You heard it here first!

The Congressional Budget Office's current estimate of the budget deficit is (get this) $1.186 trillion. Here is a trillion: 1,000,000,000,000. That is a million million, or one thousand billion, or ten raised to the twelfth power. Try to grasp that number because from now on the American government's annual debt and borrowing will be measured in the trillions (note the plural). The CBO's estimate has yet to include the new spending Mr. Obama will impose this year, so this figure is merely an interim number. In a previous post, I said the real budget deficit will be on the order of $2 trillion, and I stand by that number. The money the US government will attempt to borrow includes many "off budget" expenditures, like the ruinous wars we are fighting. To deceive us, the government omits these expenditures from the day-to-day budget. Further, the deficit is understated because any Social Security tax surplus is spent now, not saved. Only the American people are fooled by this fiscal chicanery; the credit and capital markets are not fooled and are well aware of the colossal amount of borrowing the federal government is attempting for just this fiscal year. Further, we have multi-trillion dollar deficits staring at us for the indefinite future.

So, whaddaya think? Will people of the world, falling into depression, forgo saving their money for themselves and their families and instead ship trillions of dollars in loans to the US so that we Americans can bail out Wall Street bankers, car companies, investment houses, mortgage holders, bankrupt spendthrifts, and impoverished wastrels? Do you think that the people of the world will volunteer to go hungry so Americans can eat, that they will wear tatters so Americans can clothe themselves, that they will impoverish themselves so Americans can go shopping? Do ya really think that this is going to happen, do ya?

Mr. Obama does, and he's bet the future of the country on it. In a sober, sombre moment, reflect on the improbability of him winning that bet and on what losing this loony gamble will mean to you.

Read your fate here