America's fiscal problem is much, much worse than that.

The current budget submitted by Pres. Obama calls for total Federal spending of $3.8 trillion as against expected Federal revenue of $2.4 trillion (and those projections are rosy). Thus a minimum of 36% of Federal spending will be borrowed money -- i.e., money we don't have.

Our budget deficit is so small only by the grace of God. Currently approximately 5% of the budget is spent on interest on the accumulated Federal debt. But interest rates are near zero, and the Federal debt is increasing by 1/6 per year in FY2009 and FY2010 as Obama piles up massive deficits. Once lenders get the whiff of fear, rates go up and our borrowing cost explodes (an increase in borrowing costs from 0.5% per annum to just 1.5% per annum is an increase of 300%) -- this will squeeze out other programs. Oh, and by the way, Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid and other untouchable social entitlement programs now gobble up 60% of the total budget. They're projected to balloon substantially as the baby boomer generation (the largest generation of Americans in history) becomes eligible and needs the promised services.

This is a gap which cannot be closed by a 10% Defense reduction, and certainly mitigates against the Federal government taking on any new massive entitlement programs. I don't see how facing these facts makes any of us illiterate hillbillies.

I'll give you an analogy. If you had income of $50,000 but spent $75,000 per year, charging the rest on a teaser-rate credit card which already carried a balance of $250,000, does that sound like a good idea? How are you ever going to pay off that $250,000, and will it be easier if you keep piling on more debt? Now imagine that $25,000 per year deficit was being spent on Sno-Balls, cable television, and crystal meth.

Yeah, Sarah Palin's the big dummy here...