warren · j. · dew

The effects of government profligacy are beginning to show. The government managed to run up a bigger deficit in the first six months of this fiscal year - $956,800 million - than in all twelve months of the previous fiscal year - $454,800 million - which itself was a record. The runaway deficit is partly because tax receipts are down, by about 15%, but mostly because the spending rate has nearly doubled from last year. If things keep going this way, we'll manage to top the previous record deficit by a factor of four.

There's a limit to how long we can get away with this. While the recession continues, it may hide the inflationary effects of the extra spending; however, when we do pull out of the recession, we may quickly go to stagflation and not to a long term healthy economy.

One source for more specific numbers:
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090410-704541.html