The Sun rises in the East, the Sky is Blue and....

Congress is going to raise the statutory national debt limit by 1.8 Trillion dollars to a new limit of approx. 14 Trillion dollars...This is roughly the current National debt (red numbers below).  As I suggested in class, it will be embedded in a Pentagon funding bill that few will vote against.  Republicans will fuss about it and grandstand, but they know it will pass AND they will get their pet projects inserted in the latest spending bill which is the reson they need to raise the debt limit this much in the first place.  Disgusted with both parties...What is an American who wants responsible, limited government to do?

The national debt is divided into two major categories, Pubic Debt and Private Debt.  Public debt is the amout of debt the Federal Govt essentially owes to ITSELF, in the form of Bonds ("IOU's) that are in public various trusts fund, i.e. Social Security trust fund ($2.244 trillion), Federal Emplyees Trust Fund ($738 billion), Military Retirement Fund ($249 billion), etc.  Basically these are funds owed to government trust funds that have money in them because of taxes collected today from the future beneficiaries of these funds.  The total owed to these funds is approx.  $7.109 trillion.  The Private Debt is debt owed to individuals (domestic and foreign), private investments funds, and other governments.  Of the total amount of the debt owed to the pubic approx. 50% is held by foreigners (counties and individuals), which amounts to about $4.280 trillion. Of this amount China owns 25% and Japan 23%, so roughly half of debt owed to foreigners is owed to two countries (OPEC countries are not too far behind).