What is the national debt?
Economist Peter Morici breaks down what the nationwide debt is, why it ballooned to greater than $36 trillion and what it means for Individuals.
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PARKERSBURG, W.V – This darling little city of 30,000 holds an astounding $36 trillion dollars of debt, nevertheless it’s not the individuals’s fault. Enable me to clarify.
Again in 1957, the Bureau of the Nationwide Debt was positioned on this distant Appalachian metropolis in case of nationwide emergency, which presumably meant nuclear struggle. So, whereas New York, Chicago ,and DC had been mushroom clouded, the federal authorities might proceed banking.
Because of this, on Tuesday morning, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency will arrive on this nice hamlet to achieve entry to extra of the comings and goings of America’s cash.
The precise factor that exists right here in Parkersburg is named the Central Accounting Reporting System (CARS). Some locals informed me is resides within the basement of an outdated constructing on the town. It’s all a little bit obscure and spooky.
What Musk and his group need is entry to the true numbers, the payouts on our debt, our collections, what cash goes the place. That is the place the solutions reside. Each single day, the thousand or so federal workers in Parkersburg monitor and report on that debt.
The federal Bureau of the Fiscal Service in Parkersburg, W.V., is floor zero of our $36 trillion nationwide debt. (Fox Information Digital)
On Monday night on the Resort Blennerhassett, inbuilt 1889 and nonetheless an imposing and chic centerpiece of the world, the approaching go to from DOGE was already the discuss of the city.
“It is a enormous a part of this metropolis’s economic system,” one native retired lawyer informed me, including, “We don’t know what’s going to occur to it.”
Native Democratic officers have been elevating comparable alarm bells, as nicely. Jeff Fox, the Wooden County Democratic Social gathering Chair stated, “Our neighborhood depends closely on the employment supplied by the U.S. Treasury right here in Parkersburg. The prospect of DOGE’s intervention raises critical questions on job safety for our residents.”
Honest sufficient, besides that each one Musk’s DOGE group is seeking is access to data. There’s nothing to recommend that the plan right here is to fireplace anybody, besides perhaps for Musk’s typically overzealous rhetoric.
And truthfully, it’s that trolling rhetoric that appears to be resulting in the confusion.
Musk and his group have taken to utilizing a signature scene of the Gen X traditional Workplace House to clarify DOGE. It’s the Bobs, introduced in to fireplace individuals, interrogate them as to “what they really do right here.”
![Elon Musk and DOGE Caucus logo](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/02/1200/675/elon_doge.png?ve=1&tl=1)
The Congressional DOGE Caucus now has over 100 members, Fox Information Digital was informed (Home of Representatives/Getty)
However the level of these scenes was not that it was important that Initech develop into extra environment friendly, because the tech bros would have it. It was that Peter, the protagonist, needed greater than effectivity for his life. That’s exactly why he confused them.
On the bottom in Parkersburg, I can not offer you a black and white story of fine and evil, of graft and honesty. It is extra difficult than that. It all the time is.
There isn’t a obvious purpose to assume that Musk’s minions are rolling as much as the Bureau of Fiscal Service, proper throughout the road from the lodge, with a briefcase filled with pink slips. What I noticed in the present day was a full car parking zone of federal workers’ good vehicles outdoors the constructing. These are individuals displaying up.
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As a substitute, what Musk actually needs is a glance underneath the hood of federal debt, and Parkersburg is completely its service station. There could also be reputable issues about delicate info contained inside, but when President Trump has tasked Musk to suss it out, then he’s allowed to try this.
I drove throughout the mountains to Parkersburg in my spunky pink Mitsubishi Lancer as a result of it’s the sort of place I prefer to report on. This DOGE intervention was icing on the cake.
I don’t know what, if something, native response will likely be to Musk’s DOGE invasion of Parkersburg Tuesday, however I’m right here so I can discover out.
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Our federal authorities might be the largest and most necessary factor that has ever existed on the planet. It received world wars cold and hot, it landed on the Moon, its glory is aware of no bounds.
However all of that was funded in Parkersburg, West “By God” Virginia, and this week, Donald Trump and Elon Musk will likely be going by means of the receipts.
No one likes an audit, however perhaps it is time.
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