What Part of Limit Don't They Understand?

Our representatives in Washington DC are at it again. Some of them are insisting that the national debt limit must be raised. This country is $14 TRILLION in debt already and they want us to go further into debt. Maybe I shouldn't have spelled out trillion as that doesn't show exactly what I want it to show. Here's what it looks like as a number; $14,000,000,000,000.00. Yes, that's 12 zeros before getting to the decimal point.

What does that mean to you and me? Well, based on the 2010 census, the U.S. population is 310 million. Dividing $14 TRILLION by 310 million means that each of us is in debt to the tune of $45,161.29. That's over and above your mortgage, car payments, college loans and any credit card or other type of personal debt you may already have. My household consists of 3 people so combined our share of the debt is $135,483.87.

Unfortunately the $45,161.29 figure is also too low since only people that actually pay taxes are really in debt since they’re the ones that will actually pay it. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2010 figures the unemployment rate was 9.1% or almost 14 million people. Further, while I am aware that there are tax payers that are less than 17 years old, the vast majority of those younger than 17 don't pay taxes. So we now have to deduct 74,181,467 (according to the 2010 census) from the 310 million. That brings the number of people that can pay the national debt down to almost 222 million people. Now deduct illegal immigrants which is conservatively estimated at 14 million (a figure I personally think is low) people. Now we’re down to 208 million. Guess what that does to each of our shares of the national debt. It brings it up to more than $67,300.00. If you're married that's $134,600.00 for you and your spouse. If those in Congress that want to increase the debt ceiling get their way all it will do is increase your share.

So what should Congress do? Do I really have to spell it out for you? In your household, if you, for whatever reason, went credit card crazy and increased the amount you owed to an almost unreachable ability to pay off, what would you do? I can tell you what I would do and have done. I cut up the credit cards and quit making the hole I was already in any deeper. It's that simple. No matter what those that want to increase the debt limit say, it is that simple. If you agree I beseech you to contact your Congressional representative and Senators and tell them to cut spending and do not attempt to increase the national debt. Things may be, and probably will be hard for a while as they were for me, but in the end a valuable lesson will have been learned. And we will all be better for it.