Our thirteen-digit debt!

That last posting relating to two of the richest men in the world -- coupled with my having just seen An Inconvenient Truth last weekend, with its scary graphs all sky-rocketing on the right side -- brought to my mind the fact that our Senate recently raised the debt ceiling to $9 trillion. What was really surprising was that, for a change, it was a close vote with the senators basically voting along party lines to insure that the occupation of Iraq could continue. Usually, the debt ceiling votes are one-sided, reflecting the reality of the spending bills before Congress at the time.


I wonder how many Americans are aware that, at last count, we were in debt to the tune of about $8.395724 trillion (rounded to the nearest million). Largely due to two causes: the tax reduction to the wealthy and, of course, the high cost of waging war (excuse me, waging the occupation) in Iraq. Yeh, we had to raise the ceiling to $9 trillion, didn't we?

When viewed as a percentage of the national (annual debt, the chart doesn't look too scary, does it?



But then, why not look at it as it really is ... a truly inconvenient truth, when we see the debt over time adjusted for inflation!



Now that's scary!!

The re-emergence of deficit spending on a year-by-year basis is surely a problem with which we must deal! But looking at the far right-hand side of the chart should give us some concerns too. Notice the sharp climb in just the last five years -- without inflation -- and note that even during the Clinton years -- when we brought deficit spending down to zero and beyond (we actually had a surplus in the final years of Mr. Clinton's presidency), we still see a scary and unprecedented increase in the national debt.

That says we won't simply "fix" this problem in a hurry -- like immediately withdrawing from Iraq, or even revising the tax structure back to something equitable for all. We will have to come up with new ideas and new solutions! The balance of trade is woefully in the red. Median (50% above, 50% below) incomes are down in almost every sector of the economy -- while the mean (the common average) income continues to rise as the rich get richer, giving a distorted picture of how we, as Americans workers, are faring economically.

I surely don't have all the answers, but I also know that the current Administration and Congress (both houses!) don't either -- and are going in almost exactly the wrong direction besides.

But of course, our focus is in the other direction right now -- away from little problems like the growing debt, growing deficit spending, the occupation in Iraq and ... global warming. We are busy worrying ourselves sick over flag burning (when was the last flag burned in the US?), gay marriages, immigration laws (which have been just as they are now for the past 250 years), who will become the new American Idol and why ABC cancelled Commander-in-Chief. Admittedly, I was bothered by that one, which shows that I am (sadly) right there with the rest of Americans in letting my focus become redirected away from the truly big issues.

But for starters, we could get the &%$#! out of Iraq and restructure the tax code to give middle class Americans a much needed breather ... and oh yes, relating to the debt and deficit spending, Congress should give Mr. Bush his desired "line-item-veto" so that he could selectively take some of the pork out of every bill put before him for signature. He's 100% right on as regards that issue, you know!