Agreed. McCain got it right during the campaign in criticizing Bush after 9/11. Quoting him loosely, he said that "After 9/11, GW should've talked to the American people about sacrifice not about going shopping".
That's the conundrum we face in this situation. To fundamentally fix what ails us, we need to save more as a nation and get our personal and Gov't finances in order. But to quell the pain, we're printing dinero at the cyclic rate, which may be a short term elixir, but long term will allow the situation to worsen.