The debt-limit deal is now law. President Barack Obama signed the measure Tuesday, shortly after it passed in the Senate. North Carolina Rep. Dale Folwell says Washington's inability to reign in the debt paints a bleak future picture, and that the debt is not just a federal problem.

Speaker Pro Tempore of the North Carolina House of Representattives and Chairman of the House Finance Committee, Representative Dale Folwell, R-Forsyth, says budget shortfalls in North Carolina are compounded by organizations (like non-profits, private schools and charter schools) that are exempt from paying sales taxes.

Folwell says the tug of war over how to handle budgets and spending has to do with the individual politicians' lack of trust in their constituents.