Not only are we running record trade deficits, but now foreigners own more of America than we do of their countries:

The deficit in investment flows - meaning that the United States is now having to pay foreigners more than Americans' earn on their overseas investments - rose by $1.6 billion to an all-time high of $3.8 billion.

Economists expect that figure to climb even higher in coming years representing the growing size of U.S. assets now in the hands of foreigners, reflecting all of the trade deficits run up over the past three decades.

Dick Cheney may think deficits don't matter, but the GAO chief doesn't agree:

If the United States government conducts business as usual over the next few decades, a national debt that is already $8.5 trillion could reach $46 trillion or more, adjusted for inflation. That's almost as much as the total net worth of every person in America -- Bill Gates,
Warren Buffett and those Google guys included.

A hole that big could paralyze the U.S. economy; according to some projections, just the interest payments on a debt that big would be as much as all the taxes the government collects today.

And every year that nothing is done about it, Walker says, the problem grows by $2 trillion to $3 trillion.