last columns of the table were revised slightly [2] (and a minor transposition error in FY 1998 and 1999
corrected in addition) to reflect the change.

On June 25, 2014 the BEA announced a 15-year revision of GDP figures would take place on July 31, 2014.
The figures for this table were corrected [3] on that day with changes to FY 2000, 2003, 2008, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

The more precise FY 1999–2017 debt figures are derived from Treasury audit results.^[18]

The variations in the 1990s and FY 2015 GDP figures are due to double-sourced or
relatively preliminary GDP figures, respectively.

The U. S. Bureau of Economic Analysis performed a revision of GDP figures in 2013.

See also[edit]

• Obamunism:
  • Income redistribution of Obamanomics
    • Economic planning of the Obama administration fiscal policy, Obama administration monetary policy, Obamacare, Federal funding via Crony capitalism (Obama donor list, Bailout, Obama administration corporate bailouts, Obamageddon), Deficit spending and the National debt
• John Maynard Keynes
  • Liberal Keynesian economics and Fabian Socialist influence on Barack Obama
• Big government liberal Welfare state leads to
  • Socialist Nanny state, leads to communist Police state: Globalist-Statist-United Nations
• Big Debt Nazism and socialism: National Socialism - the Nazis were elitist Police state liberals not conservatives
• Liberal totalitarianism

contrast with:

• Ludwig von Mises' conservative libertarian Austrian economics and Fiscal conservatism - Capitalist Conservative economic policies of Ron Paul
• Gold standard and precious metals

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• National Debt Clock and links to current articles
• The Federal Debt: An Analysis of Movements from World War II to the Present, Mindy R. Levit, Congressional Research Service, September 17, 2010.
• U.S. Debt Clock - approximate U.S. debt information