Saturday July 4, 2009, 5:00 am
"Unless we demonstrate a strong commitment to fiscal sustainability in the longer term, we will have neither financial stability nor healthy economic growth," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently told Congress.

Higher taxes, or reduced federal benefits and services - or a combination of both - may be the inevitable consequences.

The debt is complicating efforts by President Barack Obama and Congress to cope with the worst recession in decades as stimulus and bailout spending combine with lower tax revenues to widen the gap...

Saturday July 4, 2009, 6:40 am
Very troubling... Seriously, we not to stop borrowing and borrowing and borrowing... It is going to get worse before it gets better. Thanks Kathy!

Monday July 6, 2009, 2:03 am
Noted. I totally agree w/ Jamie's comment above me.

Monday July 6, 2009, 12:27 pm

I hope you all were complaining when GWB and Darth Cheney were racking up the debt with their illegal war and huge expansion of government!! Obama inherited this mess from them!

Monday July 6, 2009, 10:42 pm
I agree with Rebbecca S.,,,we need to keep the Rebubli-CON$ from continued power and take back our nation!!

Tuesday July 7, 2009, 2:00 am
Now debt is a problem? Seriously.

We should have been worrying about debt when the country had a 4% unemployment rate - instead we were cutting taxes and spending trillions on foreign wars. Right now, while unemployment is 10% and continuing to grow, focussing on debt is like telling the firemen who come out to put out a conflagration that they need to conserve water.

Tuesday July 7, 2009, 7:20 am
Thanks Peace, wonderful article! I am sorry that such articles were not written nor read years ago.

I agree with all the above comments, except that this problem can't be put at GWB's or Dick Cheney's door. It has been brewing for 50 years, without policy makers realising the problems associated with such mountains of debt.

Obama is attempting to stop the rot by making the health care system more efficient. I look forward to seeing how he is going to sort out all the unfunded debt. Whatever he does will be unpleasant, especially for the old, ill, and unemployed.

I wish him and the people of the USA well in this effort because the survival of the USA probably depends on how well this mountain of debt is reduced.

Tuesday July 7, 2009, 7:30 am
I agree with everyone and also want to say that all of these bailouts we have been dolling out money to is ludicrous. We should have let all of these companies go bankkrupt and figure out how to restart thier businesses. Yes it would have cost more jobs but in the long run I believe that these workers who are honest and not afraid to do an honest days work for an honest wage would have found a way back. With all the money we have borrowed from China, they own us. This is not one of those problems that is going to be easy to fix, especially if we continue to bail out more companies. The ones who are really going to struggle are the colledge grads who arent going to be able to find jobs and have all those student loans to pay back. And is this how we really want to set up the future for our children? Thanks Kathy noted.