National Debt: What's the Real Issue?

Clearly, we have a national debt problem. Clearly, the federal government continues to spend and borrow, and borrow and spend. A budget deficit continues to haunt us, and it grows larger on a daily basis. The real problem here, however, is not the debt itself (which is still a major issue), but the interest that has accumulated in the process.

I agree with the article “Taking the National Debt Seriously”, by Lawrence Kadish, as he stated that this will be the major factor in driving the value of the dollar ever-downward. The most frightening statistic that was shared in the article is the fact that in this year, “40% of individual income taxes will go toward debt interest payments.” I have seen firsthand the difficulty that interest can cause in an individual’s life, as my parents are still making payments on their student loans 30 years after they have finished school, not because they don’t make the payments, but because the interest has accumulated beyond reason, and because of limited income, accompanied by bad financial decision, the amount of money that they have to available to make other payments and have a comfortable lifestyle continues to diminish. They tried to avoid this by refinancing their debts, and for a while it worked alright for our family, but because of the national debt and the accompanying interest, the interest rate on this loan, my parent’s credit cards, and other the house payment has increased. Hence, we see this national debt issue taking toll on each of us personally. (So much for the Democrats being the poor man’s party.)

What we are seeing happen in our on a public level right now is not much different. The liberal democrats in congress and in the White House have this notion that more deficit spending will help to boost the economy, and they continue to stand by it. There is serious evidence otherwise, however, as we watch the national debt surmount. There is only so much GDP, and with the current recession, we have watched it continue to decline. For the first time in months, it has climbed to a point where it is finally to the point of being higher than the national debt. This will not stay the case for long, though, because the debt continues to move the inflation up on a daily basis.

The article states that “Interest rates and interest costs will soar, and government revenues will be devoured by interest on the national debt.” With the current administration’s policy, they will continue raise taxes on business and the wealthy, and trying to fill this gap in the Aggregate Demand curve that will consequently occur, and it will become a cycle, because higher taxes cause people to limit their spending or go farther into debt, and they will spend less, and unemployment will begin to rise. This “crowding out” is already taking place, and the American people need to wake up and realize that the results of this will be dire, and the affects will reach not just the rich or the big businesses, but all of us, because of the multiplier effect, meaning that the same money moves through the economy, and no new money can be created to

Rudolph G. Penner, a writer for taxpolicycenter.org, writes the following on the subject:

“Given that the … large programs are growing considerably faster than tax revenues, the arithmetic of the long-run problem becomes pretty obvious. If the total tax burden remains constant at its 50-year average of slightly more than 18 percent of GDP and if we devote the same fraction of GDP to defense, nondefense spending, and other entitlements and if Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are not reformed, deficits are bound to soar. Eventually, they explode because the national debt begins to rise so rapidly that the interest bill on that debt starts to dominate total spending. We begin to borrow to pay interest and we’ll end up borrowing to pay interest on the interest. At that point, total spending, the deficit and the national debt begin to go straight up (Congressional Budget Office 2007).

“Analysts make such long-run projections to show that they cannot happen. Obviously, foreign and domestic public and private investors will stop buying our debt long before deficits explode. Therefore, something has to give—hopefully before there is a crisis in international capital markets. The three rapidly growing programs must be reformed; all other activities of government must be cut to the bone; or tax burdens must rise.

“Before the 2008–09 recession, the situation was already serious, but it seemed that we had a good amount of time to deal with it. Official projections then showed that spending growth would begin to accelerate toward the end of the next decade as more and more baby boomers entered Social Security and Medicare and that we would enter this difficult period with deficits around 3 percent of GDP and a debt to GDP ratio of

about 40 percent.

