How many years is 1 Trillion seconds? One trillion would equal about 31,688 years 269 days 17 hours 34 minutes 25 seconds. (Leap years counted)
Rampaging deficits must be controlled before it's too late
Aug 28, 2009 (Beaver County Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via
COMTEX) -- Our collective profligacy has caught up with us.
Earlier this week, the White House Office of Management and Budget and
nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released their deficit projections for
federal budgets for the next 10 years.
OMB foresees a cumulative $9 trillion deficit from 2010-2019, $2 trillion more
than the administration estimated in May, while CBO budget analysts put the
10-year figure at a lower $7.14 trillion.
Either projection would add significantly to the current debt level of $11.7
trillion
The Associated Press reported one reason for the difference is that the CBO
projection is based on an assumption that all the tax cuts put into place in the
administration of former President George W. Bush will expire on schedule by
2011 as dictated by current law. President Barack Obama's budget baseline,
however, hews to his proposal to keep the tax cuts in place for families earning
less than $250,000 a year.
No matter which projection is used, the numbers are sobering. Whether they are
somber enough to make the federal government and the American people sober up is
another matter altogether.
In any discussion on how to address this looming fiscal crisis, it's important
to remember that it didn't start Jan. 20, 2009, that it's been a bipartisan
effort for more than three decades and that the American people have been aiding
and abetting politicians in both parties when it comes to this fiscal
profligacy.
What it boils down to is that we've got to start paying our bills through a
combination of tax increases and spending cuts, and that these sacrifices must
be shared by all Americans. That means implementing significant entitlement
reforms, rethinking military spending priorities, reducing the trade imbalance
and, on an individual level, spending less and saving more.
That might sound draconian, but the American people and their government have
been living on borrowed money for the last 30 years. Now, they've living on
borrowed time. Our debt holders aren't going to forgive our fiscal trespasses
forever. |
