Issue of the Week: National Debt

1. If we continue to accumulate debt at the rate that we are, how much debt will America have by 2020? How will this affect future generations? 
Obama's fiscal 2011 budget will create $10 million in debt in the next ten years, this is $1.2 million more than the administration originally projected.The administration projected a deficit of 8.53 trillion in the next ten years. The amount of debt in each household is also expected to rise dramatically by 2020. When Obama was first elected into office the debt for every household was $56,000 a household, today it's $72,000 a household, and by 2020 it's projected to be more than $170,000 a household. This will create lots of problems for the future generations, it will be harder and harder to afford the life that we currently have now.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/26/cbos-2020-vision-debt-will-rise-to-90-of-gdp/?page=all
2. Who or what do we owe money to?
We owe money to many countries however the top 5 we owe money to are Japan ($585.9 billion), China ($541 billion), The United Kingdom ($307.4 billion), OPEC Nations ($179.8 billion), and Caribbean Banking ($147.7).


3. Will we be able to pay off all the debt?
Originally in 2000 it was projected that by 2012 the national debt would be paid off. 

Now the chances of paying off all the national debt looks grim. The debt has skyrocketed and it's worse than ever. The national debt has been paid off in the past but for now i believe we are just going to have to aim for slowly bringing down the debt.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/10/21/141510617/what-if-we-paid-off-the-debt-the-secret-government-report