As the national debt approaches a staggering $9 trillion, roughly $240 billion will be spent this year paying interest on the half that's held by public creditors (of which Japan and China are the largest). That translates to about 11 percent of projected tax revenue.
In other words, we're spending more on interest for our national credit card bill than was spent last year in discretionary funds for the Education, Veterans Affairs and Justice departments combined.
And at the rate we're borrowing, experts say, the amount of annual interest payments could double within 10 years.
"The danger is not the current level," said Brian Riedl, senior budget analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation. "The danger is that future trends are very bad. Within the next 10 or 20 years, our debt will spiral out of control.
"That scares the hell out of me," he said.
This administration is placing the future of our country in dire jeopardy by refusing to see that we cannot continue to spend money that we are not replacing. Instead this White House has waged a war while borrowing the money to do so, while refusing to raise taxes in order to placate their base. But all they are doing is kicking the can down the road so that the next administration, whether Democrat or Republican, will have to raise taxes quickly to stem the financial bleeding.
It is disingenuous and dangerous to the future of our children. And it is just one more reason to suggest that George Bush face impeachment for his careless and shortsighted approach to America's problems.
We may not have the luxury of waiting until his term runs out in 2008.
What's the big deal? We'll just print more money. It hasn't been backed by anything since Nixon took us off the gold standard in the 1970s.
ReplyDelete(I'm being very sarcastic)