To put this context of the federal deficit, if the government spends money that increases the wealth of the country over time, then the debt is paid down. If the government only spends money in a way that does not increase the wealth of the country, then the debt increases. A large part of government spending does not increase the wealth of the country and therein lies a values issue. To draw an analogy do families spend money on their children, their retired parents, and health care. Do families value their children, their parents, their health? The answer is simple as Sara Palin would say You Betcha.

There is another aspect of government spending that people believe that is not true and that aspect is waste. I would argue there is little waste in the government compared to families or corporations. Most of what waste there is lies in defense. However, the waste looks huge because the government is so huge. Yeah a billion dollars is a whole lot of money, but it is 1% of a 100 billion.  Medicare versus private insurance is a classic case, there is much less waste in Medicare than in private insurance.

Now to get to some facts, Medicare and Social Security pay for themselves with separate taxes and money saved from those taxes. Most other government spending come from the general income tax. The debt and the deficit do not come from social security and Medicare, they come mostly from defense and other government services such as homeland security and justice that we consider essential. And yes those services do not increase the wealth of the country, but just try to get along with the FBI, the justice department, the court system, . . .

There are two ways to deal with these services. One is to cut spending, and I believe defense department spending should be cut drastically. Other areas such as justice and the courts can use more money, much more relative to their size, but insignificant compared to defense cuts. The other way to pay for these services and reduce the debt is through more tax collection. Increasing the top marginal tax rates, say to 50% on income above a million dollars a year works. Taxing all earned income for social security works. Putting all citizens who want a job to work at jobs creating wealth works. Proving increases in wages commensurate to increases in productivity works. Implementing trade agreements that insures foreign workers receive commensurate benefits to US workers works. Insuring foreign countries trade currency fairly works. Increasing education, research, and development works. Providing a more efficient infrastructure works. Providing inexpensive energy works. Energy is the grease that enables the wheels on the economic bus to round and round. (Don't pardon my analogy).

To make all the above happen will require big time government spending. Rep. Jan Schakowsky talks about 200 billion dollars to reduce unemployment by 1.3%. See Rep. Jan Schakowsky on putting more Americans to work.

There are two problems democrats have. One is President Obama, the main speaker for democrats, is not focusing on what needs to be done to improve the economy. He either does not know or he does not believe he can be elected. I believe the problem is both, he doesn't know and he is concerned that he will not be elected. The second problem is the voters do not understand and no one educating the voters.

I have no idea how to educate the president. The president needs to present the issues in terms of families that people can understand. Until that happens and I am obviously incapable of that, we are stuck. Republicans have a message that resonates and President Obama will look like a weak waffler.