The national debt is now at $16.5 trillion, that's more than $146,000 per taxpayer.
The shell game that the U.S. Treasury is playing is a con job. Cheap, borrowed low-interest paper can be very alluring. Hopefully, Washington will supply us with parachutes when we do make the inevitable leap off the fiscal cliff.
We have been promised worthless solutions by debt commissions, and then supercommittees. Washington continues to just kick the can and avoid sensible ideas in tackling the problem.
Our president and lawmakers are simply political animals that promise more pork-barrel spending to special interests. They don't have the backbone to face the fiscal mess, they just avoid it. It's a disgrace and a threat to our national security.
Our legacy could very well be that we left this heavy weight on the backs of future generations. The president and Congress still have an opportunity to find real solutions in dealing with the debt. They can start paying the bill now, or they can pay it later. It won't just magically go away.
PAT TRIEWEILER
Merced
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