Economy
Related: About this forumUS passes 100% debt to GDP
US Closes 2011 With Record $15.22 Trillion In Debt, Officially At 100.3% Debt/GDP, $14 Billion From Breaching Debt CeilingWhile not news to Zero Hedge readers who knew about the final debt settlement of US debt about 10 days ahead of schedule, it is now official: according to the US Treasury, America has closed the books on 2011 with debt at an all time record $15,222,940,045,451.09. And, as was observed here first in all of the press, US debt to GDP is now officially over 100%, or 100.3% to be specific, a fact which the US government decided to delay exposing until the very end of the calendar year. We wonder, rhetorically, just how prominent of a talking point this historic event will be in any upcoming GOP primary debates. And yes, technically this number is greater than the debt ceiling but it excludes various accounting gimmicks. When accounting for those, the US has a debt ceiling buffer of... $14 billion, or one third the size of a typical bond auction.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/us-closes-2011-record-1522-trillion-debt-officially-1003-debtgdp
progree
(10,889 posts)The national debt was $5.728 Trillion when Bush took office 1/20/01, and it was $10.672 Trillion when Bush left office, a near doubling (1.86X). And that doesn't count the trillions in unfunded future liabiilities he added with the Medicare Part D Drug benefit. And Bush had no excuses, Clinton didn't hand him an economy that was losing 700,000 jobs a month. But that's what Bush gave to Obama. http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np
Reagan nearly tripled the national debt (actually 2.87 X). Bush I increased it 1.56 X. Bush II increased it 1.86X (see above). Combining these 3 RepubliCON presidents together, you have 2.87 X 1.56 X 1.86 X = 8.33 X, i.e. the 3 RepubliCON presidents together increased the national debt more than 8-fold in their combined 20 years of office.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)florida08
(4,106 posts)and we were not in a recession to end all recessions