Record Contribution of $2.2 Million Made To Help Pay Down Debt
According to the Treasury Department, an unnamed person made a record $2.2 million contribution to help pay down the national debt in September. The Treasury Department receives tax deductible contributions regularly from concerned citizens and politicians to help pay down the nation's staggering debt of $18.6 trillion. Thanks to the $2.2 million payment, September was the highest month on record in terms of donations to help pay down the nation's debt, as a total of $2,320,220.06 was collected by the Treasury Department.
Note: in 2012, a total of $7,749,618.27 was donated to help pay down the nation's debt - this is still the single year record.
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The Treasury Department gives Americans a number of options when it comes to helping pay down the nation's debt.
You can, for instance, head over to Pay.gov and make a payment via credit card, debit card, Paypal, checking account or savings account if the mood strikes you.
Or, if you prefer the "old school" way of doing things, you can write a check directly to the government. There are a number of members of Congress who regularly make donations to help pay down the debt, and this is the method that they usually choose.
In some rare cases, people have instructed the executors of their estate to liquidate their assets and donate the entirety of the proceeds to the government in the event of their demise.
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These are all some well-meaning people who donate to the Treasury Department, but the simple fact is that the money is nothing but a rounding error when it comes to the nation's debt load.
The US government, for instance, is planning on running at a burn rate of over $1 billion per day in the upcoming fiscal year. This means that the United States is spending over $760,000 more than it is taking in for every minute of every hour of every day in the current fiscal year. This means that the anonymous $2.2 million donation that was made in September would pay for approximately 3 minutes of deficit spending.
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When you break down the numbers in this fashion, you really start to get an idea of how monstrous the country's massive $18.6 trillion debt load is. If every man, woman and child in the United States wrote a check for $60,000 to the US government, this would still not be enough to pay off the nation's debt load.
Filed under: General Knowledge
