Deficit

Sad but true our national debt is over 16 trillion dollars now.  Since it’s election time (and even before that) the finger pointing continues.  If we can pull any good news out of the this I guess it would be that China is no longer our big daddy foreign holder.  They are owed about 1.16 trillion of it.  Japan took on about 1.12 trillion of it.  About 5 trillion of it is internally ours for the Social Security Trust Fund and federal pension systems. The rest is divided up between many countries in smaller increments.  The federal reserves buys it up also to keep it stable which is shady but anyway.  The Bush era certainly didn’t help with the wars debt added and Obama’s promise of reducing it in half – just never came (nor will it ever come).  Obama can blame Bush and how he inherited it, however, after a year in office you have to take the rest of the blame being the man in charge.  It’s never going down and another 4 years will produce the same results.  Will Mitt Romney make a difference?  I doubt it but he at least deserves a shot at it in my opinion.  I would prefer someone who would take drastic changes like a Ron Paul, however, America isn’t ready for that yet.  Perhaps another 4 or 8 years will change their minds.

Here is some food for thought.  The debt added under Obama’s 3+ years in office was more than Bush added in his 8 years of presidency – combined.  Bush added 4.9 trillion total and Obama added 5.4 trillion and climbing.  One last point regarding unemployment rate under Obama, no incumbent has ever been re-elected with unemployment this high – ever.  In the event, Obama takes another 4 years he will have not only made history as the first African American president but also making history being re-elected with the highest unemployment rate.  Congrats if you win I guess.