Survey says U.S. financial house in state of disorder

A new study finds America to be one of the most fiscally irresponsible nations in the world, spending excessively on health care and defense while running up record government deficits.

The United States ranked 28th out of 34 industrial powers — just behind Italy — in the health of its national finances, according to the survey by the nonpartisan Comeback America Initiative, a Bridgeport, Conn., group that advocates reducing the nation’s red ink. Study authors said in a press briefing Wednesday that Washington has as little as two years — and no more than 16 years — to repair its finances or risk seeing the economy slip below the levels reached during the recent global recession.

Australia and New Zealand topped the global survey, while only Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Iceland, Portugal and Greece ranked lower than the United States.