Skyrocketing debt figures don't tell the whole story

" Click on usdebtclock.org and get ready for the hairs on the back of your neck to stand at attention. This Web site is the real-time, running total of the national public debt outstanding, which now stands at $12.2 trillion.

What's really scary is the "debt clock" shows the amount of interest accruing with each passing second – about $1.7 million every minute of every day. The speed with which the number grows will make you cross-eyed and leads me to wonder what the final reckoning will be for us. "