Wrong.
This step ranks right up there in the top list of stupid things politicians do.
Do I like paying taxes? Of course not. But you know what I like even worse? Being in debt.
The federal debt as of April, 2001 is nearly six trillion dollars. If there are 250 million Americans, that represents $24,000 for each and every man, woman and child.
You, reading this now, are in debt to the tune of $24,000. Worse, that amount has doubled since 1989. From 1991 to 2001, a period of great wealth and a fabulous economy in this country, Congress was unable to balance the budget and increased the national debt by two trillion dollars. ($8,000 per person).
Are you married? Do you have children? If you're married with two children, your family's share of the current debt is nearly $100,000.
I don't know about you, but these thoughts make me very uncomfortable. Now the truth of the matter is, people don't like feeling uncomfortable. We hide from the truth when we don't like the truth.
It's time to stop hiding. It's long past time to stop hiding. We should have stopped hiding back in 1992. We've had a record economy, and instead of spending more money than we made, we should have been paying off that debt.
Do you realize the interest on this debt is 360 billion dollars annually? That's about 1400 dollars for every American, each year. The interest we're paying on the debt is significantly larger than the tax cuts Mr. Bush has proposed. If we had cut spending and paid off our debt beginnig in 1992, congress could lower your taxes by $1400 and still be coming out ahead.
Some people feel this isn't their debt, it's the government's debt. Well, this is a government "By the people, of the people and for the people." The United States is not some other person. It's not some company owned by some rich millionaires.
The United Status is you, and it's me, and it's your mother and my sister and the guy across the street. George Bush and our Senators -- these people don't own the government. They aren't the United States. They are simply the managers we have hired to run things. That's it.
I don't know about you, but if I were a business owner, and the manager I had hired to run the business couldn't break even during boon times for the company, I wouldn't be very impressed with him. I'd tell him to stop spending money he didn't have and start paying off the company loans.
The politicians on both sides of the aisle try to tell us that we have a budget surplus. This is a bold-faced lie! They are borrowing from social security to cover their increased spending. The debt continues to rise in spite of these false surpluses.
Tax cuts are a mistake. We need to pay off this debt. We have borrowed money we're going to make our grandchildren's grandchildren responsible for, and that's more than a little selfish.
If you want to read more, I recommend:
You can also go to Google and do a search for +federal +debt. This will get you a list of good links.
