In 2005, the US government paid approximately $352,000,000,000 (that’s $352 billion) in interest on our national debt. Coincidentally, the yearly budget deficit under Gorge W has been right around 400 billion. Actually a bit more, but we aren’t into shaving points here for the sake of argument. Anything over a few hundred million and what does it really matter? It’s all play money to dem politicians. But wait, here’s a big news flash for you bickering stuffed shirts. Actually, it’s OUR money!!!
When one really stops to think just how much $352 billion is, most of us, (including your’s truly) have no way to relate, and really have no way to put that amount of money into perspective. I mean, I could have ranted today on the actual national debt, but that would have been even more an unfathomable concept at over 8 trillion dollars than the pittance that is only the interest payment.
So, how about we try and put a visual on this massive interest payment (and you thought a few hundred dollars a month on your credit card was a lot…) At $352 billion, that is about $1 billion a day (again, why quibble over a few million.) Still, since none of us has actually seen a billion dollars (see MediaWatchBlog,) I’m betting it’s still too large a number for the average citizen (again, myself included.) to comprehend. So… even though we could further break this down by the hour ($42 million,) the minute ($695 thousand,) or even the second ($11,575) so we get to a figure that looks even remotely like something that might actually reside in our bank accounts, why don’t we just try to visualize what our daily payment of $1 billion is, seeing as our government and those reporting these grotesque numbers to us seem to think we can easily wrap our heads around a number such as a billion.
Let’s take a stack of $1 bills, shall we? It takes approximately 150 of them to make an inch, and 1800 to make a foot. So, if we were to stack today’s interest payment in $1 bills, we would have a stack 611,111 feet high. Hmmmmm. I still have no idea what that would look like. 611,111 feet is almost 116 miles! Alright, well, I kinda know what 116 miles looks like; at least I think I do. It is roughly the distance between the downtowns of San Diego and Los Angeles. It is, interestingly enough, the minimum orbital distance of the Space Shuttle. Alright, so after further thought, since I have never seen the space shuttle in flight, I’d say 116 miles of dollar bills is still something I can’t really imagine.
What I am really trying to point out here is how huge our national debt really is. So huge in fact that the average citizen has no concept of how much money we are talking about. Okay, so, we’re spending 1 billion dollars a day in interest. Doesn’t sound so bad, I mean, it’s only 1 billion. Better than 2, right? Maybe because 1 is a number we can all identify with, the fact that it is only 1 makes it more palatable I guess. Until you realize that our government spends more on interest on our national debt than nearly every single major line item in the federal budget! Including: education, law enforcement, environmental protection, medical research, transportation, energy (or better yet, the development of alternative forms? More on this later, I’m sure,) and homeland security. In fact, put them all together, and you still don’t have what we pay in interest!
Just imagine if we had an additional $352 billion to budget.
Oh, I ganja!
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