Here’s a view of the future that’s anything but rosy:

Is America going broke?

Record deficits, colossal debt, and no clear plan for digging itself out. If the U.S. sinks, it will take Canada down with it.

By Steve Maich, March 2, 2005, MacCleans [Canada]

David Walker can see the future, and it scares the hell out of him.

That wouldn't be terribly unusual if he were one of the thousands of lobbyists, legislators and activists crawling all over Washington on any given day, pontificating about the urgency of their pet issues. There is a thriving industry here built on pushing policy prescriptions for every ailment, real or imagined. But Walker isn't a lobbyist or an activist; he's an accountant. His title is Comptroller General of the United States, which makes him the head auditor for the most important and powerful government in the world. And he's desperately trying to get a message out to anyone who'll listen: the United States of America's public finances are a shambles. They're getting rapidly worse. And if something major isn't done soon to solve the country's intractable budget problems, the world will face an economic shakeup unlike anything ever seen before. [snip]

The author discusses the problem and how we got where we are and then tells us:

The Economic Policy Institute recently projected that under the current tax regime, by 2014 all government revenue would be consumed by four areas of spending: health care for the elderly and the poor, Social Security for retirees, national defence and interest on the debt. There will be no money left for such fundamental initiatives as education, transportation, or justice, which means the government would be forced into ever-escalating borrowing to pay for basic programs. Walker's department projects that, under the current tax rates, interest costs on the skyrocketing national debt would be about half of all government tax revenues by 2031. Ten years later, the cost of servicing the debt will exceed all government revenues. [emphasis added] [snip]

A sudden drop in the dollar could trigger, among other things, a stock market crash, a plunge in the real estate market, a deep recession, or all of the above. "There's nothing stable about America's dependence on the kindness of strangers," Roach wrote in a report last summer. "The funding of America is an accident waiting to happen." [snip]

On Nov. 1, 2000, as George W. Bush was campaigning for the White House, he warned an audience in Minneapolis that the Democrats would lead the nation into a future of higher taxes and slower economic growth that "could mean an end to this nation's prosperity.” Bush won the election in part by portraying himself as an antidote to tax-and-spend liberals. Yet despite this bold austerity rhetoric, discretionary spending rose 23 percent in Bush's first term. Just over four years after harping on the dangers of fiscal irresponsibility, the President is on his way to making his own warnings a reality.

Virtually every reputable independent observer who has looked at the United States budget shortfall concludes that some combination of significant tax increases and major spending cuts is unavoidable. [emphasis added] But making those reforms happen, and closing that budget gap, will require the kind of deft touch used to dismantle a bomb. The American currency must be slowly, carefully managed lower to boost U.S. exports, but without triggering a sudden plunge in the greenback that could spark a devastating jump in inflation. Interest rates must gradually rise to ward off inflation and encourage consumers to save more of their earnings. Spending must be reined in, but not so severely that it compromises U.S. security and other public priorities. And taxes must be raised, but not so drastically that they stunt economic growth. [snip]

Walker stresses the need to make "tough decisions," and none will be tougher than tackling the runaway costs of providing health-care coverage for the elderly and the poor. Health spending in the U.S. is projected to jump 63 per cent by 2010, and to continue rising even faster after that. Most analysts agree that, at some point, the government must find a way to clamp down on those costs, yet any cuts in coverage are sure to raise an outcry from the swelling ranks of senior citizens -- a highly influential voting bloc.

Academics have proposed such reforms as a national retail sales tax, a luxury tax, and a rollback of all tax cuts enacted since 2001. Others are calling for increased funding for the Internal Revenue Service to catch tax cheaters. Many insist there must be increases to Medicare premiums, as well as massive cutbacks in a wide range of social programs. But telling voters that they will have to pay more in taxes for fewer services is not an easy sell, and so far no politician has been willing to try it. In February, Bush tabled a proposed budget that would eliminate or trim back 150 government programs, but even with that, the U.S. would be racking up deficits well in excess of US$200 billion for years to come. "They're not being serious about austerity at all," Bivens says. "They're talking about very big cuts to very small programs. They mean a lot to the people getting them, but it's pennies in the overall fiscal problem." [snip]

Walker shares that hope, and clings to his own sense of optimism. He says he has detected a noticeable shift in attitude just in the past few months, as legislators slowly come to grips with the inevitable financial reckoning. But he acknowledges that, so far, there is little concrete progress to show for his efforts. "The thing that is frustrating is that you can talk to people and point to things, but that's all you can do," he says. "You can lead them to water, but they have to drink. And they better start drinking fast -- and soon."

So - according to the Comptroller General, unless Dear Leader stops his spending, the debt service will exceed the tax revenue by 2041. Yes, but wait, you say! Dear Leader said he’s going to cut the deficit in half by 2010.

To do that, you and I are going to have to go without a lot, and the poor are going to have to go without a lot more. Dear Leader’s base, the “Have’s and the Have More’s” apparently are not going to have to do without more tax cuts, at least in the short term. I’ve heard no discussion about making those “temporary” cuts really temporary or removing the new cuts in the 2006 budgets. This weasel won’t even consider NOT proposing more tax cuts. Can you contemplate these people growing the cohones necessary to generate the necessary revenue to reverse the damage they’ve caused? The chutzpah of this man and his cohorts is breathtaking. Then again, he’s got that mandate!

As long as the excerpts from this article are, there is a lot more of it at the link. The entire post is worth reading.