Cancer, Common Sense, and Perspective

I hate to start the week on a down note, but... (link to story here)

The co-chairmen of President Obama's debt and deficit commission offered an ominous assessment of the nation's fiscal future here Sunday, calling current budgetary trends a cancer "that will destroy the country from within" unless checked by tough action in Washington.

Tough action in Washington? Don't hold your breath.

The two leaders -- former Republican senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming and Erskine Bowles, White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton -- sought to build support for the work of the commission, whose recommendations due later this year are likely to spark a fierce debate in Congress.

A fierce debate in Congress? That's a candidate for Understatement of the Year.

Bowles said that unlike the current economic crisis, which was largely unforeseen before it hit in fall 2008, the coming fiscal calamity is staring the country in the face. "This one is as clear as a bell," he said. "This debt is like a cancer."

The commission leaders said that, at present, federal revenue is fully consumed by three programs: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. "The rest of the federal government, including fighting two wars, homeland security, education, art, culture, you name it, veterans -- the whole rest of the discretionary budget is being financed by China and other countries," Simpson said (chart below).

"We can't grow our way out of this," Bowles said. "We could have decades of double-digit growth and not grow our way out of this enormous debt problem. We can't tax our way out. . . . The reality is we've got to do exactly what you all do every day as governors. We've got to cut spending or increase revenues or do some combination of that."

A combination of increasing revenue and decreasing spending? Gee, why didn't anyone else think of that? It's not rocket science, folks (good thing, since NASA is now a muslim feel-good program). It just seems so basic: don't spend more than you take in. Of course, that's part of how we got in this mess in the first place - individuals buying more house than they could afford. I guess this country's lack of common sense exists at all levels.

Here's another visual that puts things in perspective

On a related note, obama played golf again yesterday.

Sigh...