5000 Year Leap (31 page)

2002 ....... 2,010,970,000,000

2001 ....... 1,863,770,000,000

2000 ....... 1,788,773,000,000

1999 ....... 1,701,891,000,000

1998 ....... 1,652,585,000,000

1997 ....... 1,601,250,000,000

1996 ....... 1,560,535,000,000

1995 ....... 1,515,802,000,000

1994 ....... 1,461,877,000,000

1993 ....... 1,409,489,000,000

1992 ....... 1,381,655,000,000

1991 ....... 1,324,369,000,000

1990 ....... 1,253,165,000,000

1989 ....... 1,143,646,000,000

1988 ....... 1,064,455,000,000

1987 ....... 1,004,082,000,000

1986 ....... 990,430,000,000

1985 ....... 946,396,000,000

1984 ....... 851,853,000,000

1983 ....... 808,364,000,000

1982 ....... 745,743,000,000

1981 ....... 678,241,000,000

1980 ....... 590,941,000,000

1979 ....... 504,028,000,000

1978 ....... 458,746,000,000

1977 ....... 409,218,000,000

1976 ....... 371,792,000,000

1975 ....... 332,332,000,000

1974 ....... 269,359,000,000

1973 ....... 245,707,000,000

1972 ....... 230,681,000,000

1971 ....... 210,172,000,000

1970 ....... 195,649,000,000

1969 ....... 183,640,000,000

1968 ....... 178,134,000,000

1967 ....... 157,464,000,000

1966 ....... 134,532,000,000

1965 ........... 118,228,000,000

1964 ........... 118,528,000,000

1963 ........... 111,316,000,000

1962 ........... 106,821,000,000

1961 ........... 97,723,000,000

1960 ........... 92,191,000,000

1959 ........... 92,098,000,000

1958 ........... 82,405,000,000

1957 ........... 76,578,000,000

1956 ........... 70,640,000,000

1955 ........... 68,444,000,000

1954 ........... 70,855,000,000

1953 ........... 76,101,000,000

1952 ........... 67,686,000,000

1951 ........... 45,514,000,000

1950 ........... 42,562,000,000

1949 ........... 38,835,000,000

1948 ........... 29,764,000,000

1947 ........... 34,496,000,000

1946 ........... 55,232,000,000

1945 ........... 92,712,000,000

1944 ........... 91,304,000,000

1943 ........... 78,555,000,000

1942 ........... 35,137,000,000

1941 ........... 13,653,000,000

1940 ........... 9,468,000,000

1939 ........... 9,141,000,000

1938 ........... 6,840,000,000

1937 ........... 7,580,000,000

1936 ........... 8,228,000,000

1935 ........... 6,412,000,000

1934 ........... 6,541,000,000

1933 ........... 4,598,000,000

1932 ........... 4,659,000,000

1931 ........... 3,577,000,000

1930 ........... 3,320,000,000

1929 ........... 3,127,000,000

1928 ........... 2,961,000,000

1927 ........... 2,857,000,000

1926 ........... 2,930,000,000

1925 ........... 2,924,000,000

1924 ........... 2,908,000,000

1923 ........... 3,140,000,000

1922 ........... 3,289,000,000

1921 ........... 5,062,000,000

1920 ............. 6,358,000,000

1919 ............. 18,493,000,000

1918 ............. 12,677,000,000

1917 ............. 1,954,000,000

1916 ............. 713,000,000

1915 ............. 746,000,000

1914 ............. 726,000,000

1913 ............. 715,000,000

1912 ............. 690,000,000

1911 ............. 691,000,000

1910 .............. 694,000,000

1909 .............. 694,000,000

1908 .............. 659,000,000

1907 .............. 579,000,000

1906 .............. 570,000,000

1905 .............. 567,000,000

1904 .............. 584,000,000

1903 .............. 517,000,000

1902 .............. 485,000,000

1901 .............. 525,000,000

1900 .............. 520,861,000

1895 .............. 356,195,000

1890 .............. 318,041,000

1885 .............. 260,227,000

1880 .............. 267,643,000

1875 .............. 274,623,000

1870 .............. 309,654,000

1865 .............. 1,297,555,000

1860 .............. 63,131,000

1855 .............. 59,743,000

1789-1849 .... 1,090,000,000

   (Source: www.gpoaccess.gov; The Statistical History of the United States [New York; Basic Books, Inc., 1976], p.1118; Statistical Abstract of the United States [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1978], p.257.)

