Ever wonder why we are in such financial duress as a nation? We owe other nations, many of whom do not like us very much, some of whom actively fight us on proxy battlefields, and we owe ourselves over $17 trillion dollars. That is a 17 with twelve zeroes behind it. Our Gross Domestic Product in 2012 was 15.68 trillion. That (GDP) is the monetary worth of every product and service we as a country produce, consume and export. So, if we used all of that value for an entire year, no one being paid anything, no bills being paid, we couldn’t pay off our debt in a year.
The first thing we have to make sure is understood is that the federal government produces no goods, sells no product, and generates no revenue. Their money comes from the citizenry in the form of taxes and fees. Staying with 2012 figures, the final budget for that year was 2.469 trillion. We spent, however, 3.769 trillion for a deficit of 1.396 trillion dollars. Just for 2012.
When Bush was president, over his eight years, his administration ran up deficits greater than the sum total of all previous administrations. A large portion of his deficits were in the form of defense department expenditures. We fought two wars for the better part of a decade and did nothing to budget for them. Taxes were not raised. War bonds were not sold. Goods to the public were not rationed. We simply borrowed the money from ourselves and other nations.
Obama has managed to nearly double Bush’s deficit figures in only five years. One of the wars has ended. The other is going to end this year. Where is the money being spent? Just examine the largess of government workers, their salaries, and their perks.
The President earns nearly $400,000 per year. The Vice President earns $230,000. We have a cabinet of secretaries each earning $199,700. There are fifteen of them. So, these seven people collectively are paid 3.6 million a year. More actually when you consider that the VA Secretary, the hapless and idiotic Eric Shenseki, earns and additional $181,000 for his military retirement atop his $199,700 salary. The head of the CIA makes another $199,700. The Director of the FBI makes $178,700. The White House Chief of Staff, essentially the president’s executive bitch, makes $172,200. We’re closing in on $5million and we’re still just at the executive level.
Each of those Secretaries have Deputies; 46 of them, each one earning $178,700. They also have Under Secretaries, 127 of them, each one earning $165,300. Then there are Assistant Secretaries, General Counsels; 346 of these, each earning $155,500. Lastly there is a fifth layer of executive pay strati, 143 strong, each earning $145,700. So, the head of the federal government (the executive branch), 683 in number collectively gouge us for over $113 million dollars a year. Add in the House and Senate (535 each at an average of $174,000) equals $93million. The tip of this mop handle (won’t call it a spear) costs its nation $206 million a year.
Senators “work” 112 days of the year. Obama seems to golf every fucking week.
Now, bring back into mind those early numbers. $17 TRILLION in debt. A million dollars, ten thousand $100 bills. Hundreds come in bundles of 100. Each bundle of banded $100 bills is $10,000. A million dollars would be 100 bundles of $100 bills. It would fit easily into a standard sized back pack. $100 million would look like cases of wine bottle boxes stacked two high on a pallet. A billion dollars would (thus) be ten pallets of those wine bottle cases, stacked two high. A trillion dollars is a million million. It’s a thousand billion. It’s a one followed by 12 zeroes. It would be those pallets stacked two high, in rows and columns fifty deep. Yes, two high, and fifty by fifty in width and length. And we owe 17 times that.
I know that $206 million is a drop in the bucket of our 3 and 4 trillion dollar budgets. But if we waste so much money paying people to not get along or get anything done, is it any wonder at all?