Our Government As A Household

The Gainesville Tea Party provided a useful comparison between the federal budget and a household budget:

Why S&P Downgraded the US: 


U.S. Tax revenue: $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 


Let’s remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget: 


 Annual family income: $21,700 
Money the family spent: $38,200 
New debt on the credit card: $16,500 
Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710 
Total budget cuts: $385

No sane household would run their finances that way and neither should any sane government.