In his interview with David Letterman last night, President Obama admitted that he didn’t know the amount of the national debt.
“Now, do you remember what that number was? Was it $10 trillion?” asked Letterman.
“I don’t remember what the number was precisely,” responded Obama.
The national debt, of course, was $10 trillion when President Obama took office, but is now currently at 16 trillion and counting.
“If this is me, I got the credit card guy calling me every day, I start to get scared,” Letterman responded. “As Americans should we be scared that we owe that kind of money? Who do we owe that money to?”
“Well a lot of it we owe to ourselves,” Obama explained. “Because if you invest in a treasury bill or something like that, essentially you’re loaning the government money.”
Obama added that a “majority” of the debt was held by “folks who live here.”
“We don’t have to worry about it short term,” added Obama. “Right now interest rates are low, because people still consider the United States the safest and greatest country on earth, rightfully so.”
