 I would like to congratulate Argentina for taking another step towards gaining financial recovery and independence. On December 15th, 2005, Argentina’s President Nestor Kirchner announced “his government would pay off its debt to the IMF from reserves that had risen to nearly $27 billion.” (1) Argentina’s debt to the IMF had reached $9.57 billion by the time it was repaid, a move that followed Brazil’s announcement that “it too would repay its full $15.5 billion to the IMF.” (1)
Although these moves are bold and historic within their respective countries, they tend to seem minor when compared to the debt of other countries in the world… for example, us, the U.S. According to the Bureau of Public Debt at the US Treasury, our total public debt, as of January 6, 2006 was $8,161,507,578,194.35. (2) That’s $8.1 TRILLION!!! If you divide that by the estimated 298,204,730 people in the U.S., that comes out to $27,368.81 PER PERSON!
The good news is that we are spending less and paying off this debt, right? Well, the total U.S. public debt as of September 30, 2002 was $6,228,235,965,597.16 (2), so technically, we have been spending and borrowing more! In fact, on September 30, 1992, our total public debt was only $4,064,620,655,521.66 (2). So that means we have almost borrowed more in three years than we had in the previous ten... which include 9/11!!! And I thought Republicans were the fiscally conservative ones. Oh, I’m sorry; I promised I would not get into political discussions on this site. Let me just say this, it is the responsibility of all of us to get out of debt. This borrowing cannot continue. Let us take the advise of some of our neighbors to the south and start paying back this mortgage on our country before it is too late.
1) Cormier, B. (2006). Argentina repays debt to IMF. HappyNews.com, Retrieved Jan 09, 2006, from http://www.happynews.com/news/142006/argentina-repays-debt-to-imf.htm
2) The debt to the penny. (2006). Retrieved Jan. 09, 2006, from Bureau of the Public Debt Web site: http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm
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