Definitions
Following are some definitions to avoid explaining them elsewhere:
- Budget means a spending plan to cover expenses over either a specific time period or for a specific project or program.
- Deficit means a shortage of funds needed to meet budgeted spending commitments over some period of time, usually annually.
- Debt means borrowed funds to cover a budget deficit or accumulated deficits, unpaid interest, or spending for projects or programs that are not included in a spending plan (such as a specific, time limited program or an infrastructure project).
- Interest is the promised return, usually expressed as an annual percentage, that is paid to lenders on funds borrowed to cover debt, a deficit, or other additions to borrowed funds.
- Trillions and billions are big numbers that are hard to comprehend, so this is included here for perspective. If we counted a dollar per second without stopping to eat or sleep, it would take 33 years to count a billion dollars and 33 thousand years to reach a trillion. So, in the course of an average lifetime, we could reach a billion dollars, but a trillion would be beyond the start of recorded history.
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