The US debt is already almost $9 trillion as I type -- that's actually ~$29,500 per capita -- and quickly headed for $10 trillion and points unknown --
brillig.com
reuters.com
And if it's ever going to change, we'll need more grass roots common sense thinking like this --
Where are our Mr. Smiths?
by David Mullings
September 28, 2007
News item: A commissioner from Delta County plans to run for Senate. Many folks likely assume that a county commissioner next runs for State Senate, right?
No. Wayne Wolf (not to be confused with the Ridgway rancher of the same name), a Republican, announced his plans to win the Republican nomination in 2008 and succeed U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, the Loveland veterinarian who honorably kept to his term-limit pledge.
That's a bit unusual — not only to have big-time politician voluntarily step aside, but to have a local government official seek, like Jimmy Stewart as Mr. Smith, a seat in Washington. As the lunacy from the nation's capitol continues, it becomes increasingly attractive to float the idea of a "normal" person represent us normal stiffs, without having to go through the process of becoming a typical "politician" at the state or federal level.
Now, ranting against the excess of our U.S. government is certainly no new sport. One only needs watch "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," circa 1939, to understand that federal frustration has been omnipresent through history.
So why should any current raving about the state of affairs in the Beltway be any different than those in years past?
Sure, an unnecessary, divisive, ill-executed, costly, bloody and lengthy war has much, if not most to do with it. (And on that topic, here's a suggestion: If critics say American citizens aren't sacrificing or supportive enough in the effort, let's start sending individual war tax bills out and see how vital state-building in Iraq really is. "Oh? I need to write a check for $5,000? No problem.)
But the subject that leads to the tipping point of this discourse centers on government finance. According to news reports, the United States hits its debt ceiling limit come Monday, and Congress will likely allow the debt to increase.
To draw a consumer-level analogy, that means you've hit your $10,000 credit limit on the card.
So what does the credit card holder do? A. Get a second job to raise money to pay down the debt. B. Cut the credit card in half to prevent additional debt. C. Call the credit card company and have the credit limit raised, with no plan in place to reduce the debt in the future.
Our federal government, of course, will choose C., like it already has four times during the Bush Administration.
The federal debt now stands at $8,965,000,000,000 (a trillion figure, incidentally, that wouldn't fit into this writer's calculator). Divide that by the U.S. population, and the debt comes out to about $29,500 for every person. Naysayers might purport that big-government finances operate in cycles, and naïve people just don't understand how the ballyhooed tax cuts result in more revenue.
That's non-sense. Mr. Wolf in Delta County and our local governments here in Ouray County don't have such fiscal smoke and mirrors at their disposal, and an unbalanced budget for them is gladly not an option. County governments may not have to fight wars (warranted or not), but they do have to be prepared for crises of various kinds.
There's no sound reason we should not have a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget. But with the Iraq War dominating the headlines, that concept seems hopelessly far from even being an issue.
We can only hope that there are bunch of Mr. Wolfs and Mr. Smiths who can make it to Washington and change the attitudes that lead to fiscal insanity.
ouraynews.com |
