The controversy itself over our dire national economic situation is nowhere near as significant as is the abysmal process of the decisionmaking in which those responsible have been indulging.

By the time this column is published, this whole matter of financial irresponsibility and what to do about it may have been resolved. Even so, it will in no way dispel the intense distaste left in our minds and hearts by the inability of our elected officials to address this serious problem professionally and with the interest of all its citizens at the forefront.

It's a given that the Republicans and the Democrats have different beliefs as to the nature of the problem as well as the best solutions. But surely anyone who has gotten past the third grade in math is capable of understanding the potential disaster of the recent huge deficits and the resulting increasing national debt compared with gross national product.

We have excellent external laboratories from which to learn, such as Canada where the Liberal Party took an impending disaster in 1995, ruled with austerity and turned a $36.6 billion deficit into a surplus in just three years. Or look at Greece with debt gone wild and the rest of Europe trying to save a country from bankruptcy.

Here in America, when 40 cents of every $1 spent by the federal government is borrowed, simply because tax revenues are so far below bloated expenditures, it doesn't take a genius to see where that leads. Insolvency. As individuals we can't exist being that irresponsible for more than a very short time. The same is true for organizations, even countries. And our nation's ability to print money is a fool's errand because the value of the dollar responds by crashing in purchasing power as is happening right now.

The Budget Act of 1974 requires the president, the Senate, and the House to all prepare budget proposals. The president must do so before the first Monday in February. This year Mr. Obama met the deadline but his proposal was so out to lunch that the Democrat-controlled Senate immediately voted it down 97-0. That was real cliffhanger. The Senate actually has not presented or passed a budget as required by the act for approximately 800 days. We pay these clowns more than $180,000 a year plus exorbitant perks, and they can't even fulfill their constitutional responsibility. Next time you are talking to either Jeff Bingaman or Tom Udall you might ask them about their duck-and-run performance.

The House, on the other hand, not only presented a budget but passed it. OK, our government has a president and a Senate who also have to participate, but they prefer to sit and throw rocks at the House budget rather than come up with alternatives that they can support. Is this productive? Does this advance the cause of responsible fiscal behavior, living within our means, structuring a better tomorrow for all citizens as compared with current 9.2 percent unemployment?

There has been talk of setting caps on spending or on passing a balanced budget amendment to our Constitution. But weasels can always find ways around any of these artificial barriers. Just look at the various state and city programs requiring balanced budgets that highjack funds from reserves or enterprise funds, or use one-time stimulus funds not to stimulate economic activity but to plug holes in the budget. And there are always capital funds to raid and/or accounting gimmicks to employ.

This is because legislators are quite simply more concerned with re-election than they are with fulfilling their true responsibility to the American public. In the past, America has been a huge success economically because of the freedom of economic opportunity for all its citizens. The executive branch and the legislative branch will destroy this country if they don't regain proper perspective.

In fact they are not irreplaceable, not brilliant and all knowing, and would be far better human beings if they would stop their political posturing, as though it was just a game, and actually worked to resolve the problems our country faces rather than the problems they periodically face at the polls. Let's throw all the bums out and start over.

Santa Fean Gregg Bemis is an industrialist/adventurer and a concerned senior citizen.