What's Up With The Federal Debt?

At the below link is a most interesting but disturbing article.  Here are three quotes the first two should make you wonder what is going on and the third should make your head spin. 

First quote:   "For fiscal year 2013, the U.S. budget deficit will be about $845 billion, but on top of that the government will also have to borrow about 3 trillion dollars to pay off old debt that is maturing. Overall, the U.S. government will borrow close to 4 trillion dollars this year, and that number will likely be even higher next year. That is not going to cause a crisis as long as interest rates stay super low, but if interest rates begin to rise substantially, the game will change dramatically."  Get that?  We, (you me and every other American taxpayer) will be on the hook for a $4 trillion dollar loan (on top of a $17 trillion debt) the government will make in our names this year and likely even more next year.  Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke is holding interest rates tight right now.  But for how much longer?  Read on. 

Second quote:  "It used to be that the bulk of Treasury borrowing was done in the longer-term instruments with maturities of at least 10 years.  In more recent years, however, this trend has shifted more toward shorter-term Treasury securities... At this point, the average maturity of outstanding government debt is only 65 months, and only about 10 percent of all Treasury debt matures outside of a decade.
So what does that mean?  It means that the federal government must constantly roll over massive amounts of debt."  Because the roll over rate is getting shorter the government must borrow more frequently to pay off maturing debt plus interest.  Again, Bernanke says not a problem as long as interest rates stay low.  In short, he says, larger debt and more interest is okay.  That sound okay or anywhere close to logical to you? Now for the kicker.

Third quote:  Representative Michele Bachmann "recently asked Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke why the national debt has remained frozen in place for 56 straight days even though we have been borrowing lots of money. Bernanke seemed to have no idea how to answer that question..."  What does that mean?  At least two things:  (1)  It was stopped so the public could not see how fast and how much the government is borrowing.  Take a look at the stalled U.S. National Debt Clock:  http://www.usdebtclock.org/.  Its rate of dollar spending/borrowing used to race by so fast they were merely a blurr - no more.  Why?  Do you really believe he does not know the answer? Of course he does but will not tell.  (2) Bachmann thinks the motive may be political.  She is quoted as saying " “I asked [Bernanke] whether the Treasury Department was cooking the federal government’s books as it was reported that the Feds debt balance sheet remained at $16,699,396,000,000 for 56 days straight, presumably so the Treasury Department wouldn’t officially register that once again the Congress had exceeded its legal borrowing limits.”  So it is probable that the nation's spending limit has been exceeded yet again, a violation of federal law.  As we all now know, it is okay for the government to break laws, even the ones it writes.  It is just mere citizens like us who must obey the law or face an injust government's justice. 

I lied.  Here is a fourth quote.  "Over the past decade, the U.S. government has added more than 11 trillion dollars to the national debt at a time when the U.S. economy has been steadily declining. Anyone that thinks that we can continue to pile up more debt like this indefinitely does not know what they are talking about."

Feel good about the honesty and integrity of our government now?  How about our nation's financial security?  I thought not.  Danger lies ahead.  More here:  http://republicbroadcasting.org/index.php?cmd=news.article&articleID=5569

George Burns