Here is a more understandable way to see where we are in this current mess............

Here is something I came across on the US Debt Crisis that I think adds perspective.

The U.S. Congress sets a federal budget every year in the trillions of dollars. Few people know how much money that is so here is breakdown of federal spending in simple terms. Let's put the 2011 federal budget into perspective:

U.S. income: $2,170,000,000,000
Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000 (about 1 percent of the budget)

It helps to think about these numbers in terms that we can relate to.
Therefore, let's remove eight zeros from these numbers and pretend this is the household budget for the fictitious Jones family.

Total annual income for the Jones family: $21,700
Amount of money the Jones family spent: $38,200
Amount of new debt added to the credit card: $16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
Amount cut from the budget: $385

You tell me, are we making any progress on the US debt issue? It seems to me that all of this talk is just another political smoke screen.