Bush debt legacy

They came to talk fiscal responsibility, entitlements and tax reform.

But when the House Budget Committee sat down this morning to talk solutions to the nation's long-term economic woes, the numbers were the thing.

"If you leave here remembering only one number, let it be this one: $53 trillion," Peter G. Peterson, an investment banker and fiscal conservative, said in his prepared testimony. In today's dollars, he said, $53 trillion is "what this country owes between our national debt, future liabilities and our huge unfunded promises for programs like Social Security and Medicare." Referring to his foundation's report, called The State of the Union's Finances, Peterson called the concern neither Democratic nor Republican and called the number "unacceptable" and "un-American."

-- Johanna Neuman

Comments

[Zeon]

Politicians will never make difficult decisions that may cost them an election. It doesn’t matter whether the problem is climate change or the federal deficit. The easiest thing to do is to pass the problem on to future generations, which is exactly what’s been going on for decades. I predict this practice will continue.