U.S. National Debt: 1791 to 2006

2006 ....... 8,366,862,634,494

2005 ....... 7,932,709,661,723

2004 ....... 7,379,052,696,330

2003 ....... 6,783,231,062,743

2002 ....... 6,228,235,965,597

2001 ....... 5,807,463,412,200

2000 ....... 5,674,178,209,886

1999 ....... 5,656,270,901,615

1998 ....... 5,526,193,008,897

1997 ....... 5,413,146,011,397

1996 ....... 5,224,810,939,135

1995 ....... 4,973,982,900,709

1994 ....... 4,692,749,910,013

1993 ....... 4,411,488,883,139

1992 ....... 4,064,620,655,521

1991 ....... 3,665,303,351,697

1990 ....... 3,233,313,451,777

1989 ....... 2,857,430,960,187

1988 ....... 2,602,337,712,041

1987 ....... 2,350,276,890,953

1986 ....... 2,125,302,616,658

1985 ....... 1,945,941,616,459

1980 ....... 930,210,000,000

1975 ....... 576,649,000,000

1970 ....... 389,158,403,690

1965 ....... 320,904,110,042

1960 ....... 290,216,815,241

1955 ....... 280,768,553,188

1950 ....... 257,357,352,351

1945 ....... 258,682,187,409

1940 ....... 42,967,531,037

1935 ....... 28,700,892,624

1930 ....... 16,185,309,831

1925 ....... 20,516,193,887

1920 ....... 25,952,456,406

1915 ....... 3,058,136,873

1910 ....... 2,652,665,838

1905 ....... 2,274,615,063

1900 ....... 2,136,961,091

1895 ....... 1,676,120,983

1890 ....... 1,552,140,204

1885 ............. 1,863,964,873

1880 ............. 2,120,415,370

1875 ............. 2,232,284,531

1870 ............. 2,480,672,427

1865 ............. 2,680,647,869

1860 ............. 64,842,287

1855 ............. 35,586,956

1850 ............. 63,452,773

1845 ............. 15,925,303

1840 ............. 3,573,343

1835 ............. 33,733

1830 ............. 48,565,406

1825 ............. 83,788,432

1820 ............. 91,015,566

1815 ............. 99,833,660

1810 ............. 53,173,217

1805 ............. 82,312,150

1800 ............. 82,976,294

1795 ............. 80,747,587

1791 ............. 75,463,476

* Rounded to Millions

(Source: Bureau of the Public Debt - United States Department of the Treasury; www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opd.htm)

Debt Update. New all time high records have been set for deficit spending during the spring of 2006. Congress has increased the debt ceiling to NINE Trillion dollars. All things considered the burden of debt for every man, woman and child in the country has risen to over $100,000 each. Our nation is overspending at a rate of about $2 billion per day. During the first half of 2005, Americans got poorer at the rate of $80 million per HOUR. Headlines of 2005 offered the remarkable information that China - a Third World nation - lends the United States $300 billion per year. Vice President, Dick Cheney has reminded us that: "Deficits don't matter." United States citizens seem to regard thrift as a mental disorder and not a virtue. In the private sector during 2005, for every $19 Americans earned, they spent $20. If a thinking person will look at it, the absurdity becomes glaring. America has become an "empire of debt" and is sowing the seeds of her own destruction. (Empire of Debt, The Rise of an Epic Financial Crisis, Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin, John Wiley & Sons, 2006).

   First of all, as we have already observed, each generation of the past tried to pay off the national debt. In our own day, the importance of this policy has been de-emphasized. This development has occurred simultaneously with a policy of de-emphasizing the restraints and literal construction of the Constitution.

