Many United States' citizens are unaware of the country's current financial state. Many assume that one of the world's wealthiest countries could never be in debt. This is untrue however, and, in fact, the country with the greatest income per capita is in major debt. This study will examine possible solutions to reducing the United States' national budget deficit.

Understanding the National Deficit

The amount of money that the United States government owes as of October 17, 2004 at 03:48:52 pm GMT was $7,435,016,998.21. The debt has increased by an average of $1.7 billion per day since September 30, 2003! From a more individual perspective, currently the United States population is roughly around 294,555,320. With this number of people, each U.S. citizen would have to pay $25,241.50, just to break even.

How did the U.S. arrive in such a state where the country owes so much money? The recent accumulated debt...