A Failing Republic, part 2

Looking further into the financial woes of our country, and the reasons for the economic distress:
2. Refusal to pass a law requiring the government to balance the budget.
I fully admit that I am not the best book-keeper or statistician in the world, but I'm not stupid either. I know how much money I bring in every month, and I have a rough idea of what my bills will be. I balance that amount, trying to be very careful to put enough away every month to cover the 'unexpected' realities in life. Am I always successful? No. Does it still need to be my goal? Yes! So why, then, do we allow the federal government to spend money without any accountability to the taxpayer? The following statistic frightens me beyond belief. Scared me so much that I triple checked sources: In 2009, the interest payment on the national debt was $100,000,000,000. That's not the debt itself, just the interest paid out. There are approximately 125M tax payers in the US right now (down from 131M a couple years ago, because of unemployment). This means that the average taxpayer pays $800 in income taxes every year, just to pay the interest on the national debt. Frighteningly, the debt doubled last year. Likewise, the interest will double and the amount of taxes needed to cover the interest will double. $1600 per year per taxpayer is the cost of the interest on the national debt for 2010. This is an 'eternal' amount. By that, I mean that this is without paying down one penny of the debt itself. You and I will have to average paying $1600/year for the rest of our lives, without ever actually lowering the debt, just because the government spends on an out-of-control basis.
In our private lives, we have a budget (whether thought out, or just paid by the seat-of-our-pants) that restricts our spending. We come to a point where we simply have nothing left to spend. The government does not have that spending cap. If the government spends too much, it has the power to just increase it's income by raising taxes. Must be nice. Can you imagine having the financial power of the government? Spent too much last year? just give yourself a raise to cover it. Credit card debt too high? just pass the interest on to someone else. If the people who actual pay for it complain about it, just take some more of their money and then give it back to them in a program that they like and hope that they are too stupid to know that it was their own money to begin with (and yes, the average American IS, unfortunately, that easily distracted).
The national debt and the deficit HAVE to be contended with. The interest is eating up the hard-earned labors of the American people. Without it, each of us would pay $1600/year less in taxes...or that $1600 could be used for humanitarian efforts (healthcare, for instance?). Instead, it just blows away with the wind.
The problem comes in trying to find a viable candidate with a campaign agenda of: the only way to fix this country is to either, 1. raise taxes until the debt is paid off, or 2. cut programs until there is no deficit. This candidate's own MOTHER might not vote for him.... So the only real answer is for Congress to pass a law requiring a balanced budget and requiring a certain percent of any outstanding debt to be paid each year. Get rid of the debt, and stop surviving in deficit mode. At the rate we are going, a large-scale depression would bankrupt the US government before it would bankrupt the average citizen. There's an old phrase asking who owns your house. The light-hearted answer is the bank (and you). So I wonder who the US owes the money to.... Who actually owns our country?