Is The U.S.A. Headed For A Short Sale?

Great nation, Lost it's way, future generations unable to carry mortgage left by the previous generation(s). Make offer! 3rd Party Approval required. Multiple Lenders.

A little tongue in cheek, but I have no doubt that Erskine Bowles was telling the truth when he said (and I paraphrase) "if we don't get this debt under control, we will be bankrupt by 2020." For those people who think that might not matter, as our debt increases, so does the risk of default and that leads to higher interest rates, inflation, and deflation of the value of the dollar. In a nutshell, a situation that would make the 1970s look desirable. I grew up in the 70s. It wasn't that bad except every week when I went to the Zippy Mart of a soda,it was a few cents higher. Same for going to Burger King, McDonald's, etc. You saw prices rising weekly in some cases. Take the weekly increases recently in gas prices and apply it to everything.

We have to make, in some cases, gut wrenching decisions as a nation. Although no one wants to see their taxes go up, they likely will. I could say I am against lowering the mortgage deduction (and yes it concerns me and the future of my business) but then I cannot say anything when someone else says well "you can't do away with that because that affects my business or livelihood." So, the truth is, we are all just going to have to "grin and bear it." It won't be easy. Perhaps after we get all of our ducks lined up, and we as a nation make a pledge not to ever "go there" again, we can be a little more generous in some of the deductions and government benefits.

Finally, In today's Washington Post is an article on "The Fed Page" (A23) about tax fraudby incarcerated individuals having risen 37 percent since 2004. More than 48,800 of the nations prisoners claimed $130,000,000 in fraudulent tax refunds by March of this year. The IRS caught some of it and only dished out $112,000,000 in refunds. This is an example of cuts and wasteful spending that we need to get under control if we plan to get this nation back on track.