From the Bookworm Room:
This helps to understand the US debt:
• U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
• Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000
• New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
• National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
• Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000Let’s remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget.
• Annual family income: $21,700
• Money the family spent: $38,200
• New debt on the credit card: $16,500
• Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
• Total budget cuts: $385CLEARER, huh?
Just FYI, Ms. Coletta, I can tell that the graph is inaccurate — by virtue of ignoring one category of government debt, i.e., internal borrowing. Between 1995 and 2000, the federal government replaced hundreds of billions of Social Security revenues with IOUs and spent that money. There was actually — contrary to the demagoguery of the day — no balanced budget, not even close.
Now, the revenues and obligations match, so that cannot be now done.
Good point, thedrpete–there is no “lock box”