I informed some friends about the
current national debt reaching and exceeding the current debt ceiling of $8.18 trillion. Some young Repubs replied that it was because of Democrats' spending on social services. Bollocks! Let's look at the US Government's stats with links to the sources in gov't that show SSI/Medicare have been paying for themselves and the deficit and debt come from other fed spending, including interest payments.
First, look at the government's own data at:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/...
Look at section 13, social security and medicare. The spreadsheet shows that consistently since 1983 SSI and Medicare have taken in more money than they spent. (Look at the entries for total income vs total "out go" and the lines for surplus/deficit.)
Also, look at table 1.4 in section 1. Here's a summary for 2004 (line 76):
Total gov't "income": 1,880,071M
--Federal funds (income/corp taxes etc): 1,100,875M
--Trust funds (SSI/Medicare/medicaid): 1,146,965M
Total gov't "spending" (not counting interest payments): 2,292,215M
--Fed funds (defense, education, etc): 1,705,657M
--Trust funds (ssi etc): 954,327M
So, with some simple math, you can see that SSI takes in more than it spends, but the "fed funds" spends more than it takes in; hence, the gov't has to borrow (deficit spend).
Each year, the amount the gov't borrows is added to the total debt.
The debt is because congress and the presidents (regardless of Repub/Dem in office) have spent more than they took in from income and corporate taxes. (Deficit spending ended briefly in Clinton's last years.) These taxes are what should pay for everything from defense to roads to education. Check the budget numbers directly from the gov't.
Because SSI/medicare paycheck withholdings take in more than needed each year, they've been putting that money in the "soc. sec trust fund" for years. Unfortunately, congress has "borrowed" that money to pay the annual deficit spending, and thus the SSI "surplus" is only on paper. (And this is why everyone says "SSI is broke" when really they should say that the fed gov't has no intentions of paying back the money it borrowed--to pay back the trust fund would mean massive income tax increases, which are unpopular for any administration.)
Roughly half of the national debt is owed back to the SSI trust fund (nearly $4 trillion); the other half of the debt is owed to foreigners (China, Japan) and private banks/people.
The gov't has essentially charged up the credit cards so much so that our interest payments alone are staggering ($352,350,252,507.90 in 2005, source: http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/...).
Check my numbers. They all come from the government's budget office. You can even compare these numbers from the legislative branch with Bush's own numbers on www.whitehouse.gov.
Seriously. LOOK IT UP. Verify the sources.
If social security and medicare/caid weren't the "social programs" that ran up the debt, then you need to look at areas of other spending to figure where the deficits came from. This will be hard to do because the majority of the other budget spending goes to defense.
Here's a good break down of what programs the fed funds go to:
http://www.infoplease.com/...
btw, the two biggest tickets are "Health and Human Services" (aka medicare/caid) and "Social Security Admin" (SSI), which I've just showed pay for themselves as well as some of the current deficit spending. So again, the debt is the result of paying more for everything else...defense, NASA, construction of roads, education, agriculture...take your pick.
Unfortunately for the US public, the government tends to lump all "income" and "all expenses" to hide the fact that SSI/Medicare are self sufficient.
The US debt got to $8 trillion by out of control spending year after year, and with each increase in borrowing (deficit), the debt increased. When the debt increased, so did the interest payments. It's spiraling out of control.