National Debt

The National Debt totaled $12.440 trillion as of February 28, 2010, a new record for the largest national debt ever.  This was up from a national debt of $12.279 trillion on February 1, 2010, meaning that federal government debt increased by approximately $161 billion in the month of February 2010 alone.

With much fanfare, President Obama created a Deficit Panel yesterday for the purpose of finding bipartisan solutions to the exploding federal budget deficit and national debt.  The official name of the Deficit Panel is the “National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform”.  That name is obviously too long for most people to remember, so already journalists are using shorter names to identify the panel.  In this article, I’m using the term Deficit Panel, but you may also see or hear it referred to as the Debt Panel, the Deficit Commission, the Debt Reduction Commission, the Deficit Reduction Commission, and other similar names. Read the rest of this entry »

The National Debt Clock was erected in New York City’s Times Square in 1989, when the national debt was just $2.7 trillion.  In 2004, the National Debt Clock was moved from its original location on 42^nd Street to its current location on Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas), about a block away.

The National Debt Clock keeps a running total of the total federal government debt, and also calculates each American family’s share of the national debt.  The National Debt Clock was the Read the rest of this entry »

The National Debt Ceiling has been increased once again.  With no fanfare whatsoever, President Obama signed into law on February 12, 2010 a bill raising the national debt ceiling from $12.394 trillion to $14.294 trillion.  The signing took place behind closed doors and with no cameras present.

The National Debt Ceiling had been raised less than two months ago, but this latest action was required because Read the rest of this entry »

President Obama has released revised budget projections, and they show another record deficit for the federal budget.  The budget deficit for the 2009 fiscal year was a record of $1.4 trillion, but the projected deficit for fiscal year 2010 is projected to set a new record at almost $1.6 trillion.  In 2011, the Administration expects the deficit to decline to “just” $1.3 trillion.

Looking down the road past 2011, the Obama Administration projects that the deficit will Read the rest of this entry »

President Obama’s first year is in the books, so it seems like an appropriate time to see how he is handling the National Debt.  When President Obama took office on January 20, 2009, the National Debt stood at just under $10.627 trillion.  On his one-year anniversary of January 20, 2010, the National Debt totaled just over $12.327 trillion.

That means the National Debt has increased by a whopping $1.7 trillion during his first year in office.  That is the largest single year increase of any President in the history of the United States.

It will be interesting to see what the second year holds.