I do not consider myself to be an overly political guy. I believe in independence, a free-market, and personal responsibility. Much of the political chatter these days continues to be on balancing the budget through budget cuts and taxation. I'm not going to give my extended opinion on this as I don't intend for this blog to be driven by political propaganda...but, I will say this...I consider myself to be an extremely fiscally responsible individual. I work hard during the week, I earn a living, I save a larger than average percentage of my salary, and I don't spend outside of my means.
I started to dig deeper into US's fiscal responsibility in order to better understand it. Most of you know that our national debt continues to grow, but what you may not understand (I sure didn't), is that all the banter back and forth from our elected politicians on the topic of budget cuts, really becomes insurmountable in the big picture. Here's a financial breakdown I found that shows the US Budget, simplified down to a level we can understand as a "household budget" (removing 8 zeroes from each figure):
U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
Recent [April] budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000
Let’s remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget:
Annual family income: $21,700
Money the family spent: $38,200
New debt on the credit card: $16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
Budget cuts: $385
Wow! Looks like the US has a lot of credit card debt. Not to mention, those budget cuts sure don't seem that great...that's like me cutting out Starbucks for a year. This really makes me wonder what's going on in D.C. I don't think "fiscal responsibility" is on the radar...but perhaps I'm stating the obvious.
Great illustration, Cheesey.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Simple and to the point for sure.
ReplyDeleteSPOT ON...I can't tell you how pissed off this continually makes me as I hear these bullshit politicians run their mouths... It's not difficult math but somehow they seem to live in a fantasy world where puppy dogs and ice cream make all their worries go away... thank god my parents brought me up with the simple statement "If you don't have the money in your wallet, then you can't buy it". I'm sorry but credit card debt is for suckers...
ReplyDeleteTrue dat Detroit Dan. When you really look at all that politicking, just to earn or maintain office, so they can continue to NOT really impact much of anything...makes me want to change jobs. I think I can do it!
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