>>It is not a Democrat/Republican thing - it is a mindset of the federal model where they believe they can piss away our money on unsound ventures.

Many of the current debt/federal debt problems can be laid at the door of four items:

1) Exporting of manufacturing jobs to China for a short-term dividend gain.
2) The banking greed fiasco.
3) In healthcare, underfunding of Medicare/Medicaid because anybody who tried to underwrite competently got punished by voters- an act of which they are immensely proud when they claim to have accumulated assets through hard work compared to today's lay-abouts.
4) In Social Security, deliberate underinvestment of premiums during a period of massive return that also was privatized by voters.

To put things in perspective, last year the unfunded Medicare deficit was calculated at $47T. This year there is muttering that it may exceed $50T. A few $B here and there on failed green projects is a flea compared to this elephant in the room.

Surely these trends of selfishness and greed should disqualify those responsible from ever being entrusted with power ever again. Instead people act as if these are acts of nature, assessing politician sound-bites as gospel without considering what such politicians did in real life.