Saturday, April 2, 2011

A letter from a reader

I received an email from a reader and would like to share it with you all.  I wrote back to say that I have the US Debt Clock at the bottom of  http://www.lebocitizens.com/Lebo_Citizens/Tax_Rent_Relief.html, but I was unaware of the PA Debt Clock.  Thank you for sending this to me.

Ms. Gillen:
  As someone running for public office I thought you might be interested in the following resource:
US DEBT CLOCK.ORG (
http://www.usdebtclock.org/index.html)
  This web site is non-partisan and gets its information from the various governments it displays (states as well as the Feds). PA is shown here: 
http://www.usdebtclock.org/state-debt-clocks/state-of-pennsylvania-debt-clock.html
  These are sobering figures, made more so considering the source comes from the US and states' treasury departments. US unfunded liabilities exceeds the national GDP by 8 times. If the US were to tax everybody at 100% there would not be enough money to settle the debt. If the US were to confiscate the total national assets AND tax every taxpayer at 100% there still would not be enough money to pay the bills. Just the US liability per taxpayer exceeds a million dollars per taxpayer.
  Looking at Pennsylvania, the state takes 24% of its GDP, yet still spends more than it takes in revenue. The debt per citizen is $11,051. And while revenue is not quite $97 billion, spending is not quite $122 billion. (Ironically, West Virginia brings in more than it spends by roughly $7 billion.)
  The people who support increased debt loads for ill advised projects such as the MTL High School are living in Oz. When (not if) foreign debt holders call our US obligations, the resulting financial meltdown will be unprecedented in our nation's history. It will not help matters to adduce that all this debt was intended to provide the "greatest good to the greatest number." God save us from the "good people," who vex us consistently at the beck and call of their clear consciences. 

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