Paying the Piper

Ah, to be in Washington when the President’s budget is released.  What better way to forget Valentine’s Day than by looking at barrels of red ink?  To sum up, it weighs in at about $3.73 trillion with a deficit of only a mere $1.65 trillion this year, more than a third of the budget.  It cuts nothing really and relies on many new taxes.  The projection is for nearly trillion dollar deficits for the next 10 years, bringing our national debt to $26 trillion then, up from $14 trillion now; of which Obama has added $4 trillion in the last two years.  The House Republicans talk of trying to pare anywhere from $35 billion, to $50 billion, to $100 billion in the best of scenarios.  That’s what, 1, 2, 3%?  WOW!  That sort of draconian slashing will right our sinking ship in no time, right?  NOT!  Who knows if cutting 40 or 50% now would even stop the inevitable?  Our current national debt is now more than our annual GDP and service on the national debt in ten years will be almost a trillion dollars a year.  You can’t just monetize that without triggering hyperinflation, you can’t tax people that much and you certainly won’t be able to borrow all of that from the Chinese.  After all, they own a big chunk of the debt to begin with.  And we haven’t even discussed the fact that in ten years we will be square within the throes of the baby boomers retiring and accessing MediCare.  That means that Social Security and MediCare are headed for certain insolvency.  Not to mention the big ObamaScare question mark.  Needless to say, this kind of social entitlement spending, these deficits and the ensuing national debt are simply unsustainable and intolerable.  They will undoubtedly lead to financial collapse and social chaos.  The dollar is already teetering today. Throw into that mix the uncertainty of events in the Middle East and the effects that could have on the price of oil, which ultimately affects the price of everything else and we have a recipe for disaster. 

So how have we come to this lowly state?  The answer is really quite simple but the ramifications are enormous.  The federal government has ventured into spending for things for which it has absolutely no constitutional authority.  Things such as MediCare, Social Security, farm subsidies, the Department of Energy, the Department of Education and ObamaScare, just to name a few.  So much of what the federal government spends trillions of dollars on has no legal basis in the constitution.  And the expenditures for these boondoggles grow exponentially far beyond their original projections.  Yet, with a lackey Supreme Court and neutered governors and state legislatures this federal juggernaut just careens on down the highway with a drunk at the wheel heading straight for a bridge abutment.   Wake up Ralph, because this is going to be quite a crash to see!  The only medicine for this ailment is to admit that these and other costly federal programs are constitutionally unauthorized and financially unsustainable.  The federal government must bow out of these programs as quickly and fairly as possible.  Many of the functions could, and should be assumed by the various state legislatures.  This would provide exactly what our founders intended, many state laboratories around the country trying different approaches to see what does and does not work.  Government solutions which are closer to the people.  And sometimes the solution might not be a government one at all.  The private sector is amazingly flexible when not fettered by onerous government regulation. 

Lying to the people and forestalling the inevitable reality of our situation does not solve anything.  The sooner we face the stark truths about where we are and what must be done the sooner we can take the medicine and get about the task of righting our ship.  The longer we wait the harder and more expensive it will be.  And we are rapidly approaching the point of no return.  Let’s pray that we can knock some sense into the collective heads of the Republicans and Democrats in Washington and the 50 state capitals before we see pitchforks in the streets.