I. O. U. S. A.

Robert Samuelson mentioned this film today. Here's the trailer.

Here's a bit from Samuelson's editorial.

Last week, I viewed "I.O.U.S.A.," an 87-minute documentary exploring the grim budget outlook. It is unbalanced budgets that, in many ways, define the political deadlock. The persistence of deficits over so many years (42 of the past 47) can have only one basic cause: Politicians of both parties prefer spending to taxing. As everyone knows, the disconnect will worsen, because aging baby boomers will bloat outlays for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. These programs already total nearly two-fifths of the $2.9 trillion federal spending in 2008.

We need to wake up, people! If we don't pass Obama's government-funded health care, huge increases in education spending and universal preschool soon, we'll be in big trouble*.

Meanwhile, Dick Armey, good Republican foot soldier that he is, complains about the Democrats plans to raise your taxes.

By letting the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 expire, Congress will foist a crippling $280 billion tax hike on the American economy. As if that tax hike is not enough, President Obama's 'solution' to the impending bankruptcy of Social Security is simple: raise payroll taxes. This proposed payroll tax hike would cost employers and employees $1 trillion over ten years.

Thanks, Dick. That helped a lot. Let's not pay for what we buy. That works when you go through WalMart, right?

Sigh.

* - At least I think that's what this movie is trying to say. Did I miss something?