Who Owns Our Debt
Yesterday one of our resident liberals made the contention that the “vast majority” of the public debt was held by foreign interests, especially China. I asked for proof and he responded with a cut and paste that was useless.
That piqued my curiosity and I decided to do some research.
From the Bureau of Public Debt we find that our “total” debt is $8.5 Trillion.
Much of the debt though is called “intergovernmental holdings”($3.6 Trillion). Mostly that’s an accounting gimmick to give the idea that there is a Social Security trust fund. It’s my opinion that this is not a “debt” as it will never be redeemed. When Social Security needs it we’ll see new taxes or cuts in benefits. Either way this is not a foreign held debt.
This leaves $4.8 Trillion dollars held by the public.
According to the US Treasury Department the total amount held by foreigners is $2.1 Trillion. That amounts to 44% of our debt held by the public or 25% of the “total” debt.
The economically challenged are afraid that China owns too much of our debt. “They can call the shots.” Well the fact of the matter is that they only hold $332 Billion dollars of debt. That’s 4% of our total debt. It isn’t that scary.
Our national GDP is $12.36 Trillion. So our total debt is 69% of income. Our debt held by the public is 36% of our income. And our debt owed to China is 2.6% of our income.
I don’t know about you, but if my household debt ratios were as low as that I’d be very happy. If I had a credit card that was 2.6% of my income I wouldn’t worry about it at all.
Plus the US economy is going to grow and grow. It doesn’t have to save for it’s retirement.
I don’t like the debt, but it’s sure not worth the anguish that’s generated about it. It’s part and parcel of the leftists wanting to scare everyone, including themselves.
