STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
And after you absorb all those numbers, let's look at one more number - a very large one - $1.35 trillion. That is the size of the federal budget deficit this year. It's a level that nobody thinks is sustainable in years to come, so now ideas are flying from all sides about how to get things back on track. NPR's Andrea Seabrook reports.
ANDREA SEABROOK: One of the government's top economists made this announcement yesterday:
DOUG ELMENDORF: The outlook for the federal budget is bleak.
SEABROOK: A no-brainer maybe, but Doug Elmendorf of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office knows better than almost anyone just how bleak. Another $1.3 trillion on the credit card this year - close to a trillion again next year, pumping and pumping up the debt owed by the federal government.
ELMENDORF: So, we are pushing our way toward debt levels that we don't have experience with in this country and we can't observe experience with in other developed countries.
SEABROOK: And that's risky, says Elmendorf. At some point, the countries and investors that buy American debt will get uncomfortable and stop investing. We're not there yet - but we can't let it happen either, says Indiana Democratic Senator, Evan Bayh.
EVAN BAYH: It is impossible to be the world's largest debtor and still be the world's strongest country over an extended period of time. National economic and financial strength is a necessary component to military strength and respect abroad.
SEABROOK: Bayh, and Republican Senator John McCain, have a proposal to help the government chop down deficits.
JOHN MCCAIN: Americans are angry and they're worried. They're angry about the spending and they are worried about their children's futures.
SEABROOK: Kent Conrad, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, warned people not to blame Obama alone for the budget situation. Yes, he says, the stimulus package last spring did worsen the deficit, but...
KENT CONRAD: We already faced an unsustainable outlook. One judged to be unsustainable, by the head of the Congressional Budget Office, by the head of the Office of Management and Budget, by the chairman of the Federal Reserve, by the secretary of the Treasury - both in the previous administration and this one.
SEABROOK: And most economists, says Conrad, give some credit to the stimulus for the remarkable turnaround in the economy last year. No, the really big problem is more abstract, according to Elmendorf over at the Congressional Budget Office. It's a disconnect in the American psyche.
ELMENDORF: Between the services that people expect the government to provide, particularly in the form of benefits for older Americans, and the tax revenues they're prepared to send to the government to finance those services.
SEABROOK: Andrea Seabrook, NPR News, the Capitol.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.