US Debt Clocks

What's causing today's huge deficits? Deficit basics. Top 4 deficit causes.

US-national-debt-GDP More about this graph

Who Did It, and Why?

As the Clocks below tell us, the debt it still out of control. But to see when this started and why you might want to click the graph at the right and watch the YouTube debt video.

We Are in Danger! ... but Not from the Debt

The danger is from the Great Recession that has cost America 10 million jobs. The debt frenzy is making that worse. Take a look (in the graph) at how the debt sky-rocketed during World War II. That's how we [#ended 12 years of Great Depression]. This time is tougher because Reagan and the Bushes ran the debt much higher in good times than it was at the start of WW II. But as Reagan understood, cutting government spending in a recession only makes it worse. Yes, we must pay down the debt, as Clinton was doing, but not while 17 million are out of work. ... more

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  [#Debt or Savings] In the last
# [#secs].
Borrowed by the [#General Fund] – $ #* $ #
Saved by Social Security Trust + $ error $ error
Saved by all Gov. Trust Funds + $ # $ error
Debt [#Owed to the Public] $ error† $ error
*Gross National Debt  ♦  †Debt Held by the Public  ♦  Debt Clock Source Data

Some Debt Facts:

  • Social Security is $2.6 trillion in the black. In 2010 it ran a $68 billion surplus.
  • Clinton reduced the debt as a percent of GDP.
  • G. W. Bush restarted the deficits with tax cuts for the rich.
  • Red ink hit a peak rate of $1 trillion in 100 days just before Obama.
  • The Obama stimulous was only $0.08 trillion. 
  • Only $1.2 trillion is owed to China.[#1]
  • $10 trillion is owed to America.

How Do the General Fund and the Trust Funds Get their Money?

The General Fund: All personal and corporate income tax.
Social Security Trust Fund: Payroll taxes on wages up to $102,000 (as of 2008).
Medicare:  Payroll taxes on all wages.

[#HoverNotes]

[=ended 12 years of Great Depression]No it was not the devastation of Europe, that helped. This is a crazy story made up by Republicans. But (1) We pulled out as we started building the Pentagon, which was before Pearl Harbor, and before the devestation of Europe. (2) It was GM building military trucks and tanks, etc. that did it. Take a look.
[=General Fund] What is the General Fund?
It's the main federal government fund, and its big expense is the military. Then there are the trust funds (Highway, Social Security, etc.). On average the trust funds have extra money that they are loaning to the General Fund, so a lof of the debt is owed to the trust funds.
[=Debt or Savings] What Is "Total Debt or Savings"?
The national debt (total accumulated debt) is the sum of all the annual deficits less any surpluses. The "deficit" is one-year's shortfall. This shortfall must be made up by borrowing.
But the Social Security Trust Fund and other government trust funds are not in debt. They have trillions in savings and the General Fund (which has the total debt, borrows from them).
[=secs] What determines the speed of the clock?
Some days the debt actually goes down, and others it goes up extra fast. No one knows what it will do on any given day, so we just show it increasing at its average rate, because that's the best guess.
[=Owed to the Public] AKA Debt Held by the Public is the amount of Treasury Bills and Bonds that have been bought by American citizens and companys and by foreigners. The rest of the debt is owed to by the General Fund to other government Trust Funds that have run a surplus. Note that since America manly borrows from Americans, the debt is mostly owed to Americans.
[=1] From CNN July, 2011.
[=HoverNotes] Just hover over green-underline links above to see the "hover" notes.

 

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National Debt
National Debt

Debt Data

Whose National-Debt Numbers?
The data plotted here were taken directly from the White House web site and plotted without modification. For details, see ([#Source]).

The gross national debt is reported (almost) daily by the U.S. Treasury at Debt to the Penny xlnk.gif Our clock is updated every weekday (see below) which makes it the most accurate on the web.*

What determines the speed of the clock?
Some days the debt actually goes down, and others it goes up extra fast. Since no one knows what it will do on any given day we just show it increasing at its average rate, because that's the best guess. But what average rate?

The Office of Management and Budget at the White House predicts the "Gross Federal Debt" for the next few years. At the end of the fiscal year 2005, (Sept. 30 2005) they list the debt at $8,031.4 billion. They predict it will be $676 billion higher at the end of the next fiscal year. That is the average rate of increase per year assumed by the clock.

For daily Debt Held by the Public xlnk.gif
For monthly Social Security Trust xlnk.gif
Fed. Use: Securities Held Outright xlnk.gif

 

Popnotes used above:

[=Source]What Is the Source of the Date in the Historic Graph?

The data is from the historical tables in the 2006 OMB Budget as downloaded from WhiteHouse.gov Historical Tables (Bush WH no longer available). The data are plotted without modification. Here is the relevant two page Table 7.1 in PDF format.

The data and graph are available in this Excel spreadsheet.