14,300,000,000,000 is an Unlucky Number

Remember getting on that playground carousel as a kid and spinning until you thought you'd throw up?  Remember feeling like your brain would explode when you hovered over that first Geometry test?  Okay, follow my lead.  Grab a firm hold of the chair you're sitting in and click on this link:  National Debt Clock.  Did you do it?  Okay, breathe in, breathe out.  Now focus.  Just look at all the red--total debt, personal debt, interest debt, mortgage debt, credit card debt, Social Security liability, prescription drub liability, Medicare liability, bankruptcies, foreclosures, etc.  The red just goes on and on and on.  It's mind blowing, isn't it?    

Let's have a little history lesson in National Debt 101.  America has always been in debt.  It racked up approximately $75 million in unpaid expenses by winning  its freedom from England in the Revolutionary War.  From there, the U.S.started cutting into its debt until the Civil War rolled around when it ballooned from $65 million to almost $3 billion.  Again, the post-war nation rebounded with an extended period of prosperity until we entered World War I.  When it ended, the debt reached more than $25 billion.  After World War II, America's gross public debt shot up to $260 billion.  (Do you see a pattern here?)        

The national debt continued to rise over the years, but it really took off in the last two decades.  Thanks, in part, to his "Bush Tax Cuts" program, and starting new wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the debt under President George W. Bush exploded from $5.7 trillion to $10.7 trillion by the end of 2008.  The spending continued when President Barack Obama took office thanks, in part, to his economic stimulus package and bailouts of the banking and auto industries.  After his first 28 months in office, the national debt increased by 25 percent.

Here's the problem.  America just maxed out its credit card.  On May 16, the national deficit hit $14.3 trillion, the same amount as the $14.3 trillion national debt ceiling.  In other words, the United States reached its legal borrowing limit.  That did receive a mention in the national media and the Treasury Department put a temporary hold on spending until it shuffled several funds around to keep the country financially afloat.  According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. would only suffer a default after all emergency measures are exhausted and it runs out of cash of pay its bills.  Treasury officials say that will happen on August 2 unless Congress does not raise the debt ceiling (again) before then.  If that does not happen, they say an economic catastrophe will follow. 

My question is when in the heck is America going to wake up and deal with its financial overspending habit?  The only president over the last 30 years to live within a budget was President Bill Clinton, and he did so by working with a Republican-controlled Congress.  Unfortunately, it looks like America's lack of financial sense will only continue.  Last week, President Obama announced during a major speech on Middle East policy that he will relieve Egypt from paying the one billion dollars it owes the United States.  Shortly after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, government officials there ripped the U.S. for its action and scores of protesters took to the streets vowing vengeance.  It turns out America paid Pakistan approximately $20 billion in "counter-terrorism" aid over the last decade and plans on paying Pakistan another $2.3 billion next year alone.  

I understand the United States is the world's "do gooder," but when do we pull back the reigns and focus on us?  If we don't experience a sudden change of heart and chart a new course, getting sick on the financial carousel will be the least of our problems.