Posted by
Jason on Thursday, November 08, 2007 4:50:48 PM
The AP is reporting today that the United States, a country of 300 million people, has racked up a national debt of $9 trillion! To put that into perspective, our nation's current annual budget is about $2.5 trillion (give or take). That means that, even if we freeze spending at $2.5 trillion, and put 100% of it toward paying off our national debt (no federal employee salaries, defense spending, entitlements, etc), and assume a rock bottom 4% interest rate, it would take our government almost four years just to dig out.
Bad news right? Right... but adding insult to injury, our elected officials have only responded to the news by blaming (who else?) other politicians. Guess how many are offering any workable solutions to our growing problem though?
Well, Democrats want to raise taxes, does that count? After all, as their story goes, it was the evil George Bush's tax cuts that have led to this problem (even though those tax cuts have, in fact, raised revenues to the government)!
But let's be honest here. We didn't run up this kind of debt with tax policy, but spending policy. Maybe our leaders shouldn't borrow our great-grandchildren's money to add a few hundred million dollars for pet projects and special interests to every single piece of legislation that gets signed into law! Now, I'm sure they get a nice cut of that when it comes time to raise money for their next campaign, but at what expense? Oh, only nine trillion or so on the national credit card...
Let's face it. Our government has really screwed us here! Did you know that our $9 trillion debt includes money that's been "borrowed" from Social Security and other "government trust funds?" Government trust... now there's an oxymoron! Especially when it comes to trusting them with money! Is it any wonder Social Security is in crisis?
And yet, as divided as Democrats and Republicans seem to be on every imaginable issue, there is one policy that enjoys bipartisan support. They're going to continue borrowing in order to live beyond our national means, using the hard-earned tax dollars of future generations to buy votes, maintain power, and increase campaign cash on hand.
The love of money is the root of all evil in Washington. The "Culture of Corruption" applies to both sides of the proverbial aisle. You want ethics back in D.C.? Correcting their own spending habits is the only way to get it done.
Thus, I doubt we'll be digging out anytime soon...
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