   Beginning with the era of the Great Depression, all three branches of the federal government used the climate of emergency to overstep their Constitutional authority and aggressively undertake to perform tasks not authorized by the Founders. Extensive studies by Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman have demonstrated that every one of these adventures in non-Constitutional activities proved counter-productive, some of them tragically so.

   Secondly, the people were induced to believe that these serious aberrations of Constitutional principles would provide a shortcut to economic prosperity, thereby lifting the people out of the depression. Unfortunately, it was successful only politically. It gave the people the illusion that by spending vast quantities of borrowed money they would prosper, when, as a matter of fact, the outcome was exactly the opposite, just as the Founders had predicted.

   Dr. Milton Friedman points out that after the federal government had spent many billions of dollars and had seriously meddled with the Constitutional structure of the nation, the unemployment rate was higher in 1938 than it had been in 1932. Had not the crisis of World War II suddenly emerged, which required the spending of many additional billions of borrowed dollars and also resulted in absorbing the unemployed work force, the fiscal failure of the New Deal experiments would be better remembered by the American people.

   It is highly significant that the political formula which Harry Hopkins recommended to keep a particular administration in power was "tax, tax -- spend, spend -- elect, elect." Once the people have been encouraged by their political leaders to indulge in splurge spending, the result is like a snowball rolling downhill -- it increases in size and gains in speed. This is dramatically demonstrated in the charts. It will be noted that the national budget was less than a hundred billion dollars in 1960. Today we spend almost that much just for interest on the national debt. And that is more than the entire cost of World War I in real dollars! Since 1970 the national debt has tripled.

   The figures in these charts are astonishing, but not nearly as significant as the trend of thinking among the American people which the figures represent. For the first time in the entire history of the United States, a generation of Americans is squandering the next generation's inheritance. With the national debt at one trillion dollars, there is no way in the foreseeable future whereby this generation could possibly liquidate such a mountain of accumulated debt.

   The problem is aggravated by the fact that this generation has also committed itself to pay off additional liabilities in the future amounting to approximately eleven trillion dollars. Since 1972 an effort has been made to compute precisely how extensive these commitments really are, but it is feared that they may turn out to be even more than the eleven trillion which present tabulations indicate.

   Of course, the Founders would understand exactly what this generation is doing to itself. It is the very essence of human nature to pursue this disastrous course once the appetite has been created to demand it. As a result, American taxpayers now discover themselves playing a role almost identical to that of an addict on hard drugs. The addict denounces his "habit" and despises the "pusher" who got him into it, but when he is confronted with the crisis of needing a "fix" he will plead with tears of anguish for the narcotic remedy.

   The "fix," of course, is not a remedy at all. The real remedy is "withdrawal." The addict must escape from the tortuous cycle of vicious repetition which is not solving his problem but compounding it. If withdrawal is painful, at least it is not prolonged. The problem is primarily a matter of will power -- the determination to change.

   Every aspect of this reprehensible example applies to the mood of the American masses during recent years. Polemics against the government's profligate spending are vehement. The denunciation of high taxes is virtually universal. From banker to ditch-digger it is eloquently explained how this entire syndrome of big spending, high taxes, oppressive government regulations, and mountainous debt is stifling the economy, inhibiting the rate of production, and stagnating the wholesome development of the traditional American life-style. Yet, with all of that, any Congressman will verify that it has been, at least until recently, almost political suicide to try to change the trend. When it comes to cutting programs and reducing costs, balancing the budget, and eliminating deficit spending, it is amazing how few will make the necessary adjustment without the most violent outcries of protest when it affects them personally. But then, this would come as no surprise to the Founders. It is called "human nature." They would know that the only solution is to develop the will power to make the change. This is not easy, but it can be done.

   In recent years, the number of Americans who have become reconciled to the inescapable necessity of returning to the Founders' formula has risen to millions. The very circumstances in which the American taxpayer finds himself are sufficient to awaken many to recognize the fiscal bottomless pit into which the nation is sinking. The vivid shock of that realization is precisely what is needed to arouse the majority of the people to the point where they are willing to go through fiscal withdrawal and kick the habit of splurge spending.