Dear Editor: The cartoon in The Tablet (Oct. 24) states that Donald Trump could pay the national debt by himself. Although this is meant as a joke, it reflects the common ignorance of large figures, as one senator said: one billion here, one billion there, very soon you are talking money.
As things stand now, and it will be worse when this letter gets published, the national debt stands at $18.420 trillion. Trump has stated that he owns $12 billion. To pay the national debt, we would need 1,535 Trumps.
All the money of the billionaires in this country would make a very small dent in the national debt, which has been increasing at a rate of more than “80 Trumps” every year, and what have we gotten from it?
Raul Alessandri
Davidsonville, Md.
You are 100% correct that the National Debt is not a joke. What makes my blood boil is that Democratic Senators & Congressman / woman often state that the debt is not a problem and most people take this at face value. Well the interest on the national debt is approximately $500 billion dollars a year! If we had to repay the debt this would be approximately $60,000.00 for every man, woman & child (not just taxpayers). Lastly it’s been pointed out that the way we are going, by 2019 or 2020 the interest paid on the debt will surpass the USA’s defense budget!