$800 billion just in interest?

Congress and the president may be able to dodge serious financial consequences from reckless spending longer than an individual who spends recklessly could. But whose taxes and borrowed money is it that Congress - with the president's approval - misspends year after year? It's ours - and our grandchildren's!

The severity of the situation should be evident from our current national debt of some $14.2 trillion, on which we are spending hundreds of billions of tax dollars annually just to cover interest payments. The Congressional Budget Office has starkly warned that that interest figure may jump to $800 billion by 2020!

In the current fiscal year alone, irresponsible federal spending is threatening to add more than $1.5 trillion to our debt.

So what is Congress doing about it? Not nearly enough.

There was agreement last week to cut spending about $38 billion. That's a big amount - but it's not a drop in the bucket when Congress is spending $1.5 trillion more than even too-high taxes are taking in.

And even those cuts are at best shaky.

The "historic" cuts "were accomplished in large part by pruning money left over from previous years, using accounting sleight of hand and going after programs President Barack Obama had targeted anyway," The Associated Press reported. The agreement has "a lot of one-time savings and cuts that officially 'score' as cuts to pay for spending elsewhere, but often have little to no actual impact on the deficit."

In fact, "As a result of that sleight of hand, Obama was able to reverse many of the cuts passed by House Republicans in February when the chamber approved a bill slashing this year's budget by more than $60 billion."

Are those the actions of a president who really wants to control spending?

We can't solve the overspending problem instantly, not in one year nor a few. But the solution to excessive spending clearly isn't more spending and higher taxes, as the president wants.

There are many things the federal government must do to keep our country going. But there obviously are many spending items that should be eliminated or reduced.

Would that be hard to do? Some of it would be painful - but not as painful as the calamity bearing down on our nation if we don't stop the wild spending.

Congress has the responsibility - but many of its members are failing to do their duty. Shouldn't we insist that all members of Congress examine every item of spending in the federal budget, then reduce some and eliminate others?

If we don't face the unpleasant financial truth, we will surely suffer terrible consequences.

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