debt

Ever since I grew old enough to know something about politics -- this was in Harry Truman's time -- I've considered myself to be a liberal Democrat. I still do.
I've voted cheerfully for all the Democrats who've won the presidency, as well as all the losers, including those I knew had little chance, like Adlai Stevenson (twice) and George McGovern.
Over many years I've come to enjoy the ups and downs of politics, national and local. But today, in these rough times, I have to admit I'm not enjoying national politics as much. These days it sometimes scares the hell out of me.
No, it's not just that the Democrats might lose control of Congress and Barack Obama might lose the presidency. I'd hate to see that happen, but we'd survive a moderate dose of Republicanism. We always have.
No, what really scares me are endless deficits, the national debt and the absence of effective efforts to do anything about them.
If I read Google correctly, the U.S. national debt, as of this week, was just under $13 trillion and growing at the rate of $4 billion a day.
How much is $13 trillion? Well, it's $42,000 that I owe and $42,000 that you owe and $42,000 that everyone else owes, whether they're 88 or 8 years of age.
And it's growing every day. This year's budget deficit will set a record of $1.56 trillion, and the Obama administration isn't expecting annual deficits of less than $700 billion any time in the next 10 years.
So how much and how long can we keep on borrowing from people who are not necessarily friendly to us? How long can we afford to shovel out billions of dollars in interest that our people never see?
How much longer can we continue to race headlong, full-throttle into .... who knows, what form of disaster?
How and when do we begin to apply the brakes? To start balancing the budget? To start paying off the debt?
Well, obviously, we would have to curb spending, except that Democrats aren't good at that and Republicans have little to brag about. And we would have to raise taxes, except that Republicans consider that to be a deadly, unthinkable sin, and even liberal Democrats are wary of it.
It wouldn't be easy.
We might start by finally getting out of two wars that we never should have started. Then we might "adjust" income tax rates. Then, maybe, we might finally have the courage to take charge of how things work in the real world and to begin to reform -- set practical limits on -- such giant untouchables as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and defense.
Even if this were done carefully, of course, it would mean sacrifice for many, many people, including me, but is there any other way?
Guts, anyone?