It Gets Worse...

We are in real trouble financially! Patriotic Americans need to be aware of what our leaders are ignoring. Yes, ignoring. That bailout business is NOTHING compared to the full extent of our troubles, yet do we ever hear any reference to just how much debt our nation has? Here is an excerpt from an article over at CNN:

The nation's real tab, on the other hand, amounted to $53 trillion as of the end of the last fiscal year. That was the sum of our public debt; accrued civilian and military retirement benefits; unfunded, promised Social Security and Medicare benefits; and other financial obligations -- all according to the government's most recent financial statement of September 30, 2007.

The rescue package and other bailout efforts for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG and the auto industry, escalating operating deficits, compounding interest and other factors are likely to boost the tab to $56 trillion or more by the end of this calendar year.

With numbers and trends like this, you might ask, "Who will bail out America?" The answer is, no one but us!

Since we're going to have to save ourselves, recent events could hardly be called encouraging. It took an additional $100 billion in incentives -- some would call them "sweeteners;" others might call them bribes -- to get lawmakers to pass the rescue package. Regardless of what you call these incentives, ultimately the taxpayers will have to pick up the tab, with interest.