States add about 33% of debt to that, but Obama and Congress cannot force states to pay their debts. Cutting Social Security and Medicare will probably increase the debts of the states (and their revenues) quite a bit.
Here is a list of countries and their debt to GDP rates. We are certainly not the highest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_public_debtVirtually all of the developed, industrialized countries are high.
The countries that have low debt to GDP are oil producers and countries that are not developed.
If my husband and I receive less in Social Security as we age, we will shed our second old jalopy (probably will break down and not be replaced anyway) and pay no car fees for it. The amount we pay in sales taxes would decrease quite a bit if our Social Security were reduced. So, lowering Social Security benefits for seniors is a silly thing to do.
Also, if Medicare coverage and Social Security payments are reduced, states will have to pay for the care of the very elderly and helpless. So state debts could rise if Social Security and Medicare are cut. It's just a stupid idea.
Seniors who saved a modest amount of money paid for the bankers' and Wall Street's gambling debts with the damage done to their 401(K)s and the low interest on savings accounts. Seniors have already sacrificed.
If Obama wants the wealthy to share the pain, he should increase their taxes.
Instead of spending so much time in cozy rooms with Republicans, Obama should be out talking to real people who are struggling in this economy.
It is shocking that Obama is staying in this bubble making his pompous announcements while Americans sit here, frightened by all the rhetoric and back and forth.
Americans want a kindly, protective father for a president, not an Obama who seems to abandon the neediest of his children as soon as things get a bit tough financially.
I am disgusted.