With a national debt of $14.3
trillion dollars that is roughly 95-96 percent of GDP, both houses of Congress
passed, and the president signed, the debt ceiling increase.
Even with proposed spending
cuts, the measure does not reduce the debt, nor does it offer a means of
reducing the debt. It does the opposite, guaranteeing an increase in debt by an
additional $7 trillion within the next 10 years. At the very best, all the bill
does is slow the rate of increase by about 1-2 percent as opposed to what it would
have been without its passage.
“Indeed, both the government and its debts
will continue to grow faster than the American economy,” said a New York Times
news story.
What the bill allows is for a
$900 billion increase in the debt ceiling this year alone with further
borrowing increases that will take the debt to more than $20 trillion during
the next decade. What it is supposed to do is cut $2.4 trillion in spending
during that same 10-year period.
As the saying goes, “You do the
math.”
According to the New York Times
story: “Americans will face higher taxes, particularly as investors begin to
demand higher interest rates. Economists disagree about the amount of debt a
nation can safely carry relative to the size of its economy, but there is
widespread concern that 100 percent is too much, and that the weight of debt
would begin to suppress economic activity.”
Considering the current
proximity to the 100 percent mark, the country will hit that figure soon.
MSNBC reported on Aug. 4 that the debt is only a few hundred billion away. Further, the Times story said the biggest costs, the ones that will continue to
put the country’s finances over fiscal the edge are those associated with
entitlements, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. So even without factoring
the warfare state, the welfare state is destructive in its own right.
Republicans and Democrats
alike, anyone who bought into, and continues to buy into, the Keynesian model
of statist economics that proclaims debt is good have both brought us to this
financial mess.
It’s not surprising that while Pennsylvania’s
U.S. senators, Toomey and Casey split on the vote, the two Republican U.S.
representatives in our area, Joe Pitts and Pat Meehan, both voted for it.
Why do politicians like
spending and debt? Because it’s a power rush and they can get away with it.
Politicians accrue power and voter loyalty that way. They build constituencies
of individuals and businesses who are dependent on government largesse and,
therefore, will do nothing to stop the runaway spending or borrowing…as long as
they don’t have to pay the bill.
Greed is not necessarily a bad
thing — it can motivate production — but greed without personal responsibility
— expecting something from others for nothing in return, without earning what you get—most assuredly is bad
and childish. Yet, the worst form of greed, the form that is actually evil, is
the lust for power. That’s what the party politicians play for.
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