In his press conference last week, President Obama spent much time attacking Republicans for failing to pass a debt ceiling increase to his liking.  He blamed Congress for running up the bills in the first place, without mentioning it was also his administration and a previous Congress led by Democrats who authored and passed the legislation that so mightily added to our $14 trillion federal debt.

What the President did not talk much about was the current debt crisis in Greece.  There, a Socialist Prime Minister and Parliament have hit a debt wall -- they have in fact spent and taxed that nation to bankruptcy.

Maybe he didn’t talk about it because he knows just how close we, and the rest of the world are, to being in the same boat.  Or maybe he doesn’t know.  Either way, it would be helpful if all our representatives in Washington took a hard look at what’s happening in Greece.

On Thursday, the Greek Parliament voted for an austerity measure that includes a five-year, $40 billion plan to cut spending, raise taxes, reduce public employee wages and move the retirement age from 61 to 65.  The plan also calls for privatization of some government services and selling $71 billion in government assets.

Unfortunately, it may be too little too late.  It’s likely that Greece can’t pay its bills, and all the bankers in Europe can’t change that fact.  What they can and are doing is holding off the inevitable until they can unload as much Greek debt as possible onto private investors and American mutual funds.  They’re also trying to delay a messy Greek default until they can prop up the other nations in Europe who face an imminent debt catastrophe:  Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Italy.

What none of the bankers, politicians and journalists want to admit is that the rest of Europe -- and for that matter, the United Sates -- may soon be facing our own catastrophe.

They have joined their American counterparts in the belief that if we just delay the problem long enough, it will disappear.  They’re afraid, and don’t really know what to do so they do nothing. It’s akin to the 4 year old who thinks if he puts the covers over his head, the monster won’t know he’s there.

There are really only three major differences between the debt crisis in Greece and the debt crisis in the U.S.

First, their debt is much smaller than ours even on a per capita basis.  Second, depending on what maneuvers President Obama and his Treasury Secretary can play to hold off default --we’re still 8 to 24 months away from facing the problem