$10,626,877,048,913.08

“A Debt They Cannot Pay”

Mr. Obama’s very own words. Those five words are the sole reason for TheFundamentals.

The Republicans hooted and clapped and acted as if finally the President was speaking their language. Who are they kidding? Their track record on debt accumulation is abominable. They should hang their heads in shame and just vote against all spending legislation until their time of penance is complete.

What is “a debt they cannot pay?”

On January 20, 2009 BHObama took office. The debt of the US as displayed on the website treasurydirect.gov was 10 trillion, six hundred and twenty seven billion dollars or, to be specific, $10,626,877,048,913.08. Wow. A lot of us might want that obligation attributed to someone else.

This is the number BHObama says "we inherited." Let’s examine that choice of words for a minute. The immediate connotation would appear to be that neither he nor his colleagues in the Senate and the House had anything to do with it. Sounds like the same old politics to me. When he left the senate of the State of Illinois it was debt ridden and had unfunded pension obligations that have been described by others as measuring in the tens of billions of dollars. Was he responsible for that debt? Here’s a simple solution that is in keeping with all his rhetoric.

Please tell us debtors (that's us folks) what the same number will be on January 20, 2010. Ditto for January 20, 2011 and January 20, 2012.

Let's stipulate that the Republicans spent us into a debt we cannot pay. We agree that this is unacceptable. Just tell us what the number will be going forward and then we can budget and decide if we can afford to spend or if we must save. Also, we have heard a lot about transparency and making information available. HClinton just spent some time with our creditors asking them to keep loaning money to us. Well, I think those creditors would also be interested in the three numbers above. They would probably view it as a commitment they could count on.

Come to think of it, that would be change we all could count on.