VirusHead

This site provides a zoomable poster on where the governement spends its money:

http://www.thebudgetgraph.com/poster/ According to it about 10% ($261B) of the projected $2.662 trillion in goverement receipts will go to paying interest on the national debt. I suspect lower overall interest rates have helped on this front the last few years.

Excellent resource, thanks. Watch the interest rates rising though.

Any plans on the principal? I mean, what political leverage can we possibly bring to bear on our debt-holding nations? It seems to be a matter of national security to me.

9 trillion dollars is a heck of a lot of debt for one of the richest countries in the world. We’ve squandered our resources.

Nothing new here. Republicans, who’ve held the purse strings since ‘94, were just following their nature: buy now, pay later. Of course, it’s always the Democrats who, when they take over, have to raise taxes to clean up the mess.

Of course, it’s always the Democrats who, when they take over, have to raise taxes to clean up the mess.

Very true. We then get the country back on track only to watch the Republicans put us back in debt again. At 65, I am tiring of this nonsense. I have always believed that hate is most harmful to the hater, but, of late, find myself enraged and hating the very name “Republican.” We are in so much debt and it continues to grow exponentially. We seem to have lost our Constitution with the final cap, perhaps, being the betrayal by the Democrats last w/e. We may well have already passed the critical point of no return on global warming (if we get a methane bubble blow out, we are all dead, all life on earth is gone), and, still, it is business as usual with most Americans only worried about what to wear and whose ass to kiss. I am nearing personal blow out, myself. How many e-mails, faxes, phone calls and other harassment can I manage with zero positive results before giving up? Really, I do not know.

Its no wonder that Da Bush is threatening to veto the health insurance plan for children!He
says it’s counter to his “Philosophy”

I’m pretty scared for my children, grandchildren and especially for my great grandchildren. They are going to inherit the mess! As far as I can tell, none of the guys in Washington are looking out for your interests.

The Chimpleton policy of transferring the entire wealth of the nation to a few of his cronies AND fighting wars while doing it is beyond incompetence. It’s treason.

As for your question…. the Federal Government is going to default. And (as you’ve heard me say before) when it does, some ambitious Governors are going to see it as a sign to take their show on the road. The US is destined to become at least 5 independent entities. It may become more than 5. Those entities will have to assume some part of that debt. How much they assume (and the resources they have on hand) will determine how the standard of living for them goes.

Bernanke has a big job ahead of him.
We cannot sustain 800 bilion a year trade deficits. We cannot export our way out of this mess. The only answer is a sharply lower dollar to drive manufactruing home and to lower the trade deficit. The dollar has much farther to fall. What you are seeing is a long term effort (it will take 20 years) to get the trade deficit back under 1% of GDP. We are currently running a trade imbalance of nearly 6% of GDP. No nation can do this. The IMF would be stepping in to help any nation if its trade imbalance went to 6% of GDP becuase its currency would collapse! The U.S. is different, but still, we cannot sustain a trade deficit of this magnitude. People must understand that when we buy an item from say China, we pay in dollars. The Chinese company we just bought from them goes to an Exchange Bank in China and converts those dollars to Yuan. The Chinese banking system (Chinese Government) is now sitting on those dollars. They can either 1, buy oil, 2, buy Treasuries, 3. buy U.S goods, 4. buy U.S. Corporations, 5. other. Over time if we (the U.S. ) continue to run a trade deficit we could simply be completely bought and controlled by foreigners. Warren Buffet has explained the situation as being like a rich Texas farmer who loses a small piece of his land year after year and never notices for a while. When he then notices, tragedy sets in because he no longer controls his land. So in sum, we need to get the trade deficit way down. This is why the Fed has abandoned the dollar. It wil be going down for the next 20 years. That is how long it is going to take to correct this imbalance mess.

More Americans Are Saying No to the National Debt!

Washington has bailed out the banks, Wall Street & their Washington special interests and much of the cost is added to the national debt to by paid by this and future generations while real estate and investments continue to fall. Find out what a growing repudiate the debt movement could mean for treasuries, the dollar, gold and mining shares.

The Campaign to Cancel the Washington National Debt By 12/22/2013 Constitutional Amendment is starting now in the U.S. See: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=67594690498&ref=ts