The Load

"Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt"

Herbert Hoover

 

 

My wife and I had a great day today. We finally finished the re-fi on our house. We took out a 30 year mortgage for as much as we could get. We were done in the late morning , so we had time to run downtown to see our travel agent and book our dream vacation - a cruise around the world that lasts almost two months! We took every dime out of savings to pay for it. Next, we stopped by Home Depot to finish our home improvement buy. All new appliances, new carpet in every room and new patio furniture for the Spring. It was costly, but we put it on the card. It almost "maxed out", but we got it approved. We are going to live it up, spend it like we don't have it (we don't anymore), and then let our kids worry about cleaning up the mess.

 

Get the picture? Who would do that to their kids? Short answer - us. For reasons that escape me, we have really screwed our kids (and maybe grand kids) into the ground with our out of control spending. One of the travesties with today's news cycles is the brevity of coverage on important topics. We were all about the debt clock as it was displayed during the RNC. Then the impact of the fiscal cliff was the topic de jour. Then the terror murders in Benghazi. As we were gathering the incriminating trail of evidence that led back to the White House, Hurricane Sandy came a calling. As people are struggling for food, water and gas in the storm zone, we are back to the presidential race. Meanwhile, while nobody is watching, the debt clock continues to spin like a high speed fan.

Seriously, I can't even begin to say how many people I have talked to about the debt issue who have responded with "who cares", "it does not matter" or just plain glazed eyes. Very few are alarmed over it - and they should be. The numbers have become staggering, and maybe that is part of the problem. Most cannot relate to that many zeroes. For example, this was taken from the official debt clock site this morning:

"The Outstanding Public Debt as of 02 Nov 2012 at 12:25:39 PM GMT is:
$16,267,714,822,058. The estimated population of the United States is 313,796,990, so each citizen's share of this debt is $51,841.53. The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $3.90 billion per day since September 28, 2007."

 

We are spending $4B more every day than we are taking in. Making the rich pay "their fair share" (whatever that is) won't even put a dent in this number. The truth tellers are in small numbers as the long term impact of this spending becomes known. If it is allowed to continue over the next four years, the debt will be over $20T by 2016. Our famous currency, once the bell weather of the world, will become nothing more than paper. Our running debt to China (if they will still lend to us) will be nothing short of monumental. People will be working longer for less and retirements will be tenuous at best. ObamaCare will start to dwarf Social Security and Medicare as our biggest cost driver as cost containment was never part of the bill.

 

I know with all that is going on right now, this subject sounds like it came from Billy Buzzkill or Debbie Downer, but this is for real. Our debt will be our undoing. If Obama is re-elected, brave people from his party are needed to pressure him to cut spending, and do it in a big way. We need to stop the sophomoric arguments that so-in-so is not paying enough taxes - it is spending, and the math proves it. If Romney is elected, this needs to be day one focus. His party needs to help keep his focus as such.

 

The party is over folks - it is time to pay the band and clean up the mess. Our kids are watching. We need to do the right thing for them and those who follow.