Pete this is what I tell voters on their doorsteps canvassing for Obama or any of the other national Dems like Scott Harper out here in IL-13.

When Jimmy Carter left office in 1981 we had less than $1 trillion in debt. $990 billion to be more precise. It took us over two hundred years of American history, all the way back to 1776 to run up that tab. Two world wars, a civil war, the Revolutionary War, umpteen recessions and depressions. All of US history up to 1981.

In the 27 short years since then with trickle down, supply side economics and huge tax cuts for the richest one percent we've ballooned that debt to over $9 trillion dollars. (It's so ugly you have to say it twice and let it sink in) $9 trillion. We borrow $300 billion more every year from the Red Chinese to pay countries like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia for oil. Now every year the second item in our government's budget behind the Defense Dept is interest on that debt.

This is unsustainable. Our kids and our grandkids are going to have to pay off that tab.

It's about time we started acting like adults and reject Republican economics. There is no free lunch. We're squandering our kids' future and if we don't change soon we'll go down in history as the dumbest generation.

Guilt is a powerful emotion. Even the fattest of fat cats don't want to be remembered as the generation that wrecked America. It's very effective because it's true.