Originally Posted by
TRENDHOUND
The US Government’s Situation in a Tiny Nutshell
Now, imagine that you are running a big business called the US government. That will give you a perspective that will help you understand the US government’s finances and its leadership’s choices.
The total revenue this year will be about $5 trillion while the total expenses will be about $7 trillion, so there will be a budget shortfall of about $2 trillion. So, this year, your organization’s spending will be about 40% more than it is taking in. And there is very little ability to cut expenses because almost all the expenses are previously committed to or are essential expenses. Because your organization borrowed a lot over a long time, it has accumulated a big debt—approximately six times the amount that it is bringing in each year (about $30 trillion), which equals about $230,000 per household that you have to take care of. And the interest bill on the debt will be about $1 trillion, which is about 20% of your enterprise’s revenue and half this year’s budget shortfall (deficit) that you will have to borrow to fund. But that $1 trillion is not all that you have to give your creditors because, in addition to the interest you have to pay on your debt, you have to pay back the principal that is coming due, which is around $9 trillion. You hope that your creditors will either relend or lend it to you. So, the debt service payments—in other words, the paying back of principal and interest that you have to do to not default—is about $10 trillion, which is about 200% of the money coming in.
That is the current situation.
So, what is going to happen? Let’s imagine it. You are going to borrow the money to fund the deficit, whatever that deficit is going to be. There is a lot of argument about what it’s going to be. After taking the recently passed budget reconciliation bill into account, most of the independent assessors of the situation project that the debt in 10 years will be $55-60 trillion (which will be 7-7.5 times revenue) because there will be $25-30 trillion of additional borrowing. Of course, in 10 years, that will leave this organization with more debt service payments squeezing out spending and more risk that there won’t be enough demand for the debt it has to sell without a plan to deal with this situation.