T: Is for trouble starring us in the Face!

Homeowners have been living beyond their means, hoping that sometime in the future, something would bail them out. We now as a country are paying for that lack of responsibility. In the second quarter of 2008 alone, more than 700,000 homes went into foreclosure, effecting not only the economics, but the construction industry. This is a lesson in tragedy, for our nation. We are living beyond our means and behaving irresponsibly. Our national debt is approaching $10 trillion and growing, with almost 45 percent of it owed to foreigners. Americans may lose our country, as interest payments alone totaled $24 billion, in a single month. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, who was fired from his Cabinet post by President Bush for daring to insist that deficits matter states “When you get extended to the point you can’t service your debt, you’re finished.” O’Neill issues that warning in “I.O.U.S.A.,” a documentary about our nation’s pending fiscal crisis that opens tonight. (www.iousathemovie.com). The movie show a country deep in debt to the rest of the world as it loses control over its own future. Most of our foreign-held debt is owned by Japan, China and the oil-exporting countries, giving them enormous potential leverage not just over our foreign policy but over our domestic economic policies as well. Warren Buffett, former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, David Walker, until recently head of the Government Accountability Office, and Robert Bixby, head of the Concord Coalition, are who show just how bad this problem is. These facts aren’t liberal or conservative, they are just facts. Ronald Reagan is seen pointing out correctly that “for decades we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children’s future, for the temporary convenience of the present.” But as he speaks, graphics point out that in Reagan’s eight years as president, our national debt almost tripled, from $909 billion to $2.6 trillion. Our current President Bush is given similar treatment. In a press conference, he is seen proudly awarding himself “an A for keeping taxes low and being fiscally responsible with the people’s money.” But as graphics demonstrate, our national debt was $5.7 trillion when Bush took office; it will be almost twice that when he leaves. The film offers no solution, but it does express restrained outrage at the immorality of one generation of Americans. You and I have mortgaged the futures of our children and grandchildren to satisfy our own selfishness. We are the villains and again these are just the F.A.C.T.S.