The United States is borrowng ONE MILLION DOLLARS a minute.

[Karenca]

C-span now (Eastern Time Zone)---Democrat Reps. speaking.

[jean]

1. they need to tell us who we're borrowing from - doesn't China hold

a ton of debt on/for/against us?

[Spazito]

2. Yep, as does Japan and Saudi Arabia

over 60% of US debt is owed to foreign countries.

[ozymandius]

3. In the form of federal t-notes.

These countries lend our government the money it needs so that our domestic banking system can finance consumer spending. If it were not for China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and other nations' central banks - our lending system would collapse under the weight of the federal government's appetite for capital.

My entry is a just a tiny little slice of the leverage central banks throughout the world exercise inside the U.S. If it were not for them, our economy would have gone the way of Argentina of four years ago - unable either to pay back the principle or even to service the debt on the loans other nations extend to us. The dollar will not be worth the paper it is printed on if the U.S. debt levels increase to the amounts economists predict it will if the rate of capital consumption continues unabated over the next twenty five years. That is to say that the interest on the national debt will consume almost 40% of GDP.

That will nto leave enough money for frivolities (sic.) like Social Security disbursements, Medicare, government pensions and the like. Defense spending (the largest current capital outlay of the federal government) will have to be cut too.

[jean]

4. Laurence Kotlikof, on Moyers' NOW, said the US is bankrupt now

not in twenty or thirty years, but now! He said one outcome of this is our kids and grandkids will be paying at least twice the amount in taxes we do now. This will result in people quitting their jobs and leaving the country, because of the heavy tax rate and debt load.

NOW doesn't have a transcript up yet for this show but there is a comprehensive presentation on 'the safety net' - Social Security and how the bush economy impacts us.

http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/socialsecdebate.html
NOW's guest Laurence Kotlikoff paints a stark vision of the future:

The most pressing economic problem facing the United States is the enormous gap it faces with respect to projected spending and receipts. This fiscal gap stands at $51 trillion. It reflects the fact that 77 million baby boomers will shortly begin collecting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits, that the current cost of these benefits total $23,000 per elderly, and that this $23,000 figure is rising much more rapidly than are the real wages of the workers paying these benefits. President Bush needs to engage in serious and immediate reforms of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.


http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/kotlikoff.html
Laurence Kotlikoff Biography - there's a link to an audio lecture here

[ozymandius]

5. He is right.

The definition of bankruptcy is to be broke and in receivership. If the nations that support us were to withdraw their assets and demand full payment of the notes they have bought over the years - there would be nothing left. We, the people, would be dispossessed of our income through staggering tax increases. In effect, we would experience massive confiscation of our wealth and, among it, the ability of every person to afford basic expenses.

[Kansas Wyatt]

6. Whoa Now...

To the 'follow the chicken trails' REPUBLICANS, we must increase military spending on many "weapons systems" and future wars around the world to save it from itself. After all, the United States already outspends the entire rest of the World combined on military spending, and we wouldn't want to give up that advantage.

Social Security, Medicare, and all other frivolous spending is just nothing more than liberal agendas meant to bankrupt this country, unless you try to take away anything that a Republican gets.