Still Fuming on the Debt
The USA Today recently had an OpEd piece bemoaning the Federal Deficit and the government racking up trillions of dollars in additional debt.
For those of you have been sleeping since, oh, the Jackson administration, the National Debt is over $11,000,0000,0000,000. That comes out to be $37,000 per person or almost $100,000 per household. Do you have 100 grand to spare? I know I don’t.
That piece fed right into some of my fears for the future of this country, fiscally. Now I fully understand that at different periods of time, our government has gone through highs and lows. The debt has gone up, the debt has gone down, but only once did it ever go away. Most of the time, various administrations look at the debt and say, ” as long as GDP growth outpaces the deficit (so the percentage of the debt of GDP remains constant), then we’re OK.” We’re just treading water.
Well I’m tired of swimming…and I don’t think we’re just treading water anymore!
I ran across this quote from Alexis de Tocqueville, a French political scientist studying American government in the 1800s. Tocqueville makes this prediction:
“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.”
Now let’s stop and think for a minute. In recent memory, what has won the most votes, promises of increased spending or decreased government benefits? Sure, many politicians “claim” that they “want” to pay down the debt, but every election cycle we see the Federal Government continue to grow! How many elected officials brag locally about the “pork” that they’re bringing home? (My U.S. Representative, Chet Edwards, loves to get his face on the front page bragging on this exact accomplishment)
If we look at what has happened with the debt during the various administrations, only Harding and Coolidge actually reduced the national debt at the end of their terms! Both of these men did their best to reverse course from the Wilson administration that boosted the national debt by 700%. But even with these reductions, the debt was still 550% higher than 1910 levels!
And it has only gone up ever since. Outstanding increases include FDR (1000+%), Reagan (180%), GW Bush (100%), GHW Bush (56%), Carter (42%) and Clinton (40%). After FDR’s tremendous spending, the debt was somewhat manageable until around the Nixon administration. Since then, it’s seen double, sometimes triple, digit growth under each and every president, Republican and Democrat alike!
We seem to be heading somewhere fast; I’m just afraid of the destination!
For those of you have been sleeping since, oh, the Jackson administration, the National Debt is over $11,000,0000,0000,000. That comes out to be $37,000 per person or almost $100,000 per household. Do you have 100 grand to spare? I know I don’t.
That piece fed right into some of my fears for the future of this country, fiscally. Now I fully understand that at different periods of time, our government has gone through highs and lows. The debt has gone up, the debt has gone down, but only once did it ever go away. Most of the time, various administrations look at the debt and say, ” as long as GDP growth outpaces the deficit (so the percentage of the debt of GDP remains constant), then we’re OK.” We’re just treading water.
Well I’m tired of swimming…and I don’t think we’re just treading water anymore!
I ran across this quote from Alexis de Tocqueville, a French political scientist studying American government in the 1800s. Tocqueville makes this prediction:
“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.”
Now let’s stop and think for a minute. In recent memory, what has won the most votes, promises of increased spending or decreased government benefits? Sure, many politicians “claim” that they “want” to pay down the debt, but every election cycle we see the Federal Government continue to grow! How many elected officials brag locally about the “pork” that they’re bringing home? (My U.S. Representative, Chet Edwards, loves to get his face on the front page bragging on this exact accomplishment)
If we look at what has happened with the debt during the various administrations, only Harding and Coolidge actually reduced the national debt at the end of their terms! Both of these men did their best to reverse course from the Wilson administration that boosted the national debt by 700%. But even with these reductions, the debt was still 550% higher than 1910 levels!
And it has only gone up ever since. Outstanding increases include FDR (1000+%), Reagan (180%), GW Bush (100%), GHW Bush (56%), Carter (42%) and Clinton (40%). After FDR’s tremendous spending, the debt was somewhat manageable until around the Nixon administration. Since then, it’s seen double, sometimes triple, digit growth under each and every president, Republican and Democrat alike!
We seem to be heading somewhere fast; I’m just afraid of the destination!
Labels: debt, Federal Government, spending
posted by Cogito at 1:04 PM
4 Comments:
I'll tell you where we are heading... over the cliff! Obama is driving the bus and we are along for the ride whether we like it or not.
Oh, and let's not forget, this is the overwhelming will of the people.
That's a great quote from Tocqueville. But we voters are to blame for this. We are the ones who elect people based on how many federal goodies they throw our way. If it didn't win elections, politicians wouldn't do it.
I think we have a serious problem when such a high percentage of Americans pays no income tax at all. You can imagine that most of the people in that (non)tax bracket would be motivated to vote for someone who will promise to give them more government goodies; after all, they don't have to pay for it! And the ones who do have to pay for it are those nasty, rich people that we less fortunate ones love to resent because we are jealous of their success and somehow believe they are the primary ones responsible for keeping us down. What I have just described is, in essence, the Democrat political playbook.
Under Obama the untaxed masses will continue to grow and will continue to demand more from the overtaxed. And they will be an even bigger voting bloc in the next election. It's really a good political strategy aside from the fact that it is totally immoral.
(By the way, I currently belong to the percentage of Americans who, when all the calculations are made, end up paying no income tax. But while I may benefit personally from this way of doing things, I have never voted for a Democrat because I can see what this is doing to our country).
What is the solution? Make everybody who has income pay at least some income tax (yes, even me!).
Aaron, while the American public definitely is responsible for whom we elect, keep in mind that, as Brad hinted, only 36% of voting age U.S. citizens selected Barack Obama. In 2004, 32.4% of Americans paid no income tax whatsoever.
This is what is scary!
We have to somehow make Americans feel some ownership of Government spending. If you're not being taxed you obviously do not feel the burden (see an earlier post and quote from Thomas Jefferson). Having all citizens pay at least some income tax would definitely be a good start. The tax code is already highly progressive, which is fine. But the bottom end should rarely reach 0%, which is unfortunately not the case.
Granted, all workers are burdened with payroll taxes such as social security and medicare/medicaid. But most do not realize how much of their check they are losing.
Each year my boss does something interesting. He gives each employee a print out that shows exactly what we cost him to be employed. It includes salary, commission, his share of social security, medicare, etc. as well as unemployment insurance. Each December I get to see what I would have made vs. what I actually got to take home. I then subtract out MY income tax, social security payments, etc. and can compare the difference.
All told, it comes out to be about 50%. For me to take home $1 it costs my boss $2 (and we're not including facilities, travel expenses, and other "business" costs). That's ridiculous!
But even if you pay NO income tax, you're still getting taxed at around 15%...but these wage earners rarely notice as the money is taken out before they even see it.
What can we do to open their eyes? The "payroll tax holiday" sure sounded like a good idea...
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