Letter: We owe a lot of money — vote responsibly
Definition: “Trillion” is a million million: a very large number!
1. The U.S. national debt now reads $19.1 trillion. (China is our largest “privately held” debt holder, by the way.) Our national debt is larger than the U.S. gross domestic product, the sum of all our goods and services! This national debt is budgeted and we do pay on it as required by our Constitution and its 14th Amendment.
2. U.S. federal annual budget is now $4.1 trillion.
3. Annual tax revenues and fees for the budget are about $3.5 trillion.
4. Therefore, fiscal year 2017 borrowed budget (new debt) funds are around $0.6 trillion. Our national debt continues to grow daily.
5. Unfunded, non-budgeted “liabilities” must still be paid, however, and total $123.2 trillion, including:
6. Social Security unfunded liability of $15.1 trillion;
7. Medicare unfunded liability of $79.0 trillion;
8. Prescription drug unfunded liability of $19.9 trillion;
9. National healthcare unfunded liability of $9.2 trillion.
10. This totals our federal taxpayer debt, budgeted plus unfunded liabilities, of $142.3 trillion; our debt!
11. Now, add other public debt. State, county, city …
12. You get the picture! We owe a lot of money.
13. Vote responsibly.
John Umbarger, Burbank
This story was originally published March 10, 2016 at 5:30 PM with the headline "Letter: We owe a lot of money — vote responsibly."