The National Debt (Part I)

While Americans preoccupy themselves with President Obama’s foreign policy and the Democrats’ healthcare mandate, the nation’s financial affairs steadily slip into what promises to be the deep, dark abyss of rampant runaway inflation. If America is to survive, Americans must prioritize their political concerns.

The U.S. national debt is now approximately $12,799,639,983.01, increasing at an average of 4.11 billion dollars per day. The national debt is greater than the total economies of China, the United Kingdom and Australia combined. And according to the Congressional Budget Office, the debt is expected to grow 9 trillion dollars over the next decade, bringing us upwards of 20 trillion dollars. But the sheer magnitude of the debt is not the problem; it is our inability to pay it back.

In 2008 the U.S. taxpayer spent 253 billion dollars on interest alone – six times what we spend on the Department of Education, or thirteen times more than NASA. The Congressional Budget Office expects payment on the interest of the debt to rise to $900 billion a year by 2019 – more than all the money we spend on national defense combined.

The national debt is forcing the American people to divert greater and greater resources to servicing the debt rather than funding public services or, better yet, financing private innovations. Thus, the national debt is truly a bipartisan issue, as failure to address the debt guarantees a complete inability to finance government projects of any kind, regardless of their breadth or purpose.

The debt is no longer a problem for our “children’s generation”. We are "the children" feeling its burden - here and now. And, if We the People do not take significant action soon the burden of our national debt will come crashing down upon us, not our children.