When  President Barack Obama was sworn in as president on January 20, 2009,  the national debt was $10,626, 877, 048,913. As of today, the national  debt stands at $16,008,060,301,079.15 and growing even as I type and  speak. In less than 4 years we have indebted our grandchildren and  great-grandchildren and beyond with over $6 trillion of red ink.

The  big question tonight is if the President will address this  unsusutainable situation which threatens to bankrupt the nation. Will  the President offer any specifics on how we are going to get out of the  deep hole which seems bottomless?

Reportedly  those who have seen some of the excerpts from tonight's speech, the  President plans to say that he has a plan to reduce that debt by $4  trillion over the next 10 years. That is a good start, but is it enough?

Those  supposedly in the know are reporting that there seems to be a scarcity,  however, of specifics in the President's speech. From those supposedly  in the know, the President wants to frame the direction tonight forward  to the future and not looking back at the record over the last nearly 4  years. Rather than it be a referendum on his performance tonight, the  pundits say he wants to make it about choosing a path into the future.

This  is more interesting when poll after poll continues to show over 60% of  the nation believes we are headed in the wrong direction. We are not on  the right track.

The  President is asking us to give him another 4 years and yet, people keep  saying that we are not going down the right path. So, does he plan to  offer a different road to travel than the one he has taken us during  this 1st term?

Is  the President really serious about starting to pay down the national  debt or will we hear tonight more political promises without substenance  to believe those promises will be kept?

From  the Cornfield, to me what we do about the national debt makes a  difference. I'll never live to see it paid off, but I do not want my  grandchildren and their grandchildren paying for our mistakes.