美国国债超GDP：议员称“像看恐怖电影”

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.

最新数据显示，美国国债已经超过经济产出，金融监管者和共和党立法者都对此表示失望。

美国经济分析局称，美国截至2011年9月底到期的上一财政年度国内生产总值为15.17亿美元。虽然有关2011年第四季度经济增长的正式报告还未公布，但如今应已超过了这一数值。但是美国国债已高达15.23万亿美元，而且随着奥巴马总统提高债务上限还将增加。美国国债已达到相当于国内生产总值100%这一临界值。

美国联邦参议员、共和党佛罗里达州代表马尔科•鲁比奥周一在杰克逊维尔告诉WOKV-AM电台，“这就像是在看恐怖片，观众席上的人们在叫喊，‘不要走进那扇门’，因为大家知道杀手在那里，债务的事情也一样，我们知道结局如何。”

国债和国内生产总值持平，这意味着什么？虽然不会像希腊那样，但离让那些欧洲国家沦陷的情况也不远了。

美国国会预算局前主管道格•霍尔茨-埃金说：“希腊经济遭重创，美国经济没有”。霍尔茨-埃金是“美国行动网络”的主管。

他警告说：“但如果我们继续像现在这样愚蠢行事，美国经济将会崩溃。”他指出，这些债务相当于美国人收入中值的3亿倍。

他谈及国债时说：“需要每个美国人放弃一年的收入才能还清。”

白宫一名不愿透露姓名的官员称，奥巴马总统已有详细的计划，减去4万亿美元联邦赤字以兼顾平衡。

得到国会民主党人支持的白宫经常指出，经济萧条、债务上升是乔治•W•布什政府遗留下来的问题，以此来解释政府为什么需要赤字开支。

但是在其2008年竞选之时，当时还是参议员的贝拉克•奥巴马说，停止赤字开销是恢复经济的第一步。他当时说：“当你掉进洞里，你首先要怎么做？先要停止继续挖。我们要做的第一件事就是不要再增加赤字了。”

共和党人在抨击奥巴马的经济刺激计划和医疗改革措施使国债大幅上升时经常提到上面的那段话。财政部数据显示，奥巴马执政时期美国国债增长了5万亿。