The higher the debt is, the richer we are?


Congressman Mitch McConnell recently pointed out that the United States Congress is spending money at a rate of $1 billion per hour -- all of it financed with increased debt.

In this interview with Jan Helfeld, California Congressman Pete Stark argues that the more national debt we have, the wealthier we are as a country because "debt for a nation is different from debt for an individual or company." That was back when the national debt was $5 trillion. Today the national debt is $10,962,887,347,011 -- as I write this.



Thinking like Congressman's Stark is probably a big part of what got us into this mess. When Helfeld tries to get Stark to explain why the national debt is good, things go a little off-kilter and end with the good Congressman threatening to throw him out the window.

But remember: When your grandkids have to work long hours to pay the debt that we're accumulating now, remind them that it's all part of the burden of being wealthy. . . or something.

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