Fiscal Unsustainability

Now that we are starting to pick up the pieces from Katrina and Rita, slowly calculating the costs of reconstruction as well as the economic impact this has had on a whole region of this country, we face hard choices on how all of this is going to be paid for.
No matter what your politics, I think everyone can agree that our current Federal fiscal situation is untenable. Bush and the Republican Congress took us from a surplus to a deficit mainly because of a massive tax cut that primarily (in dollar terms) benefited the richest Americans while not cutting spending. Then they added ongoing and expensive military operations in two countries by choice (rightly or wrongly). They passed enormous spending bills on Farm Subsidies, Medicare Drug Benefit, Transportation and continued to advocate for making the Bush tax cuts permanent. The President has still not vetoed one spending bill that Congress passed.

Now when we can all agree that we face a disaster of such a magnitude that calls for short term deficit spending to rebuild shattered communities, we find that our credit is already over extended and that we have lost control of our fiscal policy. So now what?

Peak Oil NYC