The figure then being projected for this year was above the $1,000bn mark for the first time. But in the few short months since, the number has rocketed much further ”“ to $1,800bn (£1,106bn, €1,291bn) or 13 per cent of gross domestic product.
The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan watchdog, forecasts that the US will post deficits in excess of a trillion dollars in each of the next 10 years. Even on its relatively optimistic assumptions for economic growth, moreover, the CBO predicts national debt will double to 82 per cent of GDP in the next decade ”“ a level not seen since the second world war.
This would push the US close to the chronic debt levels seen in Japan and Italy. “People used to talk about America’s long-term fiscal crisis,” says Douglas Elmendorf, head of the CBO. “That crisis is now.”
And remember, kiddies, this is before Obamacare sends these numbers from the stratosphere into outer space. Have we lost our collective minds?