The U.S. national debt recently topped $18 trillion.

That means each citizen is saddled with $53,397 of that debt. But it is taxpayers that are hit the hardest because they are ultimately responsible for paying back the debt. Each U.S. taxpayer’s share of the debt is $153,723.

If you want to see what the national debt is doing to you in real time, visit www.usdebtclock.org.

So, what are our leaders in Washington doing about this fiscal calamity? They are continuing to spend like there is no tomorrow.

The latest spending binge — a $1.1 trillion pork-laden omnibus spending bill — was carried out in the lame-duck congressional session following the fall election. The bill, which ran to 1,600 pages, was so crammed with special interest goodies it was given the nicknames “cromnibus” and “cromnipork.”

Who is most responsible for this fiscal horror? The heads of the executive department and Congress have to shoulder the most blame. They made the dirty backroom political deals to push it through quickly, before the 1,600-plus page bill could be carefully read and studied, and in the dark of a Saturday night.

“The practice of bringing massive spending bills to the floor with less than 72 hours to examine the legislation must end,” said Citizens Against Government Waste President Tom Schatz.

“Separate consideration of each bill will … allow members to offer amendments to strike earmarks and other wasteful spending. Even better, the bills should be brought to the floor without any such projects. The new Republican majority in the Senate will have the opportunity to go where no Senate has gone before if the appropriations bills are truly earmark-free.”

The six biggest items in the budget driving up the national debt are Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, national defense, income security, net interest on debt, and federal pensions.

The national debt problem shows the federal government is being run in a fiscally irresponsible way that is damaging this nation and that lawmakers are spending money way faster than it is coming in.

Let us hope the new Congress will be more fiscally responsible than the outgoing Congress, one of the most irresponsible in history. And let us hope that the new Congress can impose more fiscal responsibility on the Obama administration.(MGNonline)