The estimates say that in order to keep his promises, Obama will need several trillions of dollars, and he would end his reign with a national debt of 550 billion dollars.
Eh, I found out on Wikipeda and another site that the US national debt just passed 10 trillion dollars.
Year, USD billions, Percent of GDP
1980: 930.2 33.3%
1990: 3,233 55.9 %
2000: 5,674 58,0%
2007: 9,008 65.5 %
2008: 10,024 72.5%
Maxing Out the National Debt Clock
October 09, 2008 10:14 AM ET | Katy Marquardt |
Are you surprised? Times Square's National Debt Clock, which has been tallying up money owed by the U.S. government since 1989, is running out of spaces.In September 2008, the digital dollar sign was eliminated to make way for an extra digit—the "1" in $10 trillion (the national debt is currently $10.2 trillion). Now, a new clock is in the works that will make room for a quadrillion dollars of debt, according to the Associated Press. Anticipated completion is early 2009.
A little history on the clock: It was created in 1989 by Manhattan real estate developer Seymour Durst to inform the public about the nation's snowballing national debt (back then, it was $2.7 trillion). Seymour died in 1995, and the clock is now owned by his son, Douglas Durst.
According to the Treasury, the national debt has grown more than $500 billion each year since fiscal year 2003. The $700 billion government bailout could send the national debt to more than $11 trillion, says the AP.
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/