Thread: Worried about U.S. debt? Send your donation here

Worried about U.S. debt? Send your donation here

Nov 12, 2009

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Not sure what to give Uncle Sam this Christmas? How about a nice, fat check to help whittle away at the $7.6 trillion national debt?

The U.S. Treasury Department accepts gifts, payable to the Bureau of the Public Debt. Just mail them to the attention of Department G, Post Office Box 2188, Parkersburg, West Virginia, 26106-2188. Make a note in the memo section that it is a gift to reduce the debt held by the public.

Yes, really.

It's all on the Treasury's website, at the end of the list of frequently asked questions: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reso ... icdebt.htm

Which raises a few more questions. Do people really send in checks? How much and what reasons do they give for voluntarily paying more than just their taxes? And why are the checks directed to a post office box in West Virginia?

According to Treasury spokesman Kim Treat, people do send checks. In the last fiscal year they added up to a little over $3 million, which was the highest total since at least 1996.

Some include notes. Common reasons for donating include a sense of patriotism and immigrants expressing their thanks to the United States for giving them an opportunity, he said.

The growing debt burden has become a more pressing political issue this year as the White House strains to pull the economy out of a deep recession and bring the jobless rate down from its current 26-year high of 10.2 percent.

The federal budget hole grew even deeper in October, according to monthly figures released on Thursday.

WHY WEST VIRGINIA?

As for why the checks go to West Virginia, the town of Parkersburg happens to be where the majority of public debt employees work.

It is a small city where "crime is low, happiness is high," the Treasury boasts on its careers website (although it shows no public debt jobs currently open to the general public).

Parkersburg Mayor Bob Newell said having the public debt office there meant a couple thousand good-paying jobs, helping to insulate the city from the heavy manufacturing job losses suffered in nearby Ohio and surrounding areas.

He credits Senator Robert Byrd, who was elected to an unprecedented ninth term in 2006, with bringing the debt office to Parkersburg more than 30 years ago.

Workers there are responsible for a number of tasks beyond just managing the large and growing national debt, including tracking savings bonds and doing some accounting work for other government agencies such as the U.S. Mint.

Because of that, people in town don't necessarily associate the public debt office with the debt burden itself, which has become an increasing source of angst, particularly among conservatives who are

Newell said the "Tea Party" group, which has sponsored protests around the country against government spending, has held a few rallies in a downtown park between two of the city's public debt office buildings.

"They'll gather and have a little rally about the economy and the (bank) bailouts and, more recently, health care," he said in a telephone interview. "They never relate it to the Bureau of Public Debt here locally. Frankly, it employs a lot of people and they realize that and they appreciate it."

(Editing by Kenneth Barry)

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Econ ... 12?sp=true

Right. Thats just what I want to do. Give the government even more money then they have already ripped me off for, so they can waste it. Yep, I can afford to give money to wealthy bankers and countries that hate us and want to kill us. Sure...let me write that check.

People, DO NOT send donations in to retire the national debt. You are wasting your money, making no difference at all, and just feeding the hands that are stealing our money already and robbing our nation of its economy.

Please, as much as you may want to help our country, DO NOT send donations in to retire the national debt.

Send a donation to ALIPAC, or numbersusa, or Americans for Fair Taxation so we can stop illegal immigration, reduce legal immigration to the 1970's replacement levels and pass the FairTax which will jump start our economy and help US keep the good jobs we have left and bring the ones the left our country back home where they belong, plus none of US will ever have to file another federal tax return (Yippee!).

We also MUST MUST MUST reverse this free trade treason, repeal all Free Trade Treason Agreements and withdraw from the World Trade Organization.

We also must legalize/regulate/tax under the FairTax the illegal drug trade which will reduce crime, properly regulate this business, create jobs for Americans instead of illegal aliens and their criminal, violent, foreign drug cartels, end drug-related drug gang violence, reduce our government spendig on this futile war and collect FairTaxes on the transactions. This will bring home over $200 billion a year in our money supply we're now sending out of the country in illegal foreign controlled drug transactions.

And we must drill baby drill. Here's the summary of how I think we can fix our economy:

1. stop illegal immigration
2. pass the FairTax
3. protect our trade
4. legalize/regulate/tax the illegal drug trade
5. drill baby drill

Donate what you can to ALIPAC. This organization will do far more to fix our economy than reducing the national debt, because when we fix our economy, the national debt will be paid down in due course.

Common reasons for donating include a sense of patriotism and immigrants expressing their thanks to the United States for giving them an opportunity, he said.

Ineresting.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Common reasons for donating include a sense of patriotism and immigrants expressing their thanks to the United States for giving them an opportunity, he said.

Ineresting.

More unbelievable than interesting, in my opinion. Maybe George Soros and Rupert Murdoch sent them a check with a little "note". They're both immigrants who could write a little "note" in English.

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-177900.html

Duplicate

Originally Posted by jamesw62

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-177900.html

Duplicate

Thank you for bringing this to our attention james however the other article was posted first so this thread will remain open.