Coroner: Boy's hanging death at school a suicide/WHO GETS WHAT: Taxpayers will pay stimulus costs

WASHINGTON – While lawmakers and economists debate whether the gargantuan stimulus package grinding through Congress will work, one thing is certain: It will create a hefty increase in the federal debt. And that will affect us all directly for years, as well as our children and possibly grandchildren. Even if it succeeds in producing enough jobs and consumer and business spending to end the recession, it could lead to a combination of higher taxes, higher interest rates and possibly reduced government services down the road. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said this year's budget deficit would be a record $1.2 trillion — about two times that of the year before. This includes financial bailouts and rescue plans approved since last Oct. 1, the start of the government's budget year, but not the big stimulus proposal now before Congress. And that deficit is just for one year. Once you carry over government's outstanding deficits from prior years, the total national debt comes to just over $10.6 trillion right now. Every individual in the United States would have to chip in roughly $37,000 apiece to pay it off.