DEBT: Ante up, Americans

This country’s biggest problem is the national debt, now at $16.5 trillion, and going up. Few people know what a trillion is. It is a 1 with 12 zeros behind it. Or, take a million, multiply it by 1,000, then you have a billion. Multiply that again by 1,000, bingo, you have a trillion.

Well, our government owes 16.5 times that much. The annual interest on that is close to $1/2 trillion.

The annual deficit during the first four years of the Cheney/Bush administration was a good half a trillion dollars, then it went up to over $1 trillion, particularly the last two years, running unnecessary wars of choice.

That was the situation which President Obama took over. The damage done was practically beyond repair. Finally there is a modest improvement; the 2013 budget deficit is estimated at $845 billion, still adding to the debt yearly. We read a lot about the negotiations between President Obama and the Republicans in Congress to agree on a balanced budget. It would take close to $1 trillion in spending cuts, in domestic and in defense spending, in tax increases, in eliminating tax loopholes, changes in Medicare and in Social Security will be included. All that would get us is a balanced budget, but not reducing the existing debt.

The numbers of $1.2 trillion or more are mentioned in these debates, but not often is it mentioned that these are numbers spread over the next 10 years, a decade, meaning this is only 10 percent of what needs to be agreed upon! Our country is living on printed money ... what will that do to the value of our American dollar?

VERN KROCKMEYER

Post Falls