LINKBest summation I've seen yet about the mess we are in:
[blockquote]Here's the numbers. Show me what we're going to do about it.
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Unemployment and Welfare comprise 56.7% of the federal budget ($2.1 trillion.)
Defense comprises another 18.7% (about $700 billion.)
And interest, today, is a paltry 4.6% (primarily due to ZIRP).
Interest expense will double even if we don't add one more dollar of debt to the Federal side.
Not might double, will double.
Tell me how we're going to address the deficit, when those five programs above (note, not including the interest) comprise all of the $2 trillion we collect in taxes.
That's the beginning and end of the discussion folks. We have to set the ground rules against what is possible, not what people like. We get to "likes" after we get beyond "mathematical facts."
America refuses to deal with mathematical facts, in no small part because our leaders repeatedly and maliciously lie about those mathematical facts.[/blockquote]
There is more at the link. A good, if depressing, read that is entitled, "The Idiocy of the American Public."