The National Debt

As you all are aware by now, congress has been asked to raise the national debt limit, which currently stands at $8.3 trillion, in order to keep the U.S. Government operating. For perspective consider the following:

For simplicity we will assume no interest will accrue on the $8.3 trillion debt. (I know, not quite reality, but go with me here.) Listed below are various payment options to pay off the $8.3 trillion.

At $3600 per hour (this is paying a dollar per second), it would take about 263,000 years to pay off the debt.

At $10,000 per hour it, would take about 95,000 years to pay off the debt.

At $100,000 per hour, it would take about 9500 years to pay off the debt.

At $1,000,000 per hour (that's one million dollars an hour), it would take about 950 years to pay off the debt.

At $1,000,000,000 per hour (that's one billion dollars an hour), it would take about 345 days (almost 1 year) to pay off the debt.

Think about those numbers. I know they are hard to fathom, so take a minute and contemplate the magnitude of the situation.

Now, if you take into accout the annual interest rate on this debt, then the amount of time to pay off the debt grows even longer. And the debt limit is about to be raised again meaning we'll owe even more money.

Where's the fiscal responsibility?

--Randy Anderson