We seem to have spent our nat'l nest egg and can only further encumber our heirs.
Nat'l nest egg? What nest egg? The Federal Government and many states (Illinois in particular) have been spending more than they bring in for many years. There is no nest egg. Never has been. But you're right, we are all leaving a real mess for our kids and grandkids. This closure thing may have saved lives today, but much of the cost of it is being passed down to them.
The debt per citizen and debt per taxpayer probably makes more sense than the actual totals because the actual totals are so large that they're unfathomable. There is also a state debt clock at the top in case you were interested.
It looks like that in my personal instance, as a taxpayer, I owe $203,712 to the Feds and about $35,000 to the state of Illinois for a grand total of $238,000.
