Jim Bagwell: Spend-a-thon putting us in the poor house

Have you paid enough yet? With little publicity, you are going deeper and deeper in debt. It seems beyond credibility that the national debt grows by about $5 million a minute. Ladies and gentlemen, national means it is your debt.

I understand a few thousand dollars, but $5 million? I'm lost at that figure because I have no mental perspective of that amount of cash. I missed the

$1 billion mark and now we are headed deep into the trillions. Without using a piece of paper, do you know how many zeros are in a trillion?

Listen to our local and state leaders. They throw numbers around in the millions and billions as if they comprehend what they are saying and spending. If they use numbers they really do not comprehend, it probably does themselves and their constituency a disservice. At least in this state all government entities must have a balanced budget.

How often do you listen to the Gang of 535 and our president? They speak in amounts of money even Bernie Madoff could not comprehend. Our national debt soon will consume most of our gross domestic product annually. The national debt translates to about $150,000 per household by the end of this year. My question to you: Did you sign your loan documents or was it done by proxy? If you ran your personal budget in this manner I would expect you to need a bankruptcy attorney real soon.

Speaking of Bernie Madoff; I vaguely remember him going to prison for misappropriating and spending money entrusted to him to manage. His investors believed and expected him to grow their portfolios. His scheme of money management could not last. How much different is his scheme from what happens in Washington, D.C.? The only real difference is one is a crime and the other isn't. Remember, in the case of the federal government, you are the investor. Don't you love this spend ourselves into prosperity mentality?

Thomas Jefferson wrote to a friend and surmised, "public debt is the greatest of the dangers to be feared." He further wrote that he "wished it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution ... taking from the federal government their power of borrowing." If he were alive today, ol' Tom would probably be considered by those in Washington to be slightly out of touch. Instead he rolled over in his grave.

How do you feel about the wild financial ride you are about to take?

• Jim Bagwell of Carson City is a Vietnam veteran and graduate of the FBI National Academy who worked 31 years in law enforcement. He and his wife Lori own Charley's Grilled Subs.