(It’s Election Day in America, the most wondrous time of the year. Unfortunately, too few politicians from either party are willing to discuss the real problems that we are going to be facing in the not too distant future. Here is what I wish a politician would come right out and tell the American people:)
My Fellow Americans,
We have a large and steadily growing problem. In point of fact, we have numerous problems; engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan we are still attempting to wind down, health care reform that will assuredly leave someone disappointed, and the slow economic recovery being among the most pertinent. But a decade from now, most of these issues will be resolved, while we will still be facing the even bigger problem of our large and increasing national debt.
The Capital Building, hosting our speech today
Yes, the more we spend, and the less we bring in to the national government, the larger our debt becomes. It’s really that simple; as a nation, we’re spending more than we take in, which is a recipe for a large and rising debt. As recent history should tell us, we can only continue as debtors as long as our creditors (which, for the United States government includes everyone from the Social Security and Medicare trust funds to foreign government and individuals) allow us to continue in debt. When too many creditors start to pull their money out of US Treasuries, the interest rates we’ll need to attract new money will have to rise, the government will print out even more money, and so high inflation will continue until we make a concerted effort to stop it.
Such a concerted effort, whether taken before things take a wrong turn or after, can only take a few possible forms: raising taxes or cutting government spending. I realize that neither of these options sounds ideal; most Democrats would rather lose an arm than cut spending, and Republicans would sooner you take their right leg than take more money in taxes. As a result, it’s unlikely that either approach on its own will be able to balance our badly out of whack national budget. Instead, combining the two, trimming some of the fat off of the budget AND raising taxes (or equivalently, cutting down on deductions) will enable us to get our budget under control, generate a surplus (one that doesn’t require irrational exuberance brought on by the Internet) and start to pay down the national debt, while hopefully not being TOO painful for the politicians involved.
Now, it won’t be easy; trying to get politicians to reach across the aisle and work with their opposite numbers is difficult even for relatively simple matters, and this effort will be far from simple. Even if you get a majority to agree that a combination approach is best, you still need to settle any number of smaller arguments, from the relative amounts of spending cuts and tax increases, to the particular types of spending cuts and tax increases, to how to deal with the smaller budget and larger tax burden that will be created in the wake of these decisions.
This is not a quick fix, knock-out-a-bill-over-the-weekend- and-go-have-a-drink sort of problem. It will be a long and hard process, one which, as with any good compromise, will leave all the parties involved feeling they didn’t get all that they wanted. Personally, I can’t claim to know what form the final agreement will take; I have my own preferences, but how well I can convince my fellow legislators to heed them I do not know. What I DO know is that we must tackle this problem, sooner rather than later, or future generations, perhaps our children, or their children, or their childrens’ children, will reap the seeds we sow with our unbalanced budgets today.
Thank you for your patience on this Election Day, and God Bless.
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