THE NATIONAL DEBT

Here is what columnist George Will wrote last year – and repeated during the round table discussion on Sunday’s ABC This Week - about the size of our national debt:

Let's get a sense of the size of our debt. In 1916, in Woodrow Wilson's first term, the richest man in America, John D. Rockefeller, could have written a personal check and retired the national debt. Today, the richest man in America, Bill Gates, could write a personal check for all his worth and not pay two months interest on the national debt. By 2015, debt service will consume about one-quarter of individual income taxes. Ten years from now the three main entitlements - Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security - plus interest will consume 93 percent of all federal revenues. Twenty years from now debt service will be the largest item in the federal budget.