I’m clear out of snark and sarcastic comments. News like this is just dismal. I feel like I should wake up my kids and apologize to them. AFP reported that according to the Treasury Department, the United States debt now tops Gross Domestic Product. It’s nauseating.
US debt shot up $238 billion to reach 100 percent of gross domestic project after the government’s debt ceiling was lifted, Treasury figures showed Wednesday.
Treasury borrowing jumped Tuesday, the data showed, immediately after President Barack Obama signed into law an increase in the debt ceiling as the country’s spending commitments reached a breaking point and it threatened to default on its debt.
The new borrowing took total public debt to $14.58 trillion, over end-2010 GDP of $14.53 trillion, and putting it in a league with highly indebted countries like Italy and Belgium.
Public debt subject to the official debt limit — a slightly tighter definition — was $14.53 trillion as of the end of Tuesday, rising from the previous official cap of $14.29 trillion a day earlier. …
This has to change. So much for hope and change.
This reminds me of something I saw earlier.
Update: Da TechGuy linked – thanks!
Update 2: In one day alone the debt went up by $239 billion, the biggest one day jump in history.
Update 3: Jim’s Blog linked – thank you!
Tags: change, GDP, gross domestic product, hope, national debt
If you want a bit of positive news (hee hee), I don’t think real debt has hit 100% of GDP. The reason is the “gross” national debt (gross, as in foul or disgusting) includes fake paper debt we owe ourselves. So the good news is that the real debt is only (only?) $11 trillion or so. The bad news is that as the paper debt (the IOUs in the various trust funds) is converted into real debt (borrowing and/or money-printing) Treasury issues more real debt without needing to raise the debt ceiling, or having the “gross” national debt go up.
How much? Oh, about $3-4 trillion over the next fifteen years or so.
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[...] Monkeys, Conservatives4Palin, Pajamas Media, Weasel Zippers, Fausta’s Blog, Power Line and The Lonely Conservative // Share:DiggRedditStumbleUponPrintFacebookEmail Posted by Patrick on August 4, 2011 at [...]
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[...] The burn rate is a eight percent of GDP. Total debt is one hundred percent of GDP. [...]
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[...] surprisingly, several conservative and libertarian blogs have picked up the AFP story and reported it verbatim, handing down [...]
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