Here’s a very informative article on the National Debt

• By Lawrence Kadish, “Taking the National Debt Seriously,” Wall Street Journal, (October 12, 2009).  Read the full article here.

As of Sept. 30, 2009, the national debt was almost $12 trillion and interest on that debt was $383 billion for the year, according to the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Public Debt. The Congressional Budget Office on Oct. 7 estimated the 2009 budget deficit to be almost $1.4 trillion (about 10% of GDP). In August, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) estimated total government revenues at about $2 trillion. The revenue estimate included $904 billion from individual income taxes. This means the cost of interest on the debt represented more than 40 cents of every dollar that came in from individual income taxes.

Check out US Debt Clock.org for a “real time” calculation of the U.S. Debt.