Chicken Little has flown the coop.
Watch out!
In my travels I have discussed ad nauseum the problems this country is facing - and I get all kinds of responses.
What problem? We don't have a problem with debt, it's just business as usual. After all, Uncle Sugar has a printing press. Just print more money.
Or, yeah we have a problem, but we always find a way. Someone is always crying wolf.
Or, ok, it is a big problem but there is nothing I can do about it.
On rare occasions I get someone who understands the problem and believes we must fix it before it destroys us.
I get it, our nation’s debt problem doesn't feel like an imminent problem today, so let’s just keep kicking the can down the road. Let our kids worry about it. I am going to enjoy life today, it won’t affect me.
WRONG, IT WILL AFFECT US ALL, AND IN YOUR LIFETIME. BEWARE.
I am a numbers person and a realist. I can read financial statements, and projections and weep because I understand them and what they say. Within the next decade, the s–t will hit the fan and it will be ugly beyond belief if we let that happen. I don't know when that will happen, but the day of reckoning is coming if we do not change course.
Here is the short version of the story:
Our government’s interest bearing debt is $33.5 TRILLION and rising rapidly. It is almost 130% of GDP. (That is more than double the average ratio over the last 60 years.) The CBO projects it to go over $50 TRILLION within 10 years if there are no new programs. That implies $2 TRILLION a year in interest expense for which we get nothing. Social Security and Medicare trust funds will be depleted. The Treasury Department says every year that our government’s ‘fiscal course is unsustainable’. And yet the federal government keeps adding more goodies for the ‘people’ so the professional politicians can keep their jobs.
WOW! With rising interest rates and rising debt, we are entering the Doom Loop. (See Facts, No Spin #75, Ever Heard of the Doom Loop?). Soon, the interest on the debt will be the largest expense of the federal government.
Do you get the point yet? Times are radically different from anything we have ever witnessed in our history and this is the major problem we will face. Wake Up America. Our ship of state is headed directly at the iceberg.
BOTTOM LINE
Don't let this happen on our watch, if you are not concerned for yourself, what about your kids and grandkids, do you care about them? Come on, you cannot keep burying your head in the sand and expecting fairy dust to make it all better. Not going to happen..
Don't just sit there. Do something. Speak up, speak out, call your Representative and tell them you want fiscal sanity in the federal government.
We have made it easy, go to our website and Contact Congress - invest 1 minute to send a message.
Winston Churchill once quipped that Americans always do the right thing - once all other alternatives are exhausted. Here is the rub, when all other alternatives are exhausted, there will be no right thing left to do.
LEARN ECONOMICS, THEN VOTE SMART