Wow, with "change" like that, you could buy a nice house! What's the significance of that number? Well, it's the amount that you, your spouse, kids, and grand-kids owe to clear our national debt and cover our projected costs in running various aspects of the government. Sound crazy? I agree. Maybe you'd prefer a lower estimate? According to lower estimates, you'll still be hit with funding these things to the tune of $184,000.
I put together this little spreadsheet (PDF format) to determine some of the recent costs foisted upon American citizens by their public servants in Washington, since my calculator doesn't handle as many digits as we're discussing here (potentially hundreds of trillions of dollars!).
The budget deficit is the shortfall between what was budgeted for spending and what was actually spent. So to cover last year's deficit alone, each man, woman, and child living in the US needs to shell out $4,650! And that's just the deficit--never mind paying tax for what was actually budgeted last year. (Talk about an increase in taxes!)
When we include large-ticket items such as Social Security and Medicare to the national debt, we've got the number making up our "unfunded liabilities". As best I can tell, this is our total debt obligation as a nation--what is committed already to be paid in the present and the future. This is how we arrive at the number estimated between $184,000 and $350,000 for every soul living in this great nation.
This isn't something that's gotten a great deal of news focus, so spread the word. Let your representatives know you're not happy with them spending whatever they like, budget be damned. (Isn't the purpose of a budget to establish a plan for money management?) How is this accountability or transparency we were promised?
What else can you do? Consider voting out the incumbents who seem so happy to continue this level of performance on your behalf. Maybe that will be the "change" we're all eager to see.
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