It gets worse. Added to our huge interest burden is the growing cost of honoring commitments made to aging baby boomers through Medicare and Social Security. If you thought the payroll taxes they, and you, pay towards entitlement programs were invested for your retirement, you’d be wrong. In fact, the federal politicians divert payroll tax revenues to pay annual government deficits.

Republicans have been shouting about this as long as I can remember. We called for an amendment to balance the budget. Just a few years ago, the Tea Party movement brought new energy to the issue. But now that Republicans are in charge in Washington, we appear to have become silent about deficits and debt.

Last year, in round numbers, the government took in $3 trillion and it spent $4 trillion. The extra trillion was borrowed from other countries, institutions, and individuals, and we will pay them billions in interest on their loans every year. The non-partisan forecasts from the Congressional Budget Office predict growing deficits for the next several years, each over one trillion dollars.