National debt exceeds $18T

     On Tuesday, December 02, 2014 FOX News published an article titled “National debt exceeds $18T, sparking renewed criticism of spending under Obama.” The United States’ National Debt has always been a major issue. Currently, the United States is in $18 trillion worth of debt. This has sparked “renewed criticism Tuesday from Republicans and other fiscal conservatives over the soaring trajectory of government spending under President Obama.” Since Obama has been our president, our debt has increased over 70 percent. “The national debt has skyrocketed by over $7.3 trillion,” Priebus said. “President Obama once said it was ‘unpatriotic’ and ‘irresponsible’ to add $4 trillion to the debt. By his own reasoning then, (he) has reached a new level of irresponsibility.” I agree with this statement because if Obama did state that it was irresponsible to add onto our already high debt, then how is it that he has let it increase since his presidency?

     Something should be done and immediately. “The federal debt, which topped $18 trillion, last week, is the sum of two numbers. The first is $12.92 trillion in public debt, which consists of all the outstanding Treasury bills, notes and bonds held by individuals, corporations, foreign governments and others. The second is the $5.08 trillion in so-called “intra-governmental” holdings, special securities held by U.S. government trust funds and special funds – or basically IOUs from the federal government for money that it ‘borrowed’ from Social Security and Medicare.” Studies have shown that if all the money in the world were to be combined, it would still be able to pay off the U.S. National debt.

     Going back to the article, the National Debt has always been an issue, but now that it has been significantly increasing is starting to become a major problem. While it may not seem to affect our generation today, it will substantially affect future generations.