With all the talk of the nation's deficit, the federal budget, and a potential government shutdown, I would like to throw a question into the debate: When are we going to pay off the national debt?

We have been borrowing more and more money, and the amount that we have borrowed has grown significantly compared to the total goods and services we make in this country.

I recall a few years ago talking to people who were buying and selling homes. I asked them how they could afford such big, expensive houses. I thought maybe they had rich uncles. But they were just taking out interest-only mortgages and the banks were lending them 95% of the value of the houses or more.

The Obama administration has agreed to scale back requirements for new anticollision technology on freight trains, known as Positive Train Control (PTC). This stands to benefit companies such as CSX (CSX), Union Pacific (UNP), Norfolk Southern (NSE) and Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK.A) Burlington Northern Santa Fe.

PTC technology will automatically stop the train if a conductor misses its stop signal, coming in light of a 2008 train collision which killed 25 people.

This could possibly add 25% to CSX's free cash flow, which at these levels would make CSX and other rail companies undervalued by these metrics.

Jason is a co-founder of Benzinga.com.

U.S. stock futures are higher this morning, following President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech. Investors are awaiting earnings reports and a monetary policy announcement by the Federal Reserve. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 35 points to 11,957.00 and S&P 500 futures rose 5.60 points to 1,293.30. Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 9 points at 2,310.25.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 3.33 points or less than 0.1% yesterday.

Data on December new-home sales will be released at 10 a.m. ET. The latest statement from the Fed is due at 2:15 p.m. ET.

The 2001 Bush income tax cut is one of those issues whose fate has been sealed by objective economic conditions.

Simply, if the U.S. economy had registered robust growth during the final two years of the Bush administration, and no other negative economic events occurred, the tax cut, which will increase the deficit by $336 billion this fiscal year, $295 billion in fiscal 2011, and by more than $320 billion per year through fiscal 2019, perhaps would have had a chance of being extended.

In the year following Bush's dividend tax cuts, the Dow Jones rose 16%. When the tax cuts expire in a few months, will the market drop?

One method of evaluating stocks is that they are worth the present value of all the future cash flows. This can make dividend stocks particularly attractive to investors because they get paid rent or a dividend for holding a company. If conditions change and those future dividends are no longer expected, a stock can suddenly be worth a lot less. This is a large reason why we see stocks drop suddenly at earnings announcements or when companies revise outlooks.

Is it time to dump dividend stocks before the Bush tax cuts expire? In 2001 and 2003 Bush, passed several tax relief bills that will automatically expire at the end of 2010. Obama campaigned against the tax relief packages and many Americans may be facing a huge tax increase as the package expires.

Dividend taxation is of particular concern to investors. Under the relief packages, dividends taxes were cut to 15%, but if the package expires, dividends may be taxed as ordinary income at levels up to 39.6%.

Faced with the prospect of losing 40,000 jobs due to the oil-drilling moratorium, President Obama is set to reopen oil drilling. A letter by the National Ocean Industries Association states: The moratorium "will result in crippling job losses and significant economic impacts for the Gulf region."

Reopening oil drilling will come with some conditions. At present there is a liability cap of only $75 million, unless the government can show criminal negligence. Congress is meeting first about lifting the cap and then to determine what a new cap should be.

President Obama is expected to issue an executive order to raise fuels standards for light trucks. Rather than wait for Congress to hash out the issue, Obama is using his executive power to raise the fuel efficiency standards and cut CO2 emissions by cars and light trucks beyond current requirements.

Issuing an executive order to raise fuel efficiency is easy; implementation is going to be the tough part. As General Motors, Ford (F) and Chrysler strive to implement new fuel efficiency standards, there are many tough decisions they will have to make.

It has been three weeks since a BP (BP) oil rig exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico, and still the company has not been able to stop oil from spewing into the gulf. Friday, the companies involved got a earful from President Obama.

The three companies involved in the oil spill are BP, Transocean Offshore (RIG) and Halliburton (HAL).

In politics, it's called "smurfing" (sometimes it's also referred to as triangulation) -- where one takes an issue on which the opposition party has an advantage, modifies it, and transforms it into one that benefits your party.

President Bill Clinton used it successfully during the nation's mood for welfare reform in the 1990s: he took an issue that likely would have benefited Republicans and transformed it into one that became one of his presidency's hallmarks.

And now President Barack Obama is attempting to do it with his decision to open portions of the U.S. coastline to offshore drilling for oil and natural gas.

After a year of debate, the health care bill finally was passed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 219 to 212.

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, led the delicate maneuvering to garner the votes needed for passage of the $940 billion, 10-year bill.

The final votes hinged on Representative Bart Stupak (D-Mich). He and his colleagues initially objected to the language on abortion which they felt was not clear enough. President Obama told Stupak that he would issue an executive order spelling out in clear language that federal health care monies would not be used for elective abortions. That brought Stupak and his group on board and clinched the final tally.

The low-down regarding Thursday's health care summit? No change to the status quo.

President Barack Obama did a good job moderating the event, and Republican and Democratic leaders engaged in, for the most part, civil discussions, with only a few exchanges degenerating into talking-points rhetoric, but the net result was that little common ground was achieved.

One upside to gridlock in Washington? The U.S. Congress won't likely move forward with its effort to allow the General Accounting Office to audit the U.S. Federal Reserve.

One (big) downside? President Obama and Congressional Republicans, particularly Republicans in the Senate may not be able to agree on next year's budget. This could result in a shutdown of the federal government if the two political parties don't agree to pass a continuing resolution in the meantime. Any inability of the parties to agree on new budget or a continuing resolution as a temporary bridge will likely rattle both the bond and stock markets.

President Obama plans to hold a health care summit to try and piece back together fractured health care legislation. He is expected to announce that it would include denying or rolling back unwarranted increases by health insurance companies.

Here are some key points to his proposal:

• Most Americans would buy health insurance with federal subsidies to help them afford premiums.
• It would bar insurance companies from denying coverage to people with medical problems or charging them more.

In the past year, President Barack Obama has been introduced to Washington's realpolitik. As MarketWatch Washington Bureau Chief Rex Nutting aptly put it: This is how Washington works. The truth is, most times, it doesn't.

In theory, congressional lawmakers and the executive branch should be able to find common ground, aided by that long-standing American habit of compromise, to solve the nation's problems.