If you look in the lower right corner of this page you will find a link to the national debt clock. WARNING viewing this site may have a negative impact on your ability to sleep at night.
We seem to be worried about the debt of banks, insurance companies, auto companies and even people and yet Congress goes merrily about spending a few billion here and there on a daily basis, frequently using some bogus accounting indicating their spending is not adding to the deficit or simply ignoring the deficit altogether as if they could print money…oh, wait they can and do.
I have read some economists view that the deficit is no big deal and that it remains a small part of GDP. We will grow out of it. With Congress on a spending spree that’s all we seem to do is grow, but it’s the debt we are talking about. I wonder if all those jobs saved from some of this spending will generate sufficient new income for the government to pay the interest on this debt, perhaps for an hour or two.
My theory is that any new taxes will likely go to paying the salaries of the jobs created or saved once the stimulus runs out. Let’s think about this, where is the logic in making a commitment to an ongoing expense if you know the funds to pay that expense are a one shot deal? What happens when the money runs out?
Where is the logic in continuing to artificially prop up housing prices or anything else, what is the end game?
Debt is not good, sometimes necessary, but never good. When it is necessary it should be used to the minimum possible with a clear plan to pay it back. We are attempting to solve the economic problems we face like an obese person who is depressed and claims the depressions turns them to food and food leads to more obesity. Congress must be depressed because it can’t stop spending under some rationale that we can spend our way to prosperity once again.
While some Americans have seen the light and embraced saving for the future we set in motion the necessity to raise taxes of all kinds that will eventually thwart that effort.
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