Today the House and Senate passed an irresponsible debt-ceiling plan that raises the debt limit by $2.4 trillion from $14.3 trillion, taking our debt-ceiling well above 100% of our GDP for the first time since World War II. It makes a meager savings of $2.1 trillion over 10 years. With the current deficit at about $1.7 trillion, that means the debt will more than double in 10 years – adding nearly $15 trillion. The numbers do not add up folks. These cuts aren’t even real cuts; they are cuts from future planned expenditures. My questions are three-fold. First, what are we gaining from these increased expenditures? One would suspect that Obama’s trillion dollar spending spree and a doubling of the national debt over the last 10 years would at least yield short term results that affect the everyday American. Second, how can we be expected to pay back our debts? Third, what can be done in the future?
Americans have gained nothing from this spending spree. Unemployment has been slowly increasing again and now stands at 9.2% and the economy, bailouts and all, is growing at a meager 1.3%. Many economists fear that a double-dip recession is inevitable at this point. Much like the education system, throwing more money at the economy will not help. Attitudes and confidence within our government must be restored. Raising the debt ceiling does the exact opposite! It sends the message that we have no idea how to control our spending and don’t really care. The government is like an alcoholic in denial!
Ron Paul hit the nail on the head a few weeks ago. He said that our debt was so huge that no matter what we do, we will default without radical shifts in policy TODAY. We will default either by not paying our debts at some point in the future or simply by paying them by printing more money, thereby making the dollars paid back all but worthless!
Surprisingly, a practical solution is not as painful as we think. Our current revenue stream is about $2.2 trillion. The last $2.2 trillion budget was only a few years ago in 2004. Why can’t we simply go back to those funding levels and balance the budget? What spending items have come about in the last 7 years that are so vital to protect? Perhaps those are questions worth asking your Congressman. Somehow I do not think projects like the $2.6 million grant spent by the National Institute of Health to make sure Chinese prostitutes drink less are worthwhile.
Congress acted the way it did out of fear. Not fear of defaulting, but fear of the political ramifications. Like I said in my post “Ditch the Party,” political parties are first and foremost looking to protect their own hide. The “Debt Crisis of 1995,” which wasn’t a crisis at all, proved that when push comes to shove we can live under the cap. The debt ceiling was reached in the fall of 1995 and was not raised until the following March. President Clinton simply cut where he could and shifted monies appropriately between various funds to ensure that all our bills were paid and services rendered. Rather than coming up with a rational plan, Obama chose to give a bunch of worthless speeches filled with half truths about starving seniors and defaulting to create fear - and enough Americans bought it. He framed the issue well enough that a lack of a deal was to be mostly blamed on the Republicans, at least that is what polling suggests (not that Obama’s was terribly good either). Of course, Speaker Boehner and Republicans caved out of party interest rather than be the good vertebrates they should be. National interest simply took a back seat today.
Today, America saw a fork in the road and went the wrong way. If we have any hope to save our children and grandchildren’s future, the debate must now be centered on cutting the debt – not just the deficit. In 10 years our debt will be near 200% GDP. That is beyond the breaking point. Whether or not we have little spending items that we like, we must all realize the harsh reality that this is unsustainable (unless your ultimate goal is bankruptcy). I am sure that the Democrats will now try to shift our attention away from this blunder by focusing on ending DOMA or some other irrelevant social issue they generally prey upon. The Republicans too will try and avoid this issue as to not seem spineless going into the 2012 elections. As is the way in Washington, this will be swept under the rug. American’s are notorious for their short-term memory loss with regards to politics. If our country is to survive, that habit must end today!
"Silence in the face of tyranny is cowardice at best, treasonous at worse." - Abe Lincoln
