National Debt-Killing Our Future
In 1981 the gross national debt, as a percent of the nation's annual income, reached its lowest point since 1931, 32.5%. It could have been paid off then easier than at any time in the previous 50 years. But inflation was high and Reagan mistook inflating dollars for a real growth in debt. On February 5, 1981, two weeks after taking office, in his "Address to the Nation on the Economy" Reagan said:
"By 1960 our national debt stood at $284 billion. ... Today the debt is $934 billion. ... We can leave our children with an unrepayable massive debt and a shattered economy."
But, the 1960 debt he said was "smaller" was 56.1% (instead of 32.5%) of our national income. As seen in this graph Bush II has imitated Reagan and turned the debt upward once again. The White House, in OMB's 2006 Budget, predicted a 47 year high in 2006. It also explained what happened with Reagan and Bush I
(source)
Folks, this isn’t a Republican –vs- Democrat situation. As we can see from the above graph, Presidents Truman-D, Eisenhower-R, Kennedy-D, Johnson-D, Nixon-R, Carter-D and Clinton-D all worked at successfully reducing the Debt to GDP ratio. Presidents Reagan-R, Bush I-R and Bush II-R have worked to erase those gains for America and put us back into a debt/GNP situation that hasn’t been seen since World War II.
We quite simply cannot keep spending more than we have. Period. We don’t operate that way in our personal or business lives, and we cannot continue to do so as a nation.
We have the responsibility as voters to look at the record of those running for office and make the proper choice. We have the responsibility as citizens to work hard for, and invest in, good and responsible leaders. For our own sake, and our children and grandchildren, we must get rid of those opportunistic politicians who have sold our future to gain power for themselves.
Lowell
posted by Lowell Fulk @ 12:46 PM
6 Comments:
At 6/18/2006 5:28 PM,
Anonymous said…
Wow! You guys have done it again!
Keep up the good work!
At 6/18/2006 5:45 PM,
Anonymous said…
Yes, you're doing good work here.
At 6/18/2006 7:11 PM,
Anonymous said…
This is the result of Republican incompetence -- they control all the branches of the national government and they've made a mess of it!
At 6/19/2006 5:35 PM,
Anonymous said…
To keep spending and not paying is irresponsible, especially when you consider the cost of the Iraq war. Yet the Republicans keep reeling in voters by promising to cut their taxes. Why do people keep buying that, even people who are usually responsible? My son is having to fight this war. As it stands now, he and his children will be paying for it as well.
At 6/19/2006 6:42 PM,
Anonymous said…
Very soon, the people will get their opportunity to weigh in on this matter, the mid-term elections this fall and the "big-un" in 08. I'll go out on a limb and speculate that the Dems should pick up a good number of seats in the mid-term, and will field Hillary for Prez in O8. The power to decide which direction we are going and to change directions is clearly in the hands of the voters.
At 6/23/2006 2:55 PM,
Anonymous said…
There is still a huge amount of abuse,waste and incompetence in governmet. While I do favor a strong defence and good basic services, there are too many examples of abuse.
Just one example, the Gulf Coast hurricane relief. The politicians are so afraid of being accused of not doing enough, they throw money at the problem and turn untested programs over to bureaucrats who are incapable of managing the programs. Is anyone really surprised at the resultant waste and abuse?
Voters need to hold these politicians accountable. We need to continuly challenge our government to higher standards of effectiveness and accountability.
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