A look at our current U.S. debt

As of Feb 22 the United States National Debt surpassed $19 trillion. You read that figure correctly, $19 trillion. You could wrap $1 bills around the Earth 73,902 times with the debt amount.

According to the United States Treasury Department web site the list of the top five U.S. debt holders are China and Japan with 1.24 and 1.12 trillion respectively.

Our federal government funds itself through the sale of short term treasury bills and long term treasury bonds. The United States of America like many other countries around the world use bonds to fund ongoing expenses. The major concern though is the amount to which the debt has risen to. The interest on the debt issued is currently growing faster than our nation can pay off.

When George Bush took office in 2000 the U.S. National debt was at $5.5 trillion and grew to just near $10 trillion. Bush ran the national debt up 82 percent. Upon his stepping down, Barack Obama took into office and surpassed Bush’s debt rising levels. Obama has surpassed Bush’s 82 percent debt increase to 90 percent with a year left in his presidency term.

At the current rate our government issues debt, Obama will leave office with over 100 percent increase in our country’s national debt level from when he first stepped into the oval office.

When you compare the U.S. national debt level rising to China and Japan we surpass their levels.

China has $35 trillion yuan in national debt, or $5.37 trillion U.S. dollars in national debt.

You could wrap $1 bills around the earth 20,887 times with the debt amount.

Japan has $1.008 quadrillion yen in national debt or $8.93 trillion U.S. dollars in debt.

The U.S. has nearly four times as much national debt as China does and they have nearly four times as many people and much more land. These figures are very large and mentally draining to fathom. At what point will the current election process remind voters of this dire issue looming over our nation?

This is a very important financial burden on our government that has to be handled sooner than later. If you are following the current election process, be mindful of this topic when deciding amongst the candidates. It may not seem important right now because it isn’t being covered as much but will soon be near the huge $20 trillion mark.