Well, andrew... That is one very thoughtfull question and it isn't all that easy to answer...

Of course, the "buzz answer" is that they borrow it from China... Ain't that easy... Yeah, there is a major trade deficit with China but Uncle Sam, inspite of what some folks may "think", ain'tr bankrolling the wars in Iraq or Afganistan... The American people are... Well, there are bonds and treasury notes that lots of people lookin' fir a safe low interest return... That amounts to a sizable chunk of chnage...

But the government also borrows from itself by simply printing more money??? Astounding as that may sound this is occuring on a daily basis and at the end of the day the money supply is greatly enhanced...

Econ 201 tells us that after awhile this method will devalue the currency and, yeah, we've seen that over the last couple three decades... I theory, that's a good thing 'cause it should make our goods and services cheaper but other countries, China being the largest, tend toward "regulatin' the value of its currency but with 6-8% GNP growth they can purdy much do waht they want... The US, however, with 1% growth is up "Shit's Creek"...

But nevermind all that complicated Econ stuff, the money is coming from US... One way or another...

BTW, when you print up more money all yer doing is passin' an inflationary cycle off to the next generation to suffer???

B~