Turns out when we cited the current level of the National Debt at $17 trillion, we were a step behind.
Last week the ante got upped to $18 Trillion. We need some slack to be cut. After all, everything, except maybe the price of real estate, seems to lag the rest of the country down here in the tropics.
$18 Trillion is mucho dinero no matter how you slice it. To paraphrase the late Everett Dirksen, "A trillion here, a trillion there, pretty soon, you're talking real money". Poor old Everett was talking in millions. He must be spinning in his grave.
For an agonizing analysis of how this breaks down to the individual level, check out This Site. And the Deficit Monster doesn't just sit there waiting quietly for a far-off, day of reckoning, it demands to be fed on a regular and current basis. Last year we spent a cool $430 Billion on interest payments, and that reflected the artificially low, by historic standards, interest rates. Just wait until the Fed unleashes the rates.
The Left has long been accused of promoting a tax and spend approach to government. Obama has stood this on its head by cranking up the USA "credit card" first and then telling us we need to pay a little more in taxes to pay for "infrastructure". We used to think that Obama must have dozed his way through the economic classes during his Ivy League education. We now realize that he had a much more sinister plan in mind. We, and subsequent generations will be paying for Obama's presidency long after he has left the White House and is banking those $200,000 + speaking fees on the lecture circuit.
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