Time is here to lower National Debt ceiling
Sometime this month, the U.S. Congress will vote for the 75th time since 1962 to raise the country’s debt ceiling.
As the measure has passed the previous 74 times, this vote seems to be nothing more than a formality, albeit a required one to allow our federal government to borrow more money.
Currently, the national debt sits at an astronomical $14 trillion. No wait, now it’s $14.1 trillion. Hang on, it just went up again.
In all seriousness, the number is almost irrelevant at this point. It’s so huge, it’s impossible to put into context.
However, at $14 trillion for 300 million U.S. citizens, the figure can be broken down to nearly $47,000 for every man, woman and child living in this country.
That’s a big number.
In fact, it may finally be big enough to cause some politicians to ponder when is enough, enough?
Not surprisingly, many Republicans are promising to vote against raising the debt ceiling if President Obama doesn’t agree to some radical cost cutting measures.
Whether you are talking about your personal budget, a business’ budget, or the government’s, you need to spend no more than you generate in revenue.
Under our current budget, America is generating $2.1 trillion in revenue, which sounds like a lot. It is, but not when you are spending $3.8 trillion.
"We're spending money we do not have, we're borrowing from our children and our grandchildren, some of whom are not yet born," said Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) on National Public Radio. "That doesn't feel right to me, especially when we're being asked to increase the debt ceiling without putting in place any kind of mechanism to make sure we eventually stop doing this."
One caveat I need to add here: this can’t be made into a Republican/Democrat issue, like abortion.
Our last three Republican presidents, Ronald Reagan and the two Bushes, accounted for more than two-thirds of our entire national debt, or more than twice as much as every other president in the nation’s history, combined.
In fact, during Bill Clinton’s last year as president, the deficit increased a mere $18 billion, the lowest amount in nearly 30 years.
But of course, President Obama has somewhat obliterated the Democrats claim to fiscal responsibility as well, as he is on pace to even outspend George W. Bush in terms of deficit spending, unless something drastically changes.
And it will take very, very drastic cuts to stop this trend. More than 75 percent of our federal expenses are tied up in social security, medicare, and the military.
If we stopped spending every single dollar in every other federal program, those three would still exceed what we generate in revenue. Part of the problem is one non-tax supported ongoing expense of federal pensions.
America is spending an estimated $800 billion-$1 trillion a year on pensions for employees who can retire at 55. Meanwhile, we are raising the Social Security retirement age, which currently sits at 67.
The private sector no longer offers pension plans nearly as lucrative as those offered by the federal government, and cutting there would seem to be a good place to start. Unless of course, you happen to be a 53-year-old post office employee.
And that’s the problem. We want the government to balance the budget, and spend within it’s means. But we don’t want them to make cuts to programs we like, whether it’s a federal pension, or a farm subsidy, or funding for our local schools.
Just cut someone else’s program.
If we are serious as a nation about balancing our budget and actually reducing the nation’s debt, we are all going to have to suffer some serious inconvenience, and become less reliant on the federal government.
Gregory Orear is the General Manager/Editor of the Red Oak Express, and can be contacted at publisher@redoakexpress.com