Merry Christmas from Uncle Sam — You Got More Debt!
Between Christmas 2017 and Christmas 2018, the US government added a staggering $1,370,760,684,441.54 to the national debt, according to Treasury Department figures.
If you split that up between all American, your share of Uncle Sam’s 2018 spending spree comes to about $4,178.10.
Merry Christmas!
You’re welcome.
CNSNews.com came up with that figure by dividing the Christmas-to-Christmas debt increase by the latest population estimate from the US Census Bureau (328,082,386). In order to pay off the increase in the national debt, each household would have to pony up $10,743. And when you consider that only 55% of American households pay income tax, that number climbs north of $19,500.
Of course, this doesn’t include all of the unfunded liabilities such as Social Security and Medicare. When you factor them in, the total national debt eclipses $200 trillion. That number is so big, it’s essentially meaningless.
So, what is Uncle Sam doing to address his debt problem?
Absolutely nothing.
The current administration is blowing through cash just like the previous administration. And the one before that. And the one before that.
Through the first two months of the 2019 budget year, the US budget deficit totaled $305.4 billion. That’s a 51.4% increase over the first two months of fiscal 2018. So far in fiscal 2019, revenues are up 3.4% over last year, coming in at $458.7 billion. But Uncle Sam has spent $764 billion over that last two months, an 18.4% increase over a year ago.
As an article at DollarCollapse.com put it, all political roads lead to massively higher government spending.
“Republicans – the party of smaller government – gained control of the White House and Congress in 2016, and proceeded to take a meat ax to bloated entitlements, lowering the government’s share of the economy to levels not seen since the Reagan years.
“Just kidding. They tried to eliminate the newest entitlement, Obamacare, but failed to produce even a coherent proposal. So instead they cut taxes, expanded the military and left everything else on autopilot. Now, nine years into a recovery with official unemployment below 4% — and with the small-government party in charge … it’s possible that the annual deficit will top $1 trillion this year.”
This should come as no shock. For nearly the last century, there has been an undeniable, dramatic trend upward in government spending in real and in nominal terms. In fact, since 1940, average yearly federal spending has increased during every single administration – whether Republican or Democratic Party.
Politicians in both major parties act like this can just go on forever with no consequences. So, they just keep kicking the can down the road. The problem is at some point you run out of road.
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