The main problem is that we're living well beyond our means. It's costing somewhere around 1.5 trillion to run the Federal government every year. We take in about half of that in tax revenues. We're having to borrow the other half. That's why the debt clock is spinning up as fast as it is.



It's just common sense that we can't live that way.

It really doesn't matter if it's more social programs or a shiny new battleship ... the money just isn't there to pay for it. We can't even afford what we've already got.

The hard part is that you're going to run into problems whenever you get a mixed group of people in congress. They go into a room and try to work out some kind of budget but they can't agree on anything. You sure as hell don't want to cut old lady McFarland's social security check. On the other hand it is a big bad world out there. There are more than a few Hitler's and Stalins running around. If you've got a strong military it discourages them from getting ideas in their head. If you're perceived as weak they won't hesitate to beat you up and steal your lunch money.

~There's no easy fix for this.~

The only thing i can think of is for everyone at the table to agree to set their differences aside for awhile. Take another run at it and work out a ten year plan to bring us even up again.

They can always go back to bickering over how to spend the money once we have some money to spend.