How much does the government borrow

[Politically_Incorrect12]

Just saw on the Early Show that for every $1 the government spends, $0.40 is borrowed. I don't see how raising the debt ceiling is going to help when almost half of what we spend is borrowed.

[burnsattornincan]

I'm not sure that is the correct description. Out of every dollar the government spends about 35 cents goes toward paying interest on the debt. I haven't heard that it is 40 cents yet but could be close. A ridiculous amount nonetheless and successive inept governments are solely to blame. Raising the debt ceiling doesn't "help" anything, all it does is allow the government or most of it to continue operating because if you couldn't borrow any more dough there would be nothing left to pay anyone to come in and do the useless job they do.

[deziloooooo]

I thought the figure bandied about was .43cents...what ever it is, it's unsustainable.

[Politically_Incorrect12]

Maybe not increasing the debt ceiling is what we need at this particular time...possibly make politicians from both sides do what they have promised to do many times in actually dealing with the debt.

[cme1201]

Topic: How much does the government borrow?

Answer: TOO DAMN MUCH

[deziloooooo]

May 16, 2011 8:06:02 GMT -5 Politically_Incorrect12 said:

Maybe not increasing the debt ceiling is what we need at this particular time...possibly make politicians from both sides do what they have promised to do many times in actually dealing with the debt.

My feelings, that's what they are doing now, we'll know shortly what they come up with, then we scream.

[Politically_Incorrect12]

May 16, 2011 8:12:23 GMT -5 deziloooooo said:

May 16, 2011 8:06:02 GMT -5 Politically_Incorrect12 said:

Maybe not increasing the debt ceiling is what we need at this particular time...possibly make politicians from both sides do what they have promised to do many times in actually dealing with the debt.

My feelings, that's what they are doing now, we'll know shortly what they come up with, then we scream.

I have no doubt there will be some screaming about the needed cuts. People have gotten used to having something for nothing for far too long, and now we'll have to deal with it.

[Driftr]

I don't know how accurate this site is, but it looks to me like for 2010 we 'only' borrowed 37.4 cents of every dollar we spent.

And we only spent 5.7 cents of every dollar on interest on the debt.

www.usgovernmentspending.com/year2010_0.html

[deziloooooo]

May 16, 2011 8:23:31 GMT -5 Politically_Incorrect12 said:

May 16, 2011 8:12:23 GMT -5 deziloooooo said:

My feelings, that's what they are doing now, we'll know shortly what they come up with, then we scream.

I have no doubt there will be some screaming about the needed cuts. People have gotten used to having something for nothing for far too long, and now we'll have to deal with it.

Being from the middle to the left, I am not so against social programs , but I am also not a idiot, and realize a 14 Trillion debt, and I believe the experts who say so, is unsustainable. Some debt , OK, no prob, but because of a lot of decisions, one being wars, many , very costly ones with no taxes to pay for them, even to help pay for them, say not cover every dollar, how about .50 on the doller, plus wrong decisions over the years...something has to be done.

The latest natural calamities, the Tornado's in the country, the on going floods, who knows what that is going to cost, and help has to go to those areas and possible other ones down the road, changes have to be made, and I am ready for them.

[burnsattornincan]

And we only spent 5.7 cents of every dollar on interest on the debt.

I've been doing a little research on this since my 35% number was way above what you said here. The numbers I saw on various sites went from 4.3% up to 9% for fiscal 2010. Seems difficult to get a solid number for some reason. I ended up using the total interest expense for 2010 (414 bil) and dividing it by the 2010 total expenditures (3.5 tril) to come up with 11%. I need to look at the Canadian numbers again because I know I've seen pie charts where it showed the interest on the debt was around 30 cents for every dollar spent. I can't imagine the US being so much lower but maybe it is. You can find the totals for interest payments on the US debt here;

www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/ir/ir_expense.htm

Added: I forgot that the interest rate was much higher not so long ago and that would have a big impact on the numbers...

[deziloooooo]

well what do they mean when they say the cost is whatever, .30 cents to my figure I thought I read .43 on the doller..bit confused.

[Driftr]

Here's a pie chart. After reading the definition at the bottom it looks like the 5.7 cents was a net interest expense number. I like the Treasury Direct one better. 11% it is.

www.fms.treas.gov/annualreport/cs2010/outlay.pdf

[floridayankee]

May 16, 2011 9:20:09 GMT -5 deziloooooo said:

Being from the middle to the left, I am not so against social programs , but I am also not a idiot, and realize a 14 Trillion debt, and I believe the experts who say so, is unsustainable. Some debt , OK, no prob, but because of a lot of decisions, one being wars, many , very costly ones with no taxes to pay for them, even to help pay for them, say not cover every dollar, how about .50 on the doller, plus wrong decisions over the years...something has to be done.

The fed government talks in terms of trillions like it's nothing. The fed debt is $14.3 trillion, the FY2010 fed receipts are $2.2 trillion and spending is $3.5 trillion. Most people cannot even relate to these numbers. Using numbers more in our neighborhood, this is roughly equivalent to a family earning $50,000/year with a current debt of $325,000 and still spending $80,000/year.

This being the politics and markets board, I'm sure we can all see where this family is heading if something does not change.

[burnsattornincan]

well what do they mean when they say the cost is whatever, .30 cents to my figure I thought I read .43 on the doller..bit confused.

Looks like we're talking about 2 different things. The 30, 43 or whatever cents is how much of 1 dollar that the federal government takes in is actually borrowed as opposed to collected from tax revenue. On what the government spends, the 11% figure is the percentage going toward interest on the debt. The remaining 89% on health care, food stamps, military and all that fun stuff.

[fairlycrazy23]

Not only does the Federal Government have to borrow around .40 of each dollar it spends, it has to loan itself most of this money. (loan may be the wrong word, print money to loan it would be better)

Who will buy Treasuries when the Fed doesn't?" Bill Gross asked last week in his monthly missive. Yesterday the co-founder and chief investment officer of Pimco answered, by saying "not me."

Pimco, the world's largest bond fund, sold off all its government-related debt from its flagship fund.

"Nearly 70 percent of the annualized issuance since the beginning of QE2 [second round of quantitative easing] has been purchased by the Fed, with the balance absorbed by those old standbys -- the Chinese, Japanese and other reserve surplus sovereigns," Gross said of the recent bond action.

He also cited extreme embezzler Bernie Madoff in his letter, likening the Fed debt buying to a Ponzi scheme, which works until it doesn't.
www.nypost.com/p/news/business/pimco_sells_off_all_its_treasuries_UVnug3Z8hxAVkAq4J3vpDP

[Politically_Incorrect12]

Seems like most people on here realize something needs done about the debt....

[deziloooooo]

May 16, 2011 10:18:04 GMT -5 burnsattornincan said:

well what do they mean when they say the cost is whatever, .30 cents to my figure I thought I read .43 on the doller..bit confused.

Looks like we're talking about 2 different things. The 30, 43 or whatever cents is how much of 1 dollar that the federal government takes in is actually borrowed as opposed to collected from tax revenue. On what the government spends, the 11% figure is the percentage going toward interest on the debt. The remaining 89% on health care, food stamps, military and all that fun stuff.

gotcha, understand now , ty