There's some reason why we are wealther than any other time in history. We clearly can't be doing everything wrong as so many seem to think.
Perhaps you're forgetting about some entries on the liabilities side: Red Ink - a comment from the Comptroller General .
Quote: To put the figures in perspective, $50 trillion is $440,000 per American household and is more than nine times as much as the median household income
I guess we'll just finance it over the next 200 years and that will make it all seem trivial, right? Or inflate it away by letting the printing presses run wild (The Nixon solution!). But wait....we have to keep spending at these levels or the Merry Go Round stops...Oops!
So we'll just hang on until the motor burns out, huh?
An Englishman could have said the same of his country in 1914. Things go along fine, until something happens, and then, if you don't have the resources and industries you once did, you end up in real trouble.