Debt, Schmebt

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September 5, 2010

By Craig Ziemba The Meridian Star The Meridian Star Sun Sep 05, 2010, 08:30 AM CDT

MERIDIAN — Now that the national debt exceeds 13 Trillion dollars, even the most obtuse observer can see that something must be done to balance the budget before the federal government is no longer able to borrow to cover its rapidly growing obligations. At over $40,000 per person (or more than the cost of an average house for a family of four), interest from the national debt endangers us all like a huge sink hole creeping toward our collective economic foundation. And like this year's ridiculous spending spree, President Obama's proposed budgets will heap an extra Trillion a year to the debt for the foreseeable future.

   In my opinion, it's fundamentally immoral for older generations to rack up a debt which it obligates younger generations to pay. For me to demand that my son shoulder the burden of my health care, retirement, or any other entitlement while trying to provide for his own future family would be supremely selfish.

   Shockingly enough, however, many in our political class disagree, going so far as to declare that federal deficit spending is absolutely necessary in order to prevent the economy from going even further into decline. Even though the first couple of trillion didn't make a dent in this Recession's unemployment, mortgage defaults, and declining markets, Keynsian economists insist that doing more of the same will eventually yield a different, positive result. "Debt, schmebt," they preach, "We need to spend our way out of the Recession." For justification, they claim that the expansive growth of the federal government under Roosevelt's New Deal ended the Great Depression, when an equally persuasive historical argument could be made that it actually slowed the recovery and set us on the current path toward bankruptcy.

   Big government advocates' unwavering faith in the belief that the public sector spends your tax dollars better than you would yourself if allowed to keep them is as unfounded as it is reckless. Charging up the national credit card without cutting equivalent amounts from the budget elsewhere may provide immediate relief for this month's crisis. But this Congress deliberately ignores the fact that such spending comes with interest attached. If we can't afford to pay for it outright now, we certainly can't afford to pay for it later with interest.

   Our Congress knows this. They're not as financially naïve as their spending would suggest. On the contrary, it seems that they know exactly what they're doing. They're willfully wrecking the economy and mortgaging our future in exchange for political power. Expanding Medicaid, extending unemployment benefits, raiding Social Security for boondoggles like SSBI, and earmarking funds for home districts are nakedly transparent attempts to use our heard-earned money to buy votes for themselves. Their self-serving claim that such stimulus spending is vital to economic recovery shows which jobs they truly care about-their own.

   Here's a simple plan for Congress that works well for the rest of us: Live on less than you make and stop spending when you run out of my money. Principles of thrift and debt are the same whether exercised individually or corporately through monstrous entities like the government. In truth, government indebtedness is far worse than personal debt because it doesn't die with the one who created it.

   This Congress under the leadership (sic) of Pelosi and Reid, is clearly beyond hope of fiscal redemption. The only chance we taxpayers have to save ourselves from ruin is to clean the House this November while there's still enough of a gasping economy left to resuscitate.

   Craig Ziemba is a pilot who lives in Meridian.

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