Despite much talk among political leaders on managing the country’s debt, many of them fail to manage their own debt. A recent report published by The Center for Public Integrity revealed multiple presidents and other politicians whose campaigns still owe money, including Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, and Michele Bachmann, just to name a few. And we are not talking about a little bit of money; Gingrich alone owes over $4 million.
Apparently, the federal government requires former candidates to keep their campaign committees open and active until the debts are paid. However, some of the debts stretch back decades and still remain unpaid, like Bill Clinton, who ran for office 17 years ago and still owes money.
See here for the full report: http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/05/02/12573/all-presidents-debt
The bad news: the political rhetoric on managing budgets may be just that — rhetoric.
The good news: if you are in debt, you are in good company. Clearly, it can happen to anyone.