Our Country Is Failing Economically

This is something I know as a fact. I know some people don't believe this, so I will explain why I am absolutely sure this is true.

I realize many before me have said similar things. And we have not fallen over the fiscal cliff, yet, so is there really a problem? We always figure it out. Bankruptcy starts slowly and then the stampede occurs and before you know it, economic disaster happens — then it is too late. When the world loses confidence, it is all over.
 

Sen. Tom Coburn (a medical doctor, not a career politician) wrote a book in 2012 called The Debt Bomb, It is an extraordinary read explaining the depths of the depravity and cronyism in D.C. and why we have the problem we have. If you are interested in the facts, take the time to read it. It isa shocking revelation of what really happens in the bowels of Congress. He forecasts doom, as I am. He was just premature. 

Here are the facts from government sources. Read them and weep with me for our children:

 

• Current interest-bearing debt: $31.4 trillion

• Current total financial obligations: $122 trillion (includes unfunded obligations)

• Projected average deficit, next 10 years: $2 trillion per year

• CBO projected interest-bearing debt in 2033: $51+ trillion (IF we do not add programs)

• Interest on the debt in 2033: $2 trillion per year and growing (my estimate at 4%)

Does any intelligent person believe this is not a problem? If you think that, you are refusing to face reality.

Big Government Is the Problem

The size of government has grown remarkably over the last 60 years. The scope of the federal government was clear in the US. Constitution. It is sad to say, what we have today would not be recognizable to our Founding Fathers.
The politicians and the unaccountable bureaucracy spend crazy money, push crazy programs and spout imbecilic rules and regulations -all to our detriment. Examples: electric vehicles, war on poverty, cancel efficient pipelines, education, ethanol, crony taxation policies, and out-of-control entitlement programs. The list is endless and results in out-of-control spending.

 

American Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman once famously said: “One of the greatest mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.”

The politicians in D.C. do one foolish thing after another with little thought or cost benefit analysis. Someone is benefitting, but not us citizens. They all have a common thread - to give benefits to their crony friends; increase the size and power of the government; and increase political control over our lives. Thats not helping improve the country or the economy for us citizens. But it is helping the politicians get reelected at our expense.

D.C. Is Destroying This Once Great Country with Reckless Spending

The politicians in D.C. will not fix this unless they know that is what the citizens of our country want and demand. They focus on reelection. If they know we demand fixing this insanity or we will vote them out, then, and only then, they will fix it.
Folks, it is up to us - listen, learn, understand, act. That is the way to move the needle in D.C. 
 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Leslie A. Rubin is a property developer who has founded Main Street Economics as a public service, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization to get public support to help solve our country's fiscal problems. He is the author of Why You Should Give a Damn About Economics!, located free on his website, and can be contacted at MainStreetEconomics.org.