The Outstanding Public Debt
as of 29
Sept 2008 is
$9,857,306,411, 894.56
From the
National Debt Clock:
The estimated population of the United States is 304,815,165 so each citizen's share of this debt is $32,338.64.
The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $2.32 billion per day since September 28, 2007!
Concerned? Then
tell Congress and the White House!
Added to that is a proposed initial bill to
bailout the U.S. financial system. This measure, which involves the
government acquiring or insuring as much as $700 billion of troubled
mortgage-backed securities, is intended to reduce the level of uncertainty
regarding these assets and restore confidence in the credit markets.
People in the United States are losing
their homes because of higher property taxes.
We started paying on our home 20 years ago.
Our home cost $24,500. Our house with little improve is now value at $200,000.
We are paying more taxes on the home than they did in purchasing the home. Even
a home that has little improvement made to it is taxed at a higher rate because
the law states that market value determines that tax on the home. The market
value of a home is determined by how much a house in the area is selling for.
The land our house sits on went from $72,000 to $80,000 for .1 acre in King
County Washington. The house value with no improvements to jumped from $180,000
to $200,000. Who do you know that gets a $28,000 raise per year? We are in our
50's. The good jobs we had that paid a living wage $20-$24 an hour are now
outsourced jobs. We are working in the $10-$15 an hour range because there are
too many people and not enough jobs. I don't know of anyone who gets a $28,000
raise per year. My husbands union got him a 3 cent raise for the next 3 years!
People are bailing out on their mortgages because of the taxes on the houses.
Affordable housing is almost nonexistant in WA because people are now working
service jobs instead of professional jobs.
The above bailout is not going to help the
American public. Lowering their taxes so they can afford to live in a house
might help them. As seniors we will not be able to afford the taxes on our house
in our later years as the house prices keep going up and the wages we receive do
not. The government doesn't realize all the hidden costs of owning a home. We
are accessed a Homeowners Association cost, a higher utility bill cost because
Homeowners Association had to put in water pipes ($40 for the next 30 years) and
all our utility bills have taxes on top of that. We as U.S. citizens are taxed
to death!
The U.S. has assets it can sell
to help reduce the debt!
"Foreign
investors now hold slightly less than 50% of the publicly held and publicly
traded
U.S. Treasury securities, 25% of corporate bonds, and about 12% of U.S.
corporate
stocks. The large foreign accumulation of U.S. securities has spurred some
observers to argue that this foreign presence in U.S. financial markets
increases the
risk of a financial crisis, whether as a result of the uncoordinated actions of
market
participants or by a coordinated withdrawal from U.S. financial markets by
foreign
investors for economic or political reasons. Concerns are also growing that over
the
long run U.S. economic policies and the accompanying large deficit in its
international trade accounts could have a negative impact on global economic
developments, especially for the economically less developed countries."
What does this mean? It means that we are
not only outsourcing our work to foreign countries leaving only service jobs for
Americans. (Why should our children go to school to get degrees when they will
have no way to pay for those degrees because their jobs are going overseas?)
Add to that we have money for bombs to
destroy foreign industry and then money to repair the damage we've done on
foreign soils but we don't have money to house U.S. citizens, people who used to
have jobs and feel that their lives were of some value but are now homeless
thanks to dwindling jobs and soaring costs! How is it that we do not have money
to feed our U.S. Citizens but we have money to buy war toys! We can afford to
chase homeless people around destroying their little encampments but we cannot
afford to give them a hand up, some education, a place to stay until they can
get on their feet. What is wrong with this picture? What is wrong is that these
homeless people once had jobs and they paid their taxes. They do not deserve to
be forgotten or trampled over.
The United States most valuable asset is
the lands it holds. The United States owns over 3/4 of the land in the United
States and is doing nothing with most of it. Land will go up in value so at
least it had the forethought to save something of value that it could lease out
or sell at a later date. The United States also owns copyrights and patents that
it could lease out to foreign countries.
When people have no money they have to sell
something because at a certain point no one is going to give them money if they
cannot pay it back. In this case the U.S. government is purposing taking more
money from the U.S. people and their children by going into the private markets
and bailing them out.
The best thing the government could do at
this point is to use what they have to get the U.S. out of debt... not to get us
further into debt. We have homeless engineers in poverty walking the streets
because they have no jobs....instead chasing these people about as if they were
worthless why not retrain them and use their skills!
Our people are our riches. When we hurt one
of our citizens we are hurting our society as a whole.
When we treat one person as being worth less than the next person then we have
to ask ourselves where do our principles lie as a society. I've seen so many
companies profess an ethical standard but I have yet to see a good business who
walks its talk.
Say NO to higher taxes! The U.S. government
has assets that could be making U.S. citizens money.
There are food commodities on government lands that could be used to feed the
homeless. The U.S. government has been busy asking for more money... when in
fact they should be thinking of ways of using what they already have to create
more money. They have a whole homeless workforce out there that could be put to
work. What a shame we have to burden our children with a lot of debt!
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