“California is still spending more than it’s taking in, thus constantly adding to an already frightening debt of $371.5 billion dollars.”
By Dell Hill
Over the past three years, I’ve referenced the U.S. National Debt Clock several times to show living proof of the financial dilemma this country is facing. It’s time to have another look.
There are several key categories to watch closely. Probably the most significant real-time number is found under “US Federal Budget Deficit”. As long as that number goes up, the country remains in serious trouble. The faster it goes up, of course, the more trouble. As of this writing, we’re looking at deficit spending that climbs by $1,000 dollars every ten seconds. That doesn’t sound too bad until you do the math.
At the current rate of deficit spending (at the federal level only) we’ll add a staggering $60 million, 480 thousand dollars to the constantly growing federal deficit in JUST ONE WEEK. Now we’re talking about a huge amount of money! Multiply that times 52 and you don’t even want to know the answer. Things are that bad.
Food for thought: While the President and Congress “take a break” from their incredibly arduous work, the federal deficit will go up by at least $181 Billion dollars!
The national debt shot up and over $15 trillion dollars a few weeks ago and, of course, it continues to race upward - now $125 billion higher, en-route to the $16 trillion mark.
Things are “bad all over”, or so they tell me. The European Union countries are involved in a pitched battle to see if any of them can survive the Mother Of All Financial Dillemas...and the United States isn’t far behind. In fact, when the dominoes start falling, the US is in line to take yet another huge financial hit. While we don’t have as much financial support vested in those failing countries, we DO have plenty at stake. The losses will hurt here almost as much as there.
In an earlier post, I highlighted the incredible financial plight facing the State of California and a quick check today shows no change in the Golden State’s status - other than it continues to deteriorate.
California is still spending more than it’s taking in, thus constantly adding to an already frightening debt of $371.5 billion dollars. Californians are staring at over two million unemployed and twice that many now on food stamps. The dwindling number of taxpayers is only adding to the loss of tax revenue, not to mention the run for the border by businesses large and small, which just adds many more to the unemployment and food stamp lines.
Of course, adding a 99 billion dollar high speed rail service should help alleviate some of that financial pressure. NOT.
And I don’t mean to single out California for fiscal irresponsibility. There are many states facing staggering deficits, which only adds more fuel to the federal money problems.
I guess the thing that’s most troubling about all of this negative news is the fact that very few states seem to be doing anything about it. New Jersey seems to be back on the right track. The deficit there is actually coming down...albeit slowly, but at least it’s headed in the right direction. Unfortunately, New Jersey is just one of over twenty states with huge deficits.
Is there any good news to report?
Yes, there actually is. The State of Utah, for example, has a nicely declining Debt To GDP ratio taking place and the employment picture seems to be looking better every day. But, Utah is only one of a very few to make that claim.
How’s your state doing? Go to the US Debt Clock page and click on the “State Debt Clocks” button in the upper left corner and then select your state from the icons.
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