Looking down from 30,000 feet...

"What is my solution? More taxes, or more tariffs? We have tried the tax thing for decades and it sucks. It stunts growth. Maybe we should have Congress authorize tariffs for a period of ten years. If managed correctly, just imagine how much money we could have in our coffers. Just imagine how much of our debt could be paid off. Or - we could do nothing and await the level of $50T in our national debt. Knowing us - we will do the later."

Every now and again, it is very helpful to get in that imaginary airplane, fly very high, and take a 30,000-foot snapshot of our country. Things would probably look pretty good, until you looked into our underpinnings. Like - our debt. With everything else going on, looking at our debt has not been a hot topic for many of us. I know it has not for me. But holy cow! We are creeping up on $40T in national debt! If that does not give any citizen pause for concern, I don't know what would.

I remember not too long ago addressing our national debt when it reached an astounding $33T. I had no clue on how we would be able to service a debt that high. But now we are on the verge of having a debt which is $7T higher than that previous post. And many economists think we might be on the way towards a $50T debt. That could sink our ship.

I decided to do some deeper thinking on this issue. Like - why is it, no matter who is in office, the debt goes up. I did buy into the Trump tariff plan, where we could garner more funds from an external revenue service (tariffs), than internal revenue service (taxes). But, due to the bifurcation of financial viewpoints in our sharply divided Congress, Congress had SCOTUS remind POTUS that the issue of tariffs was up to Congress, and not the President. Then all those dollars raised in tariffs, some of which to be used in culling part of our national debt, went "poof" - gone. And then our national debt resumed its manic assent.

Here is my take on this very sore subject. Our biggest cause for our sky-high debt in this country is changing administrations. Look at the crap that Biden spent money on which no longer exists. Just like when Biden took over, he killed many of the things that Trump had been working on, when Trump once again took office, he killed just about everything that Biden had been working on.

And look at all the national defense items Biden DID NOT spend money on, which he should have. Like what? Look at our Navy. We are way, way under on many of our ship classes. China now has the largest navy. Thus, the Trump Administration needed to spend gobs of cash just to get us caught up. And raising taxes to pay for it, was a non-starter. It would crash the economy.

I remember when Reagan took office after Jimmy Carter. Same issue. Carter wanted to be a man of peace instead of war. Thus, he cut back on defense. When Reagan took office, our DOD was a mess. The Soviets had gone to town under Carter, and Reagan needed to jump start our military procurement. By the time Reagan's second term was done, so were the Soviets. But our debt was much higher. 

Every time this nation zigzags the economy due to a new administration, our debt goes up. Fact of life. When Trump is done, and if we get another Biden in office, it will happen all over again. Our nation jumps around way too much on priorities. And yet, we need to face the reality in the world in which we live. If America goes weak due to lack of defense spending, aggressive nations will try and fill that void. Just look back on history, how weak the US was before WWII. 

What is my solution? More taxes, or more tariffs? We have tried the tax thing for decades and it sucks. It stunts growth. Maybe we should have Congress authorize tariffs for a period of ten years. If managed correctly, just imagine how much money we could have in our coffers. Just imagine how much of our debt could be paid off. Or - we could do nothing and await the level of $50T in our national debt. Knowing us - we will do the later.