When do we start worrying? Saw this coming almost a decade ago, but didn't think it would become this bad.
The national debt is cumulative, the last time it was 0 was 1835. (I don't think Obama was President then) Even Clinton's "balanced budget" only meant that the income covered the debt service and we were not adding more to the debt, not that the debt was paid off. Currently 2/3's of the US budget is mandatory spending required by laws made from past Congresses. Of the 1/3 of the budget that is passed by appropriation (passed each year) 2/3's of that is military spending. The President actually has only a small influence on Federal spending, Mr. Obama even less than most since the Republican House chooses not work with the Executive on budget issues (or much of anything). The recent explosion of debt started with Ronald Reagan and his discretionary build up of the US military and tax cuts when Under Reagan the National debt tripled and under Bush doubled again. The Republicans main concern was manipulating debt to win elections. (Mr. Cheney famously saying "Reagan proved deficits don't matter") Under Mr. Bush we have fought two wars strictly on 'off the books' deficit financing while cutting taxes. Also under Mr. Bush, under-regulated financial markets led us to the most serious economic disaster since the Great Depression. Trillions of dollars of American equity was wiped out in housing and securities crashes. The Federal government had to step in and replace much of the value of the economy with Federal spending to ward off world wide disaster. Arguments about how that was done are valid but TARP was signed by Mr. Bush and Mr. Obama saved the auto industry. The bills run up under Mr. Bush are now coming due under Mr. Obama and the Republican House under influence of Mr. Norquist's "no tax increase" mantra have left no way to pay it other than cutting vital social programs that support the health, infrastructure and security of the nation. *the more you know* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt http://useconomy.about.com/od/fiscalpolicy/p/Budget_Spending.htm http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/reagan-proved-deficits-dont-matter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubled_Asset_Relief_Program
