As of February 2020, our national debt is 23 trillion and climbing. It is hard to imagine a debt this huge and to know that our debt is increasing everyday makes it almost impossible to comprehend.

Let’s break it down a bit so we can get a handle on this massive debt. Let’s say you have one billion dollars. If you have one billion dollars to spend and you spend 10,000 dollars a day, it would take you 274 years to spend that one billion dollars!

Let’s say you have one trillion dollars. If you have one trillion dollars to spend and you spend one million dollars a day, it would take you 2,740 years to spend only one trillion dollars.

Another way to look at 23 trillion dollars is that if you asked every man, woman and child in America to pay their fair share of that 23 trillion dollar debt, it would cost each man, woman and child in America $65,711 each!

Even worse, the interest on that debt is building year after year and with no end in sight.

To better understand how our debt works we need to understand what our GDP is. GDP stands for GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT. Unfortunately the value of goods produced and services provided in one year by the United States is 5% lower than OUR NATIONAL DEBT.

So it is safe to say that the USA is not producing enough goods or providing enough services to pay our debts!

1.  Intergovernmental Holdings is our taxpayer dollars distributed to our government agencies for them to spend. This includes agencies such as; Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Dept of Health and Hospitals, Dept of Education, Agriculture, Military, Space Programs, Commerce, Bureau of Prisons, etc.  And for salaries and retirement for all Federal Employees, such as the Executive Branch, Congress, Supreme and Federal Court Judges , the FBI, Postal Workers, and all other Federal Employees. The list of Federal Government agencies is lengthy; you may want to look it up.

2.  Public Debt is the money owed to our country by US Citizens who owe back tax payments, corporations who owe tax payments and foreign governments who owe tariffs, taxes, and interest on borrowed money. Currently the Public Debt stands at about 16.6 trillion.

What are Americans most concerned about? What are YOU most concerned about?

Education - Do you want to know if you or your children get a better education, it will increase the probability of getting a better job?

Health - Do you want to know if you or your loved ones get sick, you will be able to afford the best healthcare possible?

Safety - Do you want to feel safe in your own home without worrying about criminals breaking in?

Security - Do you want to know that you can provide and prosper because you have earned it?

Environment - Do you want clean air to breathe and clean water to drink?

Infrastructure - Do you want to safely get from point A to point B on well-maintained roads, bridges and highways?

Retirement - Do you want to be able to retire without the fear of losing your life savings and/or retirement funds?

Every year the government takes in $3.46 trillion in taxpayer money. How is it that we rank 14th worldwide in education? How is it that in Flint, Michigan their drinking water was contaminated with lead? How is it that in ONE weekend in 2019, Chicago had 52 shootings and 10 deaths? We need more transparency from our government agencies to understand where our taxpayer money is going!

"My name is Lisa Ulshafer, I am a life coach, author and entrepreneur. I run my own small business from Las Vegas, Nevada. Since 2006, I have worked hard to build a business that provides for my family while creating a quality lifestyle.

If you or I want to eliminate debt we could consider several options; one might be to work at two jobs or look for a higher paying job. We would stop borrowing money or using the buy now and pay later philosophy. And we would only purchase what we could afford. In other words we would accept responsibility and be accountable for each dollar we spend. We would use our common sense, right?

To have a balanced economy and relieve the national debt we need to tell our US Congress and all departments funded by taxpayer dollars to use common sense as well.

Stop electing Candidates who want to raise your taxes for new programs! But if we need new programs, then let’s first eliminate the old ones that don’t work!

While the Department of Education receives from Congress over $536 billion per year for grades K-12, our public schools are failing.

• Do we know what the department of education is doing with those taxpayer dollars?
• Does anyone know?
• Why are the public schools failing?
• Why has the number of high school dropouts increased over the years?

Congressmen and Congresswomen who serve on the Education Committees should know the answers to these questions and more. The Congressional Committee on Education is accountable for that $536 billion plus tax payer dollars per year!

Congress is responsible for any and all waste spending through these various Congressional Committees. If we continue to elect politicians to Congress who ignore their accountability for the wasteful spending in these departments, then our tax dollars will continue to be misused. And the outcome will be a continuation of our out of control National Debt.

Over the years Congress has used our Social Security Fund as a slush fund! Steve Forbes referred to this slush fund as a ‘honey pot’ and in 1996 and 2000 named Congress the ‘honey bears’ using the Social Security Funds set aside for Senior retirement, as a pork barrel or slush fund for constituent pet projects and the like.

There should be NO shortage of social security funds for the retired seniors who worked hard and paid their taxes only to discover that their Social Security retirement was spent by elected officials on other projects completely foreign to Social Security’s intended use.

And what are they blaming this shortage of Social Security on? They say that the baby boomer population is so large that it overwhelms the population of the X-generation and the current generation... so these two generations will not be able to fund Social Security with their income tax dollars to take care of the retired baby boomers.

That should never have been the case! The baby boomer generation paid enough income taxes to more than take care of their Social Security benefits not only for themselves but for the next generation! Why isn’t the money there? It isn’t there because we kept electing men and women to Congress who allowed the Social Security funds to be used for other purposes!

An Accountable Congress is what we are looking for during the 2020 elections!

The third solution is being looked at very seriously by the current Administration.

If you or I owe a debt we work out a pay plan to bring that debt current and then to a ZERO balance.

The Trump administration is working at setting trade agreements with the various countries who have taken advantage of us economically for years.

Also payment plans are being approved for US citizens who have fallen behind in paying their taxes. This also applies to Corporations and small Businesses that have fallen behind as well.

It is our responsibility to support the candidates who are introducing laws that make it possible for US citizens and companies to pay their back taxes.

It is our responsibility to support candidates who are willing to work with the current administration to establish fair trade agreements, tariffs, and recover debts owed to our country going as far back as World War II and beyond. Policing the world at our expense only has helped to create our huge national debt.

So while we are pointing our finger at the politicians look at the four fingers that are pointing back at you? Did you take the time to discover if your candidate took a stand on the National Debt and if so what action did/would that candidate take? 

Did you follow your candidates voting pattern once elected? Did your candidate keep any promises, did your candidate work to reduce the national debt? How did your candidate vote on the various committees he or she served on? 

Contact the candidates running for office this 2020 Campaign Season. Ask them what they plan to do to reverse the National Debt, Balance the Budget, and get the American economy back on track?

If the Candidate of your choice is already serving in Congress or your State House, ask them what committees they serve on and what protocols have those committees set in place to prevent the misuse of taxpayer funds?

Contact your friends and neighbors and ask them to do the same…compare notes on candidates and on Election Day…. GO VOTE!!!