Quote of the day--on our national spending

"The truth is that as far as straight economics, America's longer run fiscal problems shouldn't be all that hard to fix. An aging population and rising health care costs will, under current policies, push spending up faster than tax receipts. But the US has far higher health care costs than any other advanced country and very low taxes by international standards. If we could move even part way toward international norms on both these fronts, our budget problems would be solved." --Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize-winning economist, writer and columnist for The New York Times.