http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100427/ap_on_bi_ge/us_deficit_commission
The co-chairman of President Barack Obama's deficit reduction commission said Tuesday that Obama would endorse its findings, including politically toxic tax increases and painful cuts to retirement benefits that the president was unwilling to propose on his own.
The deficit has turned alarmingly worse since the recession that started at the end of 2007. Many projections show its size never dipping below 4 percent of the economy over the next decade. Deficits of that magnitude are unsustainable, economists say. They would put upward pressure on interest rates, crowd out private investment and ultimately erode living standards.
The quickly growing national debt — the accumulation of years of annual budget deficits — today stands at a staggering $12.88 trillion and the Congressional Budget Office expects the nation to add another $1 trillion a year for another decade. The federal government itself holds a large portion of this debt, some $4.5 trillion, with much of it sitting in the Social Security Trust Fund.
The remaining $8.5 trillion is held by worldwide investors in the form of Treasury bills and bonds. China is the largest single holder of these securities
