OK, I will be honest with you. In high school, I got a "C" in algebra. I admit I am not the sharpest tool in the math shed of life. However, I don't think I am the only American who is struggling with trying to get his mind around a $1 trillion national debt, much less a $3 trillion national debt. ...more

March 7, 2009

Most of us can't really conceive of just how much money a trillion dollars is. I know it's a "1" with 12 zeros after it, but it's hard to get a handle on how much space that much cash would take up. I keep thinking of those old comic books with Disney's Scrooge McDuck. He kept all his money in a vault that looked like a swimming pool full of dollars. My guess is even Scrooge McDuck didn't have that much cash in his vault. ...more

March 6, 2009

No, the headline above isn't asking you what you're doing. Instead, it is a question county officials are asking Pinellas residents as they decide how to deal with a projected revenue shortfall for the 2010 fiscal year. ...more

February 28, 2009

President Barack Obama unveiled a $3.55 trillion spending plan Thursday that would boost taxes on the wealthy, curtail Medicare, lay the groundwork for universal health care and leave a string of deficits dwarfing any in the nation's history. ...more

February 27, 2009

It may seem like the country that used to make everything is on the brink of making nothing. ...more

February 27, 2009

I started to write this over a month ago, but I observed something rather remarkable-foreboding. The Republicans-conservatives were rather blase in completely dismissing the eight-year record of doubling the $5 trillion national debt, while blasting President Obama and the Democrats on the nearly $800 billion stimulus bill. In addition they ignored the nearly $3 trillion bailout of the banks and Wall Street with hardly a whimper between September '08 and January, '09. ...more

February 27, 2009

President Barack Obama laid out his first budget plan Thursday predicting a stunning federal deficit of $1.75 trillion this year - nearly four times last year's record - and asking Congress to raise taxes on the wealthy to stem that flood of red ink while still moving the country toward guaranteed health care for all. ...more

February 27, 2009

I found a great deal of interesting reading in the paper last week. I read that Steve Chapman is offering corn-fed Iowa some of Illinois' overabundance of indicted officials, as a bonus offering them Lake Michigan and a baseball team. I suppose every state could find some things it would be willing to offer, in a reasonable exchange! The whole country is in a meltdown. Another thing I read was the revelation that Floridians give President Obama high approval ratings. Now, I know that many of us are retirees on fixed incomes, and we are grateful for any freebies we can get, but are we willing to have them charged to our children and great-grandchildren? Who is going to pay these bills when they come due? A few trillion dollars would seem to be quite a chunk of change! ...more

February 24, 2009

$1.2 trillion National deficit inherited by President Barack Obama $1.5 trillion ...more

February 22, 2009

President Barack Obama's wants to cut the federal deficit in half by the end of his first term, mostly by scaling back Iraq war spending, raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans and streamlining government, an administration official said Saturday as the president worked to finalize his first budget request. ...more

February 21, 2009