The Congressional Budget Office came out with a new Budget and Economic Outlook the other day. It doesn’t look good, people.

[T]he deficit for 2008 will be substantially higher than it was in 2007, rising from $161 billion last year to $407 billion this year. Furthermore, CBO’s projections indicate that if current laws and policies remain in place, deficits for the next two years will remain above $400 billion, or about 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

The key phrase there is “if current laws and policies remain in place.” That’s kind of a hint that current laws and policies should change, don’t you think? And maybe not in the direction of more spending, hmmm? Anyway, those big numbers can glaze one over, so let me bring it home to you.

The $407 billion deficit projected for this year works out to about $1,330 per person in the country. That’s a lot, but it’s not unfathomable. It’s just a little over $3.64 per person per day.

What would a responsible person tell you if you had to save $1,330 over the course of a year? Well, you can cut out your double-mocha half-soy latte cappuccinos. (I’m not a Starbuck’s addict, so I don’t know if I got that right.)

The question, I suppose, is not whether you can tighten your belt, but whether your representatives in Congress can. If it was your personal debt, you would be on the hook for it, and you would know that, if you’re not paid up, eventually someone is going to come to your door and – well, take your door away. With public debt, politicians get lots of credit for spending and not much for saving. The bill is passed along to you.

The bill comes in two forms: One is the economic malaise we’ve already got, the weak dollar, and so on – but it’s hard to pin that on the politicians. They squawk as loud as they can about high gas prices and nonsense in the housing market to keep attention where they want it. The second way the bill comes is at some point in the future when we have real economic collapse – y’know like the dollar losing all its value as people realize that the credit of the United States government is no good.

When economic activity picks up, it’ll bring government revenues up – the equivalent of earning more money at your job. But, in the meantime, some belt-tightening is in order, and that economic uptick will happen faster if the government spends less. You decide whether it’s government spending on health care, the war in Iraq, or something else, but you better find something. And you better tell someone about it. Start today.