ROGER KIMBALL: Time for tea, or, What would Wilkins Micawber think? “There is no point in trying to imagine what a $1.5-trillion deficit means. For most of us mortals, it is simply unimaginable. All the more is a total federal debt of $14.3 trillion (and counting). And I haven’t even broached what I think of as the Williamson Warning (after Kevin Williamson, who gave prominence to the dour fact), namely that the real out-the-door, all-in price of U.S. debt is something closer to $130 trillion, a sum that, if you can bear to think about it, is Book-of-Revelations, Seventh-Seal, Four-Horsemen-of- the-Apocalypse scary.”

Plus the answer: “Stop spending. Live within your means.” Some people may fear that it’s too late for that.