For the past seven weeks, I’ve been writing about outrageous budget related issues in our government. I’ve written about wasteful senators spending millions on projects that have little benefit, Bush’s addition to the national debt, Obama’s unrealistic reform promises, the Department of Defense’s amazing ability to misplace fighter jets, and more. But you know what I find to be the most outrageous? The fact that this website even exists. Our government shouldn’t be so wasteful with its money and it’s not right that despite so much talk of fiscal responsibility and so many warnings from vocal organizations and individuals inside and outside the government, we’re still in the mess we’re in now.

But we are in this mess, and at this point, just going for the easy options, like calling for more government efficiency and a stop to earmarks, won’t be enough. What we decide to do next requires a national dialogue to establish what we value and what we can cut. What we can do next depends on how willing we are to sacrifice for a greater future good. Keynes is right. In the long run, we are all dead. But our debt doesn’t die with us, and leaving our kids with that would be irresponsible.

While the nation and the government are figuring out how to deal with this imminent threat, you can try to figure this out yourself from your own computer. Budget Hero and the National Budget Simulator are two games you can play around with to see how hard balancing the budget can be. Of course, these aren’t perfect simulations (Budget Hero has limited options and seems to have a slight liberal bias while the National Budget Simulator is two years out of date) but they still show a lot and Budget Hero has nice animations.