Lakeville Woman’s Donation to Pay Part of National Debt a ‘Drop in the Ocean’

Despite being underemployed and frustrated, Aimee Market said she wants to make a difference.

So the 23-year-old who lives in her parent’s basement in Lakeville wrote a check for $150 payable to the Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of the Public Debt, and dropped it in the mail. It’s her personal contribution to help pay off the $14.3 trillion (and counting) national debt she blames for keeping the economy, and her job prospects, on life support.

Market’s $150 will pay off roughly .00000000104 percent, or about 1.04 billionths of 1 percent, of the $14.3 trillion in total outstanding debt. But he understands it's just a drop in the bucket, or ocean.

“There was definitely some buyers remorse,” Market joked. “But while there is some levity in doing it, I’m also serious in my annoyance. People are so frustrated … I’ve always worked hard and I’ve always lived within my means—my parents taught me that much."

But Market said the months of infighting over raising the nation’s debt ceiling has illustrated just how far out of touch Washington D.C. seems to be with people like her, a college graduate who is working two part-time jobs to get by.

“I’m getting frustrated. There’s nothing out there other than these part-time jobs—nothing out there that’ll help me get medical coverage,” she said. “And watching what’s happening in Washington is making me mad. Yeah, the $200 is symbolic more than anything, but who knows, maybe someone important will notice.”

The nation’s debt came into focus the past couple weeks as the country appeared to teeter on the brink of not being able to pay its bills. That was until Congress, the Senate and the President all seemed to come together on a deal to raise the debt ceiling by $2 trillion in exchange for nearly the same amount in spending cuts.

In a 74-26 vote, the U.S. Senate passed the debt compromise bill Tuesday. , the House of Representatives passed the bill 269-161. President Barack Obama signed the bill on Wednesday.

U.S. Congressman John Kline, (R-Second District) of Lakeville, voted in favor of the deal. Democratic Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken also voted in favor of the measure.

In an interview with TPT’s Almanac, Kline, who also voted in favor of increasing the debt ceiling in 2006, said it was irresponsible for the U.S. to default on the $140 billion in obligations it would have had a deal not been struck.

“(But) it’s more irresponsible if (we) don’t do something about cutting spending and getting some controls in place and changing the way Washington spends money,” Kline said.

For Market, she said the deal simply doesn’t do enough.

“What do I know? I’m just a kid. I get it. But we should all understand that the debt in Washington is killing the country,” she said. “And if the people we vote for can’t fix it, then I may as well try. We all should.”

It was with that sentiment that Market sat down in front of her computer in July and found that the Bureau of the Public Debt is always accepting donations.

It’s a barely-known wing of the Treasury that takes gifts and uses it them pay the outstanding principal of the nation’s debt securities.

A call to the bureau wasn’t immediately returned, but its website says the bureau does no soliciting and that it gets about $3 million a year in donations.

“I thought it was a good thing to do,” Market said. "We all need to start doing something."