From Wikipedia:
Total revenue: $2.627 trillion (estimated)
Total expenditures: $3.729 trillion (estimated)
Deficit: $1.101 trillion (estimated)
Roughly translated, 30% of what we spend is borrowed money. That is not a sustainable practice. Our lenders will, at some point, demand an interest rate that is higher than what we generally consider acceptable. The question of how to balance the budget is not a question with an easy answer. There were some good options about 30 years ago, but bad decisions were made, and now we have some unattractive options. For those of you that like visuals, here is a flowchart of our options and outcomes:
Last updated: September 7, 2011