The Congressional Budget Office is reporting that the projected federal budget deficit for 2009 will be a record $1.2 trillion dollars.

And this figure does not factor in the $770 billion Obama bailout package, which I prefer calling the "Bailout of the Bailout."

Remember a few months ago when we were sold a cheap (er, uh, I mean expensive) bill of goods in the first bailout? President Bush and Congress said the sky would fall if $700 billion wasn't pumped into the economy immediately.

The Federal Reserve also pumped $ billions into the economy and lowered interest rates to an historic .025 percent.

Basically, over $1 trillion has already been spent by our government and the Fed to try and pull us out of this recession. But after a couple of months, nothing has changed. Well, that's not exactly true. Things have gotten worse.

Adding the Obama bailout to the projected deficit means our federal government will spend $2 trillion dollars more than it takes in this year. This is simply incredible. To put this in perspective, it took about 200 years for our national debt to reach $2 trillion.

Some Americans might be wondering "How in the world did this happen?"

Good question! But the sad reality is that the answer to this question reveals that the proposed "solution" to the economic problem is actually what got us in this mess to begin with.

The reason why the housing bubble exploded was because the bubble was created in the first place by cheap, easy loans-- loans made possible by low interest rates. Cheap loans encourage excessive spending. And spend we did!

Americans maxed out their buying potential on homes, maxed out their credit cards, maxed out the car loans.

Businesses maxed out their lines of credit. State and local governments maxed out their bond capacity and re-financed their existing bonds with adjustable rates (a la Jefferson County, Alabama).

Of course, everything was fine until rates had to come back up to avoid inflation. Once this happened, adjustable rate mortgage payments went through the roof. People on tight budgets had to default on their loans. When they started defaulting, banks were stuck with thousands of houses they could not sell. This started a chain reaction that shows just how vulnerable a "global economy" can be when banks, investment, and insurance companies are so tightly woven together.

So, getting back to the proposed solution by our government: if low interest rates, cheap loans, and deficit spending (on a personal and governmental level) got us into this mess, how are even lower interest rates, more cheap loans, and deficit spending on steroids going to get us out?

Of course, they're not. If they do, it will be only a temporary adrenaline shot followed by an even greater crash.

Hold on to your hats. The next few years will be one wild ride.