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America is Broke

America is Broke. What Does the National Debt Mean to You ?. National Debt:. What is the National Debt? The national debt is money owed by the United States federal government to creditors.

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America is Broke

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  1. America is Broke

  2. What Does the National Debt Mean to You?

  3. National Debt: • What is the National Debt? The national debt is money owed by the United States federal government to creditors. • Why Do We Have a National Debt? Quite simply because of deficit spending, our representatives spend more money than the treasury brings in in taxes • What is the current total of the National Debt? • http://www.usdebtclock.org/index.html

  4. What does America spend money on? • Federal spending is broken down into 7 major categories. The majority of which goes to entitlement spending. (7% Medicaid, 16% Medicare, 21 % Social Security) Defense is the largest discretionary spending with 20% of the 2008 budget going to defend our country. Non-defense discretionary spending (Education, International affairs, Health research and regulation, Veterans' benefits, Science and basic research) takes 18%. Paying interest on the national debt eats up 8% of the budget.

  5. Who do we owe the money to? • A portion of the national debt is held by the public (states, corporations, individuals, and foreign governments) in the form of treasury bills, treasury notes, US savings bonds, and state and local government series securities. • Foreign Ownership of the National Debt There is growing concern over foreign ownership of US Treasury securities. The two largest creditors are Japan and Mainland China. There is also a large portion owned by Oil exporters. It is feared that that some of these countries, China in particular, may have an agenda in buying up US debt such as using its ownership of US securities as a leverage against US policy it opposes.

  6. What are the sources of income? According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) the government will collect $2.6 trillion in revenues in 2008. Individual income taxes will account for $1.1 trillion (approx. 45%). corporate taxes contribute $326 billion (13%), Social Insurance $912 billion (13%), Excisetaxes $69 billion (3%), Estate and Gift taxes $27 billion (1%), Customs and Duties $27 billion (1%), and Miscellaneous sources $45 billion (2%).

  7. What is America’s plan for future spending? http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/

  8. ASSIGNMENT: If you were president how would you improve the national debt? What are some of the areas of spending and revenue that you increase or decrease?

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