USA Today lays out some of the longer-term numbers on the nation's fiscal health, and what needs to be done to bring the system into long-term balance.

$84,454 is the average household's personal debt. $473,456 is the average household's share of government debt, including Medicare and Social Security. The government isn't asking you to pay it. Yet.

By Dennis Cauchon and John Waggoner USA TODAY

The long-term economic health of the United States is threatened by $53 trillion in government debts and liabilities that start to come due in four years when baby boomers begin to retire.

The “Greatest Generation” and its baby-boom children have promised themselves benefits unprecedented in size and scope. Many leading economists say that even the world's most prosperous economy cannot fulfill these promises without a crushing increase in taxes — and perhaps not even then.

A week after the House Judiciary Committee met to consider a constitutional amendment to balance the budget, Republican House leadership has decided to drop work on the legislation. This decision was made after the September 22 committee drafting session, during which Democrats offered numerous amendments to attach to the legislation. When it came time to vote the committee did not have quorum, and nothing was accomplished.

House members in support of the Balanced Budget Amendment seem to have gotten the message that besides the fact that the amendment is widely unpopular, there are also more pressing issues for them to be debating at this time.

The amendment - which proposes a constitutionally mandated requirement to balance the budget every year - would have terrible economic consequences, which many committee members have recognized. It was even unpopular among some committee Republicans. Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) is quoted in a Washington Post story as saying, "We can limit deficits on our own.... We in Congress ought to be embarrassed by what has happened. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves."

For now we can breathe a sigh of relief that House members have dropped work on this economically harmful amendment. To find out more about the amendment, and why it's adoption would be costly to the U.S. economy, click here to read a Clinton-era Treasury Department memo by Brad DeLong.

On September 22nd, Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released an important report highlighting the taxes paid - or not paid - by many of the county's largest companies.

The report can be downloaded here.

BUSH POLICIES DRIVE SURGE IN CORPORATE TAX FREELOADING

Eighty two of America's largest and most profitable corporations paid no federal income tax in at least one year during the first three years of the George W. Bush administration. This is one of the many troubling findings of this major new report on corporate tax avoidance.