Why we should be like Cardiac Coug and worry about the national debt

[Mormon Red Death]

Another TMQ gem10/21/08

Federal Debt Growing Exponentially: TMQ believes long-term borrowing, not short-term financial market freeze, is the big issue facing the U.S. economy. And the borrowing continues without the slightest sense of discipline by either party. At least the issue is finally drawing notice. Here, the Washington Post reports that the federal deficit may zoom to $1 trillion -- adjusted for inflation and economic growth, the worst deficit ever, including the Depression and World War II. Actually it's even worse than that! Charles Morris, an astute commentator on finances and banking, notes in the Washington Independent -- fast becoming the leading serious politics and news Web destination -- that the Federal Reserve has quietly loaned an extra $650 billion to banks and other financial institutions, essentially doubling the announced price of the "$700 billion" financial bailout. It is possible the Fed's quiet loans will be repaid, and if so, taxpayers won't be harmed. But if the loans are not repaid, taxpayers could be stung for about $1.4 trillion to bail out the lifestyles of bankers and Wall Street dilettantes -- see below. That's more than double the defense budget, and a truly obscene giveaway of wealth and power by George W. Bush, who just a year ago vetoed a Medicaid increase on the grounds that there is not one spare dime available to improve health care for the poor.