Americans contribute $7.7 million to make a difference to the National Debt

Many of us have often dug into our pockets to find the leftover and handed over the amount to our parents to help them with the monthly mortgage payments or paying off the delinquent credit accounts. That is natural, right? But have you ever thought of helping the federal government to make a small difference to the national debt that we are having? Probably not! However, in an attempt to reduce the overall U.S. national debt, Americans have donated $7.7 million in 2012. Though it is just a bucket full of water if compared to the $16 trillion nation debt, the thought is really appreciable, right?

Today, Americans are more responsive toward the national debt than what they have been in the past few years, and even have doubled the donation amount from last year, reports CNNMoney. Since 2009, donations used to be around $3 million each year.

If considered the average amount that we have been receiving since 2009, this is obviously a big jump," said Mckayla Braden, a representative for the Bureau of the Public Debt.

Now the question is – how far this figure will go? Well, to be very frank, this is just 0.000007% of the approximate $1.1 trillion deficit that the nation is running. And if we take a look into the overall national debt (over $16 trillion), the amount is just nothing.

Again, why we are becoming a bit more sensitive to the national debt particularly now? This may be due to the fact that we have understood how awful it is to walk with a burden of massive deficit.

If we go back in past, Americans were not allowed to contribute to the national debt until 1961 when an estate left $20 million to the Bureau of Public Debt anonymously. After that particular incident, the then Congress had passed a law allowing the amount to be taken in donations.

Well, if you are interested in stretching your helping hands to lower the country’s overall debt, you can leave it in your will, send online at pay.gov or send a check to the Bureau of Public debt. Else, when you are filing your taxes at the end of the fiscal year, you can just add a separate check mentioning the same.