Reconciling Today's Big Numbers and Big Needs With Tomorrow's

Reading the facts and figures about President Obama's $3.8 trillion budget for FY 2011 is one thing. Digesting and reconciling them with my fervent desire to believe that this approach is at least close to the right path for us to take - is quite another. 

First of all, the numbers are off the charts. There are some among us who remember when the GDP was called the GNP - and when that number was "only" $800 billion.  Today we are entertaining a federal budget that is nearly 500% of that number.

But even beyond all the "zeroes" in the numbers, how much faith can we muster?  Do we believe  that this spending and tax plan will narrow the deficit without raising taxes on most taxpayers, as President Obama has promised? Some say that that his spending cuts are just a veneer - one tentth of one percent of annual federal spending. Can a deficit-busting commission really help in the process? We find comfort in the president's salesmanship.  If we want to believe in his principles, do we really in fact believe in the plan?

By 2020, taxes will increase to 19.6 percent of GDP, up from 14.8 percent last year.  Spending in 2020 will still be higher (24.7 percent of GDP?) than the historical norm (21 percent), and our national deficit will be nearly 80 percent of our economy.

Many, if not most, of us are desensitized by the size of the numbers and by the sheer volume and intensity of the problem.  Yes, we have the power to vote.  But our awareness can be compromised, if not altogether nullified, by forces and circumstances that we sense are out of our control.  Our attention is diverted even further than usual away from compelling macro issues in favor of our personal microcosmic concerns:  "How can I best navigate a system being crafted by others who are beyond my control - to make it work to my personal advantage?"

Could this intense focus be entirely misdirected and in the end be our undoing?