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

Up in smoke:

ITT Federal Services International, a defense contractor hired to maintain battle gear for U.S. troops in Iraq, repeatedly failed to do the job right.

Combat vehicles ITT declared as repaired and ready for action flunked inspections and had to be fixed again. Equipment to be sanitized for return to the United States was found caked with dirt. And ITT’s computer database for tracking the work was rife with errors.

Formal “letters of concern” were sent to the contractor. Still, the Army didn’t fire ITT. Instead, it gave the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based company more work to do. Since October 2004, ITT has been paid $638 million through the Global Maintenance and Supply Services contract.
[...]

“It has just been a mess,” McCaskill, a former state auditor, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It’s bad enough how much this war is costing. But it’s heartbreaking the amount of money that has just gone up in smoke.”
[...]

The office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction has 52 open cases related to bribery, false billing, contract fraud, kickbacks and theft; 36 of those cases have been referred to the Justice Department for prosecution, according to the inspector general’s office.

The Army Criminal Investigation Command is busy, too. The command has 90 criminal investigations under way related to alleged contract fraud in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, according to spokesman Chris Grey. Two dozen U.S. citizens have been charged or indicted so far - 19 of those are Army military and civilian employees - and more than $15 million in bribes has changed hands, Grey said.

Yet Bush, his republican cohorts and the far right fringe of America seems to think health care for children is a huge waste of money.

“Keep your car properly maintained.” -Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa.

“Convicted felons can vote. [I]f ‘your’ prison sentence has been served, parole or probation completed and fines paid.” -Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga.

People without health insurance. People without homes. Appears our elected officials are unaware of these facts. They’re too busy spending $20.3 million of your tax money on what can be considered junk mail.