Americans are now tasting the sour fruits of unaffordable mortgages: foreclosure, bankruptcy, falling markets. The nation, too, is staring at overwhelming debt, made worse by this week’s forecast of a whopper federal deficit. Washington mustn’t let this burden rise, for the sake of global financial markets and future US generations.

It’s true that the $482 billion deficit chasm estimated for fiscal year 2009 doesn’t look so deep when taken as a percentage of the overall economy – 3.3 percent of gross domestic product compared to the 1983 nadir of about 6 percent.

But this is just one “mortgage” that the federal government (i.e., taxpayers) must meet. It owes on all the deficits it has accumulated over the years (the national debt), and it has jumbo liabilities to come in the form of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Adding all those liabilities together, the government has dug itself into a $53 trillion fiscal hole – the equivalent of $175,000 per person living in the United States. If the White House and Congress continue to follow the do-nothing plan, in another 30 years or so the federal government will spend more than twice as much as it raises in taxes.

More at CS Monitor

When the U.S. Postal Service rang up a $13,500 tab at an Orlando steakhouse, it spared no expense during a five-hour meal that government investigators are calling “abusive” in its extravagance.

The order — charged to government credit cards — included more than $3,000 for drinks, more than $500 for shrimp cocktails and almost $900 for mini crab cakes, according to the Government Accountability Office, the investigate arm of Congress.

And then there’s the steak.

“The better question is probably what they didn’t order,” GAO investigator Gregory Kutz said Wednesday. He counted 81 entrees — including just about every kind of steak — from the 2006 feast at Ruth’s Chris Steak House on Sand Lake Road.

More at the Sun Sentinel

WASHINGTON (AP) The government says the federal budget deficit totaled $87.7 billion through the first four months of this budget year, double last year’s pace.

From the AP:

The federal budget deficit is running at a pace that is more than double last year’s imbalance through the first four months of the budget year.

In its monthly review of the government’s finances, the Treasury Department said Tuesday that the budget was in surplus in January, but totals $87.7 billion so far this budget year, double the $42.2 billion imbalance recorded during the same period in 2007. The new budget year started last Oct. 1.

The Bush administration sent its final budget request to Congress last week, projecting that the deficit for all of 2008 will total $410 billion, very close to the all-time high in dollar terms of $413 billion in 2004.

So far this year, federal spending is 8.3 percent ahead of last year’s pace, at $949.1 billion. That is far ahead of the 3.2 percent increase in revenues, which have totaled $861.4 billion in the current budget year.

For 2007, the budget deficit totaled $162 billion, a five-year low. However, the slowing economy is expected to stunt the growth of tax revenues while the $168 billion economic stimulus plan passed by Congress last week will swell the deficit.

Funny how these “classified” reports are leaked at the most opportune times. It’s reported today that a classified Pentagon assessment concluded that the long battlefield tours in Iraq and Afghanistan have left us unable to respond to any new crisis. It’s all about the persistent terrorist activity. Uh huh….. I think it’s all about Bush asking for $515.4 billion (that’s billion with a B) in defense spending for 2009. And that doesn’t include the cost of the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan This is an over 50% increase in military spending since Bush took office. Maybe if they’d take care of all the defense contractor fraud, this budget wouldn’t be so over the top. Let alone the monies that the Pentagon can’t account for. Anyone remember this comment from Rumsfeld the day before 9/11? “According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions,” Rumsfeld admitted. That’s trillion with a T. Gone….and forgotten.

Like the dipshit says, “It’s clearly a budget. It’s got lots of numbers in it.

Then there’s the domestic budget…….. you know, shit that’s not important……to Bush, anyway.

On the domestic front, the White House will call for trimming discretionary spending within the Department of Health and Human Services by more than $2 billion, to $74.2 billion, according to budget documents.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would lose more than $430 million, including $27 million from its efforts to detect and control infectious diseases, and $28 million from chronic disease prevention and health promotion. A $301 million program that trains 4,700 pediatricians and pediatric specialists at children’s teaching hospitals also would be eliminated, at a time when pediatric specialties, such as rheumatology and pulmonology, face critical shortages.

And America sits back and watches……..