| Who Holds Our Record $16 Trillion In National Debt |
| Sep-04-2012 |
| Keywords: national debt, 16 trillion, obama, republicans, |
The national debt today reached a milestone, topping $16 trillion dollars. Not good news for Democrats kicking off their national convention. But if you thought China's holding the majority of our debt, you'd be wrong.
Two-thirds of the national debt is owed to the U.S. government, American investors and future retirees, through the Social Security Trust Fund and pension plans for civil service workers and military personnel. China, it turns out, holds less than 8 percent of the money our debt.
Economists differ on when the National Debt actually crested the $16 trillion mark, with some saying it occurred on Friday and others saying it happens on Tuesday. But none doubt that the federal government's tab is enormous, and continues to grow. Just under $5 trillion of the national debt is owed to the Social Security Trust Fund and federal pension systems. A little more than $11 trillion is owed to foreign and domestic investors and the Federal Reserve, which buys up treasuries in order to drag down interest rates through quantitative easing.
China has actually decreased its holdings of U.S. debt over the past year, dropping from $1.31 trillion in June 2011 to $1.16 trillion a year later, according to the Treasury Department.
Republicans are understandably using the enormous debt to bolster their criticisms that President Obama's spending is just one of the many reasons we can't afford another four years under the current administration.
House Speaker John Boehner called it a "sad reminder of President Obama's broken promise to cut the deficit in half."
President Obama, during his 2008 campaign, criticized President Bush for taking "out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents ... so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back."
But Obama has been unable to slow the rapidly mounting debt. The nation owed $10.6 trillion on Jan. 20, 2009, when he was sworn in, and has added another $5.4 trillion since - more than Bush piled up in two terms.
"Instead of working in a bipartisan way to fulfill his promise, the president went on a 'stimulus'-fueld spending binge," Boehner said. "This debt is a drain on our economy and a crushing burden on our kids and grandkids."
Romney accused Obama of leaving Americans "worse off than when he took office."
"But it's not just this generation that's paying the price," he said. "The next generation has been saddled with enormous debt because of President Obama's policies." |
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Posted by Lou Dobbs Staff at 11:00 AM Email to a friend |
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