We've been in a recession for the last four years. As the dollar has lost value and currency inflated. While paying more for your goods somehow we were lead to believe that the economy was good. You can't run the country by producing massive debt to run unnecessary programs. This is a last ditch effort to keep the dollar from collapsing. You can't run a business spending more than you take in, then paying interest on money borrowed to pay to run the business. This is called bankruptcy. This country has been bankrupt since 1933. But now we can't even pay the vig.