U.S. debt out of control

"A billion dollars here, a billion dollars there; pretty soon we're talking real money."

This oft-repeated aphorism attributed to former Sen. Everett Dirksen, R-Ill., should have three more zeros behind it to bring it up to date.

The national debt of near $10trillion, which represents the accumulated impact of all of America's internal budget deficits, will be the lasting legacy of today's executive and judicial branches as a new administration takes over on Jan. 20, 2009.

Ironically, this will double the amount faced by the elder George Bush, in 1988, when he took office. His predecessor, Ronald Reagan, who rebuilt America's military potential, and was credited with bringing down the Soviet empire, quintupled the $1 trillion debt he inherited from President James Earl Carter Jr.

Only during World War II, as the U.S. built the largest war machine ever, did the national debt represent a greater per-capita yoke on every single American. It was also the only time that the debt's percentage of America's gross domestic product has exceeded the present level.

These out-of-control expenditures represent a system that is totally devoid of fiscal responsibility. In addition to an overwhelming percentage of America's expenditures represented by entitlements such as Social Security, Medicare, drugs for senior citizens and defense, the president did not exercise his veto power except for the negation of federal aid for stem cell research during his first term.

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