According to the Congressional Budget Office, this Federal fiscal year will see a budget deficit of $1.2 trillion. And that is not counting what will be borrowed to cover the $775 billion “stimulus” package soon to be passed by Congress and signed by our in-coming president.
Since the beginning of this decade, the Federal debt has grown from over $5 trillion to more than $10 trillion. The two-year stimulus package and “regular” government spending will likely add another $3 trillion to the Federal government’s debt before the end of Obama’s first term.
Already, the Federal debt is equal to a per capita burden of $33,000 for every man, woman and child in America, and a $72,000 per capita burden for the American taxpaying segment of the population.
But we should not forget that whatever future tax burden this additional borrowing may place on the American people, all that the government spends with borrowed dollars comes out of current production and redirected labor and resources into government-chosen activities.
Borrowing never shifts the cost of government to the future. Today’s citizens bear the full burden of all that Leviathan does.
I discuss this and the actual dollar figures in a new piece of mine on, “Government Stimulus Means Growing Federal Debt Burdens to Come.”