The National Debt
Posted by Moonage on 01 Nov 2005 | Tagged as: Fed Policy
A lot is being made of the reckless spending habits of Congress in light of
Katrina and other political issues. I look at things a little more
differently. Here’s how I see things, from the
Congressional
Budget Office:
| Deficit (-) or Surplus | Debt Held by the Public | |
| 1962 | -1.20% | 43.10% |
| 1963 | -0.80% | 42.00% |
| 1964 | -0.90% | 40.30% |
| 1965 | -0.20% | 38.60% |
| 1966 | -0.50% | 36.60% |
| 1967 | -1.10% | 34.30% |
| 1968 | -3.00% | 34.40% |
| 1969 | 0.40% | 30.30% |
| 1970 | -0.30% | 28.20% |
| 1971 | -2.10% | 27.80% |
| 1972 | -2.00% | 27.30% |
| 1973 | -1.20% | 26.80% |
| 1974 | -0.40% | 24.30% |
| 1975 | -3.30% | 24.40% |
| 1976 | -4.10% | 26.70% |
| 1977 | -2.70% | 27.40% |
| 1978 | -2.70% | 27.40% |
| 1979 | -1.60% | 25.90% |
| 1980 | -2.70% | 25.70% |
| 1981 | -2.50% | 25.20% |
| 1982 | -3.70% | 26.90% |
| 1983 | -5.60% | 30.90% |
| 1984 | -4.70% | 33.20% |
| 1985 | -5.10% | 36.00% |
| 1986 | -5.00% | 39.30% |
| 1987 | -3.20% | 40.30% |
| 1988 | -3.10% | 41.10% |
| 1989 | -2.90% | 41.00% |
| 1990 | -3.90% | 42.30% |
| 1991 | -4.40% | 44.20% |
| 1992 | -4.50% | 46.90% |
| 1993 | -3.80% | 48.40% |
| 1994 | -2.90% | 48.80% |
| 1995 | -2.20% | 48.80% |
| 1996 | -1.40% | 48.10% |
| 1997 | -0.30% | 46.30% |
| 1998 | 0.80% | 43.60% |
| 1999 | 1.40% | 40.50% |
| 2000 | 2.50% | 35.90% |
| 2001 | 1.30% | 32.90% |
| 2002 | -1.50% | 33.30% |
| 2003 | -3.40% | 35.00% |
| 2004 | -3.50% | 36.50% |
| Average | -2.59% | 34.85% |
Historically, the debt is in line with normal levels. It’s been better,
it’s been worse. The thing people are panicking over is how big the number
is. What they don’t take into account is how big the base is. Here’s
how it stacks up during the same period of time:
| 1962 | $ 568,000,000,000.00 |
| 1963 | $ 599,000,000,000.00 |
| 1964 | $ 641,000,000,000.00 |
| 1965 | $ 687,000,000,000.00 |
| 1966 | $ 756,000,000,000.00 |
| 1967 | $ 810,000,000,000.00 |
| 1968 | $ 869,000,000,000.00 |
| 1969 | $ 948,000,000,000.00 |
| 1970 | $ 1,013,000,000,000.00 |
| 1971 | $ 1,080,000,000,000.00 |
| 1972 | $ 1,177,000,000,000.00 |
| 1973 | $ 1,311,000,000,000.00 |
| 1974 | $ 1,439,000,000,000.00 |
| 1975 | $ 1,561,000,000,000.00 |
| 1976 | $ 1,739,000,000,000.00 |
| 1977 | $ 1,974,000,000,000.00 |
| 1978 | $ 2,218,000,000,000.00 |
| 1979 | $ 2,502,000,000,000.00 |
| 1980 | $ 2,725,000,000,000.00 |
| 1981 | $ 3,059,000,000,000.00 |
| 1982 | $ 3,226,000,000,000.00 |
| 1983 | $ 3,443,000,000,000.00 |
| 1984 | $ 3,847,000,000,000.00 |
| 1985 | $ 4,149,000,000,000.00 |
| 1986 | $ 4,407,000,000,000.00 |
| 1987 | $ 4,654,000,000,000.00 |
| 1988 | $ 5,012,000,000,000.00 |
| 1989 | $ 5,402,000,000,000.00 |
| 1990 | $ 5,737,000,000,000.00 |
| 1991 | $ 5,934,000,000,000.00 |
| 1992 | $ 6,241,000,000,000.00 |
| 1993 | $ 6,578,000,000,000.00 |
| 1994 | $ 6,964,000,000,000.00 |
| 1995 | $ 7,325,000,000,000.00 |
| 1996 | $ 7,697,000,000,000.00 |
| 1997 | $ 8,187,000,000,000.00 |
| 1998 | $ 8,626,000,000,000.00 |
| 1999 | $ 9,127,000,000,000.00 |
| 2000 | $ 9,708,000,000,000.00 |
| 2001 | $ 10,060,000,000,000.00 |
| 2002 | $ 10,389,000,000,000.00 |
| 2003 | $ 10,841,000,000,000.00 |
| 2004 | $ 11,553,000,000,000.00 |
That’s a mighty big number folks. When people talk about the $30
billion it might take to get New Orleans going again, that’s 2/10th’s of 1 per
cent of our economy as of 2004. The debt as of 2004 is 2.59 percent.
Now, I ask you, how many of you have a debt load that is 2.59 per cent of
your annual income?
I really have not seen any reason to panic for a long time. When it
became trendy to take money out of the economy circa 1997, the economy sank for
five years. I’m not in the mood to do that again for the sake of 2.59%
debt.
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