Tell me who does the U.S. owe the trillion of dollars in debt to.?

Question

We hear so much about the deficit and the trillion of dollars that the U.S. is indebt to, so who gets the payment? And what is the historical perspective to the national finance situation?

Answer 1

well, there are two kinds of debt. Domestic and international. So yeah, come to think of it who does the US owe money to? Maybe they haven't been paying contractors or national lending organizations, or maybe they owe the IMF or World Bank some money.

Answer 2

Hey, there~!
Good question. The short answer is: they owe it to YOU! (and others like you) Reach in your wallet and pull out a one dollar bill. You can see that it is actually called a "Treasury Note" and it is the modern equivalent of the old "One-Dollar-Silver-Certificates". The Dollar Bill is nothing more than an I-Owe-You issued by the United States government. It started when you, the average Joe, would bring your "money" to a government officer and give him your very precious silver! You would give him one dollar's worth of silver and he would give you an IOU called a "note". We still call them Notes to this day. Then whenever you wanted your "Real Money" (silver) back, you would go back to the government and hand him your flimsy piece of paper to get your silver back. You might think it was kind of dumb to let them borrow YOUR money and give you nothing but a piece of paper saying they promised to give it back - but there were all kinds of good reasons to let them use your hard earned dough. The best reason was they promised to give you just a tiny bit more than you let them borrow. That's called interest and even today if someone (like a bank) lets you borrow THEIR money, then you have to pay it back with interest. Same thing only in this case the USA is the one borrowing from you! Nowdays, you don't work 40 hours a week to get paid in silver, which you then let the government borrow, you just get the "Note" instead. They've left out the middle part. Now you work to get a piece of paper that the Federal Treasury "promises" is really still worth money. So every dollar bill floating around out there in the world is an IOU or "DEBT" of the federal government.

Essentially they owe it to two kinds of people:
1. Joe Schmoes like you and me with with dead presidents in their wallets, and Corporations and International investors of the world market with T-Bills, and Bonds, and Credit Lines and all kinds of complicated stuff.
2. IntraGovernmental agencies like the CIA and FBI and the Senate and the White House's guy who trims their hedges.

Between the Two of Us, the US does not have " A (one) trillion dollars" in debt - As of April 18th, 2006, the total U.S. government debt was $8.395724 trillion. This does not include the money owed to Social Security beneficiaries in their future lifetimes--an amount much larger than the official debt.

So, "who gets the payment?" YOU DO! and they will pay it, not in silver anymore (darn it), but in cold hard cash - which is nothing more than another IOU! Its a vicious cycle that took a long time to get just right.

So, that's the SHORT answer - You really would get a much better answer by checking out a couple of links here:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._public_debt
2. http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/ (that's the boring one)
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_usa

Hope that helps!
Trillo333
III

Answer 3

Here are several examples:

Every time Bush gives the rich a tax break that money has to be paid for by somebody else, namely the middle and lower working classes.

Every time the government spends money it doesn't have to spend that money is borrowed, much like you charging up your credit cards. Sooner or later you'll have to pay off the money you borrowed.

In this country we, the taxpayers, pay for our government's spending sprees. When the president gives it away we pay. And we'll be paying off his debt (you can damn well be sure the the already rich who benefit from the spending spree won't be) for the next twenty years.

Something to think about: Bill Clinton, love him or hate him, left our country in good shape, debt free. Bush is the one giving it away and we're the ones who will foot the bill for years to come.

Answer 4

The American people for one. The government has borrowed billions from the Social Security system. That is why Bush was looking for social security reform, he knows that the government will not be able to repay the loan. The only way to ensure some sort of income for the elderly is to reform the system.

Answer 5

It is owed in the form of government bonds ( debts they sign for) which is how they borrow money to bay bills when they do not want to raise taxes. these bonds, and also treasury notes, must be repaid and have interest charges like any loan. the lenders are anyone who buys the bonds or NOTEs ( T-Bills). Usually they are sold in $10,000 increments and anyone can buy them, You go to your bank and get registered and then can buy them.
most americans do not have many because they mostly borrow money they do not save or invest. So most of the money the USA government borrows is from foriegners and especially foreign banks and foreign governments, like CHINA and JAPAN. Those people have a lot of american dollars that they need to spend so they buy these government bonds and T-bills as investments and collect the interest as profit. That is why we have to kiss their a$$es so much and are afraid to anger them. If they want to they can bankrupt us and make it impossible for us to borrow any more money to pay our bills and the USA government will go broke or have to raise taxes about 200%. They could do this by simply putting all their bonds and bills they own up for sale to the highest bidder and sell us out. anyone wanting to get these bonds for investment would get a better price from Japan or China so we could not sell any new ones unless we jacked the interest rate way up to make them more appealing. we cannot do this as we cannot afford to make the interest payments now, especially when we have to pay for a WAR.
so we are screwed by this huge debt. we can never pay it back in our lifetimes so our children and grand children ( maybe YOU) will have to pay it back in the form of INFLATION and higher taxes or just by being pooor.. I feel sorry for the younger generation to get stuck this way. you have to go to school and study this stuff and learn what is being done to you so you can stop them from doing it. so long as you are stupid they will keep it up. they try to distract you wh sports and shoes and candy and TV and false issues like abortion and flagburning and gay marriage, but they really do not want anyone to talk about the REAL issues they are responsible for.

Answer 6

They owe money to the companies they buy things from. Heaven forbid if the US was smart like Russia and the government built their own guns like the AK-47. weapons, food for troops. gas, hummers, tanks, medical supplies, hoes for George Bush $25 million for Iraqi snitches, beach home for the president etc....

Answer 7

To ourselves. The debt WAS mostly money that we gave out in foreign aid. Now it's the WAR.
When you think deficit , don't think debt, unless it's the debt your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren will have to pay to our government through their taxes

Answer 8

The answer is China

Answer 9

holders of U.S savings bonds and T-BILLS and T-NOTES-so it is owed mostly to us citizens

Answer 10

Us fool they own us,I mean they owe us.