One of my favorite campaign commercials so far this election cycle comes from the campaign of Republican Scott Tipton, who’s running against the incumbent Democrat, U.S. Rep. John Salazar, in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District (Grand Junction, Montrose, Pueblo).

Tipton had the interesting idea of giving each voter a bill for their portion of the national debt. The numbers we talk about in terms of federal spending and debt are so comically large it’s nearly impossible to understand them, but when it’s broken down by individual – or quantified in some other way – the gravity of the fiscal situation we are facing starts to hit home.