The Federal Budget in Terms of a Family Budget

The following is an excerpt from a letter from a Louisiana lawyer regarding the federal budget deficit. I also heard Rush talk about it on his radio program. He puts it in terms of a family budget.

The U.S. Congress sets a federal budget every year in the trillions of dollars.

• U.S. income: $2,170,000,000,000
• Federal Budget; $3,820,000,000,000
• New debt: $1,650,000,000,000
• National Debt: $14,271,000,000,000
• Recent budget cut: $38,500,000,000

To put the 2011 federal budget into perspective, let’s remove EIGHT zeros from these numbers and pretend this is the household budget for the fictitious Jones family.

• Total annual income for the Jones family for the year: $21,700
• Amount of money the Jones family spent for the year: $38,200
• Amount of new debt added to the credit card for the year: $16,500
• Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
• Amount cut from the budget: $385

So, in effect, last month Congress, or in this example the Jones family, sat down at the kitchen table and agreed to cut $385 from its annual budget. What family would cut $385 of spending in order to solve $16,500 in deficit spending?