Image: In 2009 the national debt was around $12 trillion. Today, it's $23 trillion.
Earlier this week we published an article titled "A decade of taxes" to highlight how much the federal government has taken from the average American household over the last ten years.
The feds have been collecting record-setting taxes (about $288,000 per household), but what have they done with that money?
According to a new report from CNS News, they haven't been spending it responsibly. The federal debt has increased an average of $1 trillion per year over the last ten years, totaling a record $10,796,419,662,320.
The federal debt increased by a record $10,796,419,662,320 in the decade that is coming to a close today, according to data published by the U.S. Treasury.
This was the first decade in the history of the nation when increases in the federal debt averaged more than $1 trillion per year.
The total federal debt accumulated during the decade has equaled approximately $83,967 per household. (The Census Bureau estimates there are currently approximately 128,579,000 households in the country.)
[...]
In the fifteen full decades that have now elapsed since the Civil War, there have been only three decades when the federal government reduced its debt rather than increased it, according to data published in the Treasury Department’s monthly debt statements. In the 1870s, the debt declined by $453,144,228. In the 1880s, it declined by $594,761,815. In the 1920s, it declined by $8,853,892,229.
From the 1930s onward, the federal debt has increased in every decade.
This can't last forever. As we noted yesterday, there are real consequences to allowing the deficit and the debt to increase like this, and our children and grandchildren will face the consequences.
There is a way to fix this mess, but it won't come from D.C. The people and the states must come together to call the first-ever Article V Convention of States. A Convention of States is controlled by the states and has the power to propose constitutional amendments.
These amendments can force Congress to balance the budget (as many state governments are forced to do), but they can do so much more. By itself a balanced budget amendment won't solve our fiscal problems. Congress will simply raise taxes, as they've shown themselves so willing to do over the last 10 years. We also need amendments that cap spending and taxation, which is exactly what we can do under the Convention of States resolution.
Fifteen states have already passed our resolution, and more are on the way this year. Join the over 4 million Americans who have voiced support for the COS Project by signing the Convention of States Petition below.
