National Debt

1. How much does the national debt cause each person, approximately?

     As the debt continuously fluctuates, the approximate cost of debt per U.S. citizen is $48,316, or $134,136 per taxpayer. Hopefully, this will decrease, though it depends on the national debt. Many congressmen have different plans and opinions on how the federal government should limit their spending in order to lessen the debt. Whose ever plan we may follow, it will take years to get rid of this debt; yet it may never be completely gone. 

2. Who or what do we owe money to?
The U.S. is in debt for over $15 trillion, thus many may be asking this question. The chart below shows the amount of money the U.S. owes to various institutions as of 2010. Still today, the majority of the national debt is to various foreign countries. This makes sense because of all the resources and products we get from foreign countries. Next comes the portion that the federal government owes U.S. individuals and institutions (not run by the federal government). The federal government has borrowed much money, and has yet to return it all (plus interest). 

3. Was there a time in our nation's history when we had virtually no debt?

This may seem impossible because the federal government continuously spends, borrows, and also get money, but yes, this has occurred only once during Andrew Jackson's presidency. When he first became president, the national debt was up to $58 million. He saw debt as "a moral failing" and wanted to get rid of it. To do this, he sold much of the Western land that the federal government owned. Jackson blocked every spending bill he could. For example, "he vetoed programs to build national highways," because "he considered these to be unconstitutional in the first place, but bad policy in the second place." Jackson was able to pay off the entire debt within six years. The government actually started to take in more money than it was spending (though this later backfired and caused a depression).

Sources:

http://www.usdebtclock.org/index.html

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/04/15/135423586/when-the-u-s-paid-off-the-entire-national-debt-and-why-it-didnt-last
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/DC-Decoder/2011/0204/National-debt-Whom-does-the-US-owe
chart from: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-04-13/markets/30049049_1_china-debt-click