To a certain extent, the federal debt works something like credit card debt – as the debt grows, so do interest payments that make it harder for people to pay down their balance.
With that in mind, the Employment Policies Institute (EPI) is launching a Defeat the Debt campaign this week that will feature people dressed as Uncle Sam in New York City’s Times Square “begging” people for $12.3 trillion to pay off the national debt. The national debt is the sum total produced by each year that a federal deficit exists.
The matter is in the spotlight at this time because the government is once again approaching its debt limit, which has been bumped up on a number of occasions over the years.
To put the number into perspective, the organization notes that it would take 30,000 years for a trillion seconds to elapse and that the government currently borrows $500 million each day just to make interest payments on the debt.
“The country has never before been in such a precarious financial position where we are so indebted to foreign governments. The government must defeat the debt now, or we will live to regret it,” said EPI executive director Richard Berman.
Fortunately, consumers have a few more options if they drowning in credit card debt. For example, they can try to negotiate a better rate with their lender or open a new, lower-interest account if they have a sufficient credit score. Otherwise, nonprofit credit counseling services are another way to try to establish a payment plan that will help bring down one’s personal debt over time.
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