“America’s financial situation is unsustainable. In 2009 the federal government spent $3.5 trillion but collected only $2.1 trillion in revenue,” writes Veronique de Rugy, a mom and senior research fellow the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
In her recent Reason article titled “Our Unsustainable Debt,” Ms. de Rugy warns that our national debt situation is “deteriorating rapidly.” Because of entitlements, growth of our national debt could outpace the economy. If current trends continue, “the country will owe more than $20 trillion, or 85 percent of GDP” by 2020.
Ms. de Rugy provides six reasons why the reckless deficit spending matters and how we can address the problem, and if we don’t, our children will suffer taxation without representation of historic proportion:
If these growing deficits aren’t addressed by immediately and dramatically slashing spending—and there’s zero indication that such a shift will happen anytime soon—we are about to embark on the most massive transfer of wealth from younger taxpayers to older ones in American history. It will be not just unprecedented but unfair: Our children will have to pay for the decisions we make today.
The best gift we could give our children is not an iPad or iPod or even a trip to Disneyland but rather a halt to deficit spending, a balanced budget and TABOR.
Actually the most massive unfair transfer of wealth has already been going on in the form of redistribution of wealth to the rich.
http://www.999ideas.com/redistribution-of-wealth.html
May 12th, 2010 at 10:25 pm[...] If this is the response to anti-Washington attitudes, then Pelosi et al have grossly underestimated the level of disgust from working families over the national debt and reckless deficit spending. [...]
May 15th, 2010 at 4:26 pmGreat site, glad you’re doing what you can to address our runaway government but the solution actually has nothing to do with money. The real debt of the people can never be paid because the government charges you and your family for their very existence on the earth. Every local government in America threatens to murder its citizens by throwing them into a hostile environment if they don’t pay their property tax.
The only difference between being force to grow cotton under the threat of a beating and being forced to grow money under the threat of being made homeless is our plantation has gotten a lot bigger. Not all slaves are created equal and comfortable slaves wont start the revolution.
When the money becomes worthless, and it will, what do you think they will come after? Property tax makes you a slave. In fact it is defined as a tax on ownership which is the essence of slavery. Property tax puts you in endless debt and forces you to make money, no other tax does this.
Properly tax prohibits the ownership of property
The American Dream is a lie
Government created money but God made the land.
May 16th, 2010 at 11:30 amUntil we have a constitutional Amendment that gives every individual the right to become free from debt by the ownership of property everything will end in failure.
With the economy in the tank, all the pundits, the left, right and all the ones in between, are exalting
May 17th, 2010 at 1:55 pmtheir cause and solution to the problem. But nothing has stopped the ebb and tide of the economy.
I guess I will weight in with my opinion. To start with, the ratio between goods and services is
proportional or relative to technology.
When the pilgrims first came to this country, they had to grow their own food and build their
own house. They had little or no food to exchange for a service. While we are talking small, we can
describe the problem. If the farmer takes the family to a restaurant The only thing the farmer could do is
to charge the dinner. If the farmer had a little technology and grew more food than he could use then he
would have something to exchange for his dinner. So the only way to measure the ratio between goods
and services is debt.
In theory all debt is bad. But in practice we have to put up with some debt. Is a mortgage really a
debt? The bank owns the property. As the monthly mortgage payment is made the ownership is
gradually transferred. Where the debt comes in is when the income is below the requirement for the
monthly payment. This goes for autos, appliances, etc. Debt for short lived goods like food, vacations
etc. is bad.. This debt has no collateral.
In the public sector the spending on service was held to what was affordable, that is until the
credit card was introduced.. The government sector is a whole different story. The Government as a
whole is a service industry and is a monopoly. Therefore the cost of government must be added to the
service of the private sector. The government has grown immensely and getting bigger. How big does
the government have to get or has gotten to unbalance the ratio of goods and services? Because of the
huge government debt, I would say that the government is way, way too big. The negative balance of
trade has some effect on the debt. When the trade is in balance then the income and taxes of the exports
balances the lack of the income and taxes of the imports. When we have a trade deficit we lose the
income and taxes of the imports.
“In economics, the Laffer curve is used to illustrate the idea that increases in the rate of
taxation do not necessarily increase tax revenue. . Increasing taxes beyond the peak of the curve point
will decrease tax revenue….” Have we reached this point on the curve?
The only way to pay down this debt is to reduce the size of government.
When a politician is elected to office they take an oath to uphold the constitution.
Once they are elected they think they can do anything without regards to the constitution. Where is the
judicial branch of government?
AmericaSpeaks is organizing a national discussion, which will take place in cities across the country on June 26th. The discussion will educate the American public about the challenges facing our nation, provide Americans with a neutral space to explore the issues and weigh the trade offs, and deliver to political leaders in Washington a clear message about the shared priorities of a large, demographically representative group of Americans.
This is an opportunity for your voice to be heard, to engage with Americans from every walk of life, and to determine what the role of government should be going forward. Find out how you can participate at USABudgetDiscussion.org.
May 17th, 2010 at 4:34 pmRedistribution of wealth TO the rich? HAve you ever looked at exactly who does and does not ACTUALLY pay taxes, who are net givers and net receivers, Alison? it is EXACTLY the opposite of ‘redistribution TO the rich”.
May 17th, 2010 at 4:45 pm[...] and Democrats have spent our children into a nightmare of national debt. Reason contributing editor Veronique de Rugy takes both the left and right to task for their unwillingness to stop spending. In fact the [...]
July 20th, 2010 at 3:30 am