Our federal government is now $16 trillion in debt and President Obama has no plan to stop it from increasing year after year. The U.S. Senate, even though it is legally required to do so, has not passed a budget in more than three years. No wonder spending is out of control.

What is a trillion dollars? Let's divide it by the number of U.S. workers, about 135 million. That is $7,400 per worker. That is how much the debt has increased per worker this year. The total debt is 16 times that, or $118,400 per worker.

We would have to double all income taxes to pay off the debt in 30 years. And that assumes the economy would not tank from a doubling of taxes. Nice legacy to leave our children and grandchildren.

When short-term interest rates go back up to about 3 percent, the situation will be much worse.

The Federal Reserve has dug us into a very deep, big hole that we can never escape from. More than $3 trillion has been added to the money supply. That means in a few years we face runaway inflation. And it will bite very hard and fast; one-third of federal government debt must be rolled over each year.

State debt and taxes will have to wait for another letter.

Curtis Williams

Belleville