美國國債超GDP 議員稱“像看恐怖電影”

2012-01-12 15:33

New figures show the US debt has now exceeded the nation's economic output.

Fiscal watchdogs and Republican lawmakers are expressing dismay at new figures showing the US debt has now exceeded the nation's economic output.

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the US gross domestic product reached $15.17 trillion at the end of the third quarter 2011. That number is higher today, though a formal report on fourth quarter 2011 growth still has yet to be released. But with the national debt currently at $15.23 trillion and set to go up with the president's latest debt ceiling increase, the 100 percent GDP-to-debt threshold has been reached.

It is like watching a horror movie," Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told WOKV-AM in Jacksonville on Monday. "You know those movies where the people in the audience are screaming, 'Don't go in that door!' because you know the killer is there? Well, it is the same thing with this debt. We know how this ends."

What does 100 percent debt-to-GDP spell? Not quite Greece, though, it's not far off from what sank the European nation.

"The Greek economy is broken. The US economy is not broken," said former Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Holtz-Eakin, head of American Action Network.

"But if we were so foolish to do things as we are now," the US economy will break, Holtz-Eakin warned, noting that the debt is equal to the median income of Americans 300 million times over.

"Every American (would have) to give up a year of income to pay it off," he said of the debt.

A White House official who asked not to be named noted that Obama already has a detailed plan for a balanced approach to cutting $4 trillion in federal red ink.

The White House, supported by congressional Democrats, often points to the recession and soaring debt it inherited from the George W. Bush administration to explain why it had to dive into deficit spending.

But in his 2008 run for office, then-Sen. Barack Obama said stopping the deficit spending is the first step to recovery. "The first thing you do when you're in a hole is what? ... You stop digging. So the first thing that we're going to have to do is to stop adding to our deficit," he said.

Republicans readily point to that statement as they blame the massive increase in debt on Obama's economic stimulus plan and health care reform measures -- $5 trillion during this administration as the Treasury Department's own figures show.

(Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)

最新數據顯示，美國國債已經超過經濟產出，金融監管者和共和黨立法者都對此表示失望。

美國經濟分析局稱，美國截至2011年9月底到期的上一財政年度國內生產總值為15.17萬億美元。雖然有關2011年第四季度經濟增長的正式報告還未公布，但如今應已超過了這一數值。但是美國國債已高達15.23萬億美元，而且隨著奧巴馬總統提高債務上限還將增加。美國國債已達到相當于國內生產總值100%這一臨界值。

美國聯邦參議員、共和黨佛羅里達州代表馬爾科?魯比奧周一在杰克遜維爾告訴WOKV-AM電臺，“這就像是在看恐怖片，觀眾席上的人們在叫喊，‘不要走進那扇門’，因為大家知道殺手在那里，債務的事情也一樣，我們知道結局如何。”

國債和國內生產總值持平，這意味著什么？雖然不會像希臘那樣，但離讓那些歐洲國家淪陷的情況也不遠了。

美國國會預算局前主管道格?霍爾茨-埃金說：“希臘經濟遭重創，美國經濟沒有”。霍爾茨-埃金是“美國行動網絡”的主管。

他警告說：“但如果我們繼續像現在這樣愚蠢行事，美國經濟將會崩潰。”他指出，這些債務相當于美國人收入中值的3億倍。

他談及國債時說：“需要每個美國人放棄一年的收入才能還清。”

白宮一名不愿透露姓名的官員稱，奧巴馬總統已有詳細的計劃，減去4萬億美元聯邦赤字以兼顧平衡。

得到國會民主黨人支持的白宮經常指出，經濟蕭條、債務上升是喬治?W?布什政府遺留下來的問題，以此來解釋政府為什么需要赤字開支。

但是在其2008年競選之時，當時還是參議員的貝拉克?奧巴馬說，停止赤字開銷是恢復經濟的第一步。他當時說：“當你掉進洞里，你首先要怎么做？先要停止繼續挖。我們要做的第一件事就是不要再增加赤字了。”

共和黨人在抨擊奧巴馬的經濟刺激計劃和醫療改革措施使國債大幅上升時經常提到上面的那段話。財政部數據顯示，奧巴馬執政時期美國國債增長了5萬億。