I.O.U.S.A: You need to watch this movie on our national debt.

I think my girlfriend would be less pissed if I married you.

Ooo!
*raises hand*

ditto.

less pissed? hell, we could sell them tickets to the honeymoon.

ok actual on-topic comment:

i watched it all the way through, and though he presents some interesting points, it reeks through and through of the old "social spending too big! no way to afford it at all, ever! baabbbyy boooomeerrss!" bit.

it costs a lot of money to provide for the health and welfare of the citizens of a large first-world nation.

but, imo, if the rest of your budget isn't ruined by pork, wars and tax-cuts-uber-alles it's actually pretty doable. you just need to have a population that accepts taxation as something that helps provide for them and a government that actually makes it happen.

and katie: i think the delay caused by boomers losing their savings will just give us time to dig ourselves a deeper hole for them to bury us in.

^^^Eh, pork spending really isn't that all that much, it's just a favorite whipping boy of politicians to make an opponents look bad before getting some of their own... I guess it's symbolic of crooked politics, so there's no reason it shouldn't go (although some projects actually are worthy). Entitlements are going to go through the roof, but part of that is the rising cost of health care (and the fact that there is going to be a significant increase in the volume of recipients over the next several years will compound the issue). Alas, it is not the boomers fault for getting older, rather it's that of the government which has failed to plan effectively or properly regulate the economy. You're spot on with the wars and tax-cuts, enough! (Although a stimulus for those in need isn't such a bad idea right now, though I do think those who made out like bandits through capital gains should be taxed doubly...)

Personally, I think anyone who is in favor of higher taxes can lead the way by donating to the IRS.

Can you at least try to make a logical argument? It's not like most of us don't already know your position, but "donating" to the IRS? That doesn't even make sense. You'd probably get fined for it, actually, with the overage being returned to you or held in limbo.

If you think you're cleverly illustrating some great point, you weren't.

That's the American attitude, let someone else worry about it! Oh wait, isn't that what got us into this mess in the first place?

from TreasuryDirect.gov

How do you make a contribution to reduce the debt?
Make your check payable to the Bureau of the Public Debt, and in the memo section, notate that it is a Gift to reduce the Debt Held by the Public. Mail your check to:

Attn Dept G
Bureau Of the Public Debt
P. O. Box 2188
Parkersburg, WV 26106-2188

West Virginia? Why is it in west Virginia of all places.

I am guessing that most Government Agency's are in Virginia due to the fact that A. Virginia acted as our capital before Washington DC was designated so they have a history of being the place for Federal Government and B. it is very close to Washington DC.

A frightening prospect, if true. However, here is an alternative view:

I should also point out that credits and debits often get confused and put in the wrong column, mistaking investments for expenses. Education, for example, is an investment, but it gets counted as an expense.

silversoul7 that only works for as long as other nations think we can pay back our debt. The problem now is that other nations and people are waking up to the fact that we can't pay back our debt and as such they don't want to loan us much more money nor buy dollars. So yes it is beneficial in the short term but its playing with fire in a fireworks shop... eventually its all going to blow up.

Let's break this down.

Question 1: Were you in favour of the Iraq War?

Question 2: How did you expect the costs of that war to be financed if not by higher taxes?

Question 3: Is it possible you lost some IQ points under your bed, and mightn't now be a good time to dig them out of there and make use of them?

Vickrey was writing in another context.

There's a tendency for some to take ANY sign of a deficit as a bad thing -- that budgets must always be balanced. I agree with Vickrey that this is wrongheaded.

But the US government finances are in a terrible shape. I've written about this here before.

West Virginia is on the opposite side of VA as DC. You might even say it's another state.