National Debt

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National Debt

How large are we going to allow the national debt to

become? If we believe that it never comes due then its

size is of little concern. However, that belief is

like that of the ostrech; bury your head in the sand so

you can not see the problem and the problem goes away.

The fact is that the size of the debt is nearly five

trillion dollars and grows by an average of 620 million

dollars every day!

The cause is that every year the government spends

more than it collects in taxes. The government makes

up the difference by borrowing billions of dollars

annually, competing against private enterprise for the

use of money saved by American citizens. That money

should be used for investments to improve our standard

of living and create a brighter future. Instead, our

savings are being used by the government to pay for

todays consumption, for special interests and for the

interest on money borrowed in earlier years. At the

present rate of growth the interest payment will

eventually be greater than the current debt. Can we

afford this? Are there enough creditors to support

such an enormous burden? What will happen to our

future, our childerns future? We are spending it for

them now before they have a say about it. Surely this

trend of deficit spending is leading us to national

bankruptcy.

A new policy geared toward a zero deficit must be

adopted. This means that we must change the way we

view spending on the entitlement programs, defense and

domestic discretionary programs. Between 1980 and 1990

the national debt quadrupled from 800 million to 5

trillion. The current trend of spend every cent we can

get our hands on and borrow the rest by mortgaging our

future must be stopped. The fact that past investment

in government bonds was sound and secure does not

predict that the future will remain the same. How can

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