The folks over at CNS news had a little article about our current federal debt. They pointed out that federal debt is currently $15.709 trillion.
They went on to calculate that since March 4, 2011, the federal debt has increased $1,526,126,486,886.61.
The first spending deal the White House and leaders of both parties in Congress made last year was on March 2. On that day, the president signed a continuing resolution to keep the government funded past March 4, when the previous continuing resolution, passed by a lame-duck Congress in late 2010, expired.
The March 4 CR kept the government funded for two weeks and was approved by a bipartisan 335-91 vote in the House and a bipartisan 91-9 vote in the Senate.
Since that March 4, 2011 bipartisan continuing resolution, the federal government has been funded by a series of bipartisan deals cut between the White House and congressional leaders.
They further tabulated the debt per household since the first Continuing Resolution:
Given that the Census Bureau estimates there are about 117,538,000 households in the United States, the per household increase in the federal debt since Congress enacted its March 4, 2011 bipartisan spending deal has been approximately $12,984.
This got me thinking about some more facts and figures:
If the total debt it 15,709,000,000,000.00, and there are 117,538,000 households in the United States, each household is responsible for $133,650.39.
Given that the US Population Clock records that there are 313,582,673 persons in the United States as of today, each person is responsible for $50,095.24
Given that it is estimated that 46% of households either paid no federal income tax in 2011 or will receive more from the IRS than they pay in, that means 63,470,520 households (54%) did. If you divide the entire debt per taxpaying household, each is responsible for $247,500.72 of the total debt, or an increase of $24,044.65 since last March. (14 months ago)
The next statutory limit on our debt $16.394 trillion, so we’ve got another $685 billion to go. Some have estimated the debt limit will be reached before election day, around October 15. A February 2012 study by US Senator Rob Portman, former director of the OMB, has noted that,
“Following the contentious debt ceiling last August, President Obama promised that he would take action to address the country’s fiscal crisis. He has failed to do that. In fact, his new budget increases spending and projects that Washington will be hitting the debt ceiling again in mid-October – burning through a $2.1 trillion debt limit increase in just over 14 months. This is an unfortunate but clear signal to the American people that Washington is spending too much, borrowing too much, and putting our nation’s fiscal stability at risk.
So some final calculations here.
By around Election Day, the total debt of the United States will be $16,394,000,000,000.00 ($16.394 trillion).
Based on today’s (May 20th) population numbers,
That’s $55,279.67 per person
That’s $139,478.29 per household
That’s $258,293.14 per taxpaying household
Pretty sobering.