A Weblog Dedicated to the Discussion of the Christian Faith and 21st Century Life

A Weblog Dedicated to the Discussion of the Christian Faith and 21st Century Life
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I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe, –that unless I believed, I should not understand.-- St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109)

Thursday, August 04, 2011

The Federal Budget and Debt Plainly Explained

"If the US Government was a family, they would be making $58,000 a year, they spend $75,000 a year, & are $327,000 in credit card debt. They are currently proposing BIG spending cuts to reduce their spending to $72,000 a year. These are the actual proportions of the federal budget & debt, reduced to a level that we can understand." - Dave Ramsey

9 comments:

Henry Neufeld said...

Love it!

Anonymous said...

Interesting metaphor - can your family directly affect the money supply and set economic policy? Mine, sadly, can't.

Allan R. Bevere said...

Simon,

That isn't the point.

Chuck Tackett said...

Allan - the chart is instructive though I'm not entirely sure I understand it.

It appears that the President's budget call for flat revenue and increased spending?

John Proegler said...

Our country is in serious financial trouble caused by the politicians on both sides of the aisle. From 1940 we have been building the deficit. There have been only 12 years since 1940 that we have actually had a surplus [but not enough to wipe out the cumulative deficit/debt]. During those 12 years we had 7 Democratic presidents and 5 Republican presidents. During the same 12 years, the House was controlled evenly by Democrats and Republicans [they control the purse strings]. Let's get a plan to get us out of this mess over the next 10-15 years. Perhaps the first 2 targets should be waste, fraud and duplication on the spending side and closing loopholes and exemptions on the revenue [tax] side.

John Proegler said...

And in the 58 years that we have run a deficit, we have had 31 Republican presidents and 27 Democratic presidents. However, the makeup of the House during the 58 years when the United States ran a deficit was 51 years when the Democrats controlled the House and 7 years when the Republicans controlled the House. Again, quit the posturing for re-election and do something substantive for our country to reduce our debt!

cspogue said...

It's more like $327,000 in mortgage debt which a lot of people wouldn't get concerned about.

We also have some strange situations with the wealthiest paying less than they have in decades. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/04/irs-incomes_n_918458.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

Allan R. Bevere said...

Chuck,

The chart has nothing to do with my post. I just needed a graph and anything would do quite nicely.

Anonymous said...

cspogue said, "It's more like $327,000 in mortgage debt which a lot of people wouldn't get concerned about." Really? I thought morgages were secured by the value of the property. What secures the national debt?