Here are some numbers that put into perspective the sorry state of the federal government and our fiscal predicament:
Current National Debt: $5.4 trillion
Current Federal Deficit: $407 billion
Combined bailouts (to date): $1.6 trillion
Eight years of Wars: $790 billion
Social Security Payments (2008): $612 billion
Medicare (2008): $454 billion
Medicaid (2008): $202 billion
Interest on the National Debt (2008): $244 billion
Earmarks (2008): $16.5 billion
For all the talk about the ravages of adding on more debt and leverage, the government has no other choice but to take out the credit card so that taxpayers will incur even more staggering debt service costs in the future--$244 billion will look good next year.
And oh yeah, eliminating earmarks will make a major difference in the sea of red ink.
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