“1 trillion dollars!”
“Billions of dollars…”
“1.2 trillion dollars.”
“Trillions and trillions of dollars.”
Yes, a billion is a thousand million, and a trillion is a thousand billion, but I have no idea how much that really is, because I can't imagine a billion of anything, much less a trillion.
Last year, the federal government spent about $3.8 trillion dollars.
But Washington collected much less in taxes–about $2.5 trillion dollars.
To stay afloat for the year the government had to rack up $1.2 trillion in debt – just for this year.
That pushed our overall debt past $15 trillion dollars.
To try to get us back on track financially the government cut its spending by $38 billion dollars. Sounds like a big number doesn't it?
It's all overwhelming!
But there is a way to understand it–by cutting it down to size.
Erasing eight zeros from all these numbers will turn the federal figures into a family budget:
The family spends $38,000 a year…
But it earns only $25,000…
That means new debt–credit cards or loans–of $13,000 just this year.
Like Washington – this family is already deep in debt and overspending this year pushes the family's overall debt to $150,000.
When you're in such a dire financial situation, you really need to make big cuts to your spending.
But the only thing this family is going to do is spend $380 less a year – $380!
No one would run a family budget like that so why are we running our country that way?
The word for it is "unsustainable."
And now we can all understand why.
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