A trillion here, a trillion there — pretty soon you’re talking about incomprehensible numbers.
The White House on Tuesday revised its 10-year deficit projections to show a $9 trillion increase to the national debt, up from its earlier estimate of a $7 trillion shortfall. In happier news, it also scaled back this year’s budget deficit projection — from $1.84 trillion to $1.58 trillion.
What do the numbers mean?
Save your pennies: To pay off the federal deficit, every man, woman and child in America would have to send the government $30,000, according to the Heritage Foundation.
Health care: President Barack Obama’s health care reform agenda carries an estimated price tag of $1 trillion over 10 years — to expand coverage to about 95 percent of Americans.
If it was your mortgage: The Christian Science Monitor calculated that just over $1 trillion as a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage would mean a $6.7 billion monthly check to the bank.
Rock out: And $1 trillion would buy 8 billion “Rock Band” video games.
Getting served: Heritage estimates that by 2019, the U.S. will be spending $800 billion a year to cover interest payments alone — making it the largest yearly federal expenditure. That’s more than:
$600 billion in Social Security benefits paid out this year.
$413 billion in the current budget for Medicare.
$515 billion in annual defense spending.
$864 billion for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since the Sept. 11 attacks.