“However, the recession has depressed tax revenues greatly and increased spending on safety net programs. The stimulus program passed in early 2009 cut tax burdens further and has added mightily to spending. The Congressional Budget Office (2009) has estimated that if President Obama’s budget for 2010 is implemented in every detail, the deficit will be close to 6 percent of GDP by 2019 and the debt to GDP ratio will then exceed 80 percent. The long-run budget problem has become very much more urgent in a very short amount of time.” (2)

In order to overcome this, taxes need to be lowered for all sectors and spending needs to be limited and unnecessary programs eliminated. Then, “crowding in”, or expansion of the private sector, could be possible. The current practices of deficit spending, however will not lead to this. Congress and the President need to wake up and fix the hole that they are digging. “How?” you might ask. They are really just paying off credit with other credit, right now, so to solve this massive issue, we need to change these “leaders,” who are more interested in their Pork Barrel agendas.

We need to elect leaders who will use fiscal restraint, and adjust the structural methods of spending, who will eliminate worthless and pork-barrel programs, and wake up and realize that revenue increases only when the government removes their hands from the market, and allowing the invisible hand to take effect, with simple programs that have a minimal amount of spending.

Paying off the national debt would be the ultimate goal of this kind of fiscal restraint. If not, the federal government will have no choice but to default, abandoning the bonds and other national debts that are held and the bond holders will all lose their money, the foreign countries will lose trust in us, rendering the government unable to loan money between its own programs, and it will drive our economy even farther down the tubes than it already is.

Is it time for a new administration? I think so.

The Healthcare Bill: Bowing Down to the President

To my readers: I published an earlier form of this article on my blog, but I have since taken it and revised and edited it for an english paper. It being one of my better pieces, I thought I would republish it.

-D.W.


“A more readable translation of everything that comes out of Barack Hussein Obama's mouth: ‘And so my lazy followers, ask what your country can do for you--not what you can do for your country!!!’”
This is a statement that was posted on Facebook by a friend several months ago
Lately, I am frightened by the President and Congress pushing the agenda of nationalized (socialized) health care. They seem to be ignoring the voice of the people all over, and listening to those special interest groups, i.e. the people on welfare, gays, the ACLU, environmentalists, etc. This healthcare bill panders only to those who do not make enough money to afford health care, and are screaming for what those of us who work hard for our care deserve, and they feel that they are “entitled” to this because they are human beings. I fail to understand this, because it is already illegal for a hospital to deny care to anyone who walks through their doors.
In a recent opinion article in the Wall Street Journal, a usually-liberal publication, the article “Lords of Entitlement” makes the points out how this is bill is being pushed through with nothing short of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Obama’s voices being used as ramrods:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi defied policy logic and public opinion late Saturday night, ramming through the House a nearly 2,000-page health-care leviathan that counts as the biggest expansion of the federal government since the New Deal. As President Obama likes to say, this was a "teachable moment" about our current government….
The bill is instead a breathtaking display of illiberal ambition, intended to make the middle class more dependent on government through the umbilical cord of "universal health care." It creates a vast new entitlement, financed by European levels of taxation on business and individuals. The 20% corner of Medicare open to private competition is slashed, while fiscally strapped states are saddled with new Medicaid burdens. The insurance industry will have to vet every policy with Washington, which will regulate who it must cover, what it can offer, and how much it can charge…
However, as subsidized costs soar, government will have no choice but to ration medical care, starting with the aged and grievously ill. Is pre-natal life more valuable than the elderly? We're reminded of the way pro-lifers supported Anthony Kennedy over Laurence Silberman for the Supreme Court in 1987 merely because Mr. Kennedy was a Catholic who claimed to personally oppose abortion. Mr. Stupak played the right-to-lifers like a Stradavarius….
Yet 39 other Democrats were given a pass on the vote, as the leadership knows how unpopular this bill is in most of America. They know this legislation is not the result of some national consensus in favor of expanding state power. Its passage was possible only because of temporary liberal majorities that are intent on fulfilling their dreams of a cradle-to-grave entitlement state. If they lose Blue Dog seats, or even their majority, in the short term, so be it. As the party of government, Democrats believe they will benefit in the long run from a much larger government.
Unless the Senate has an epiphany of common sense, Americans will be paying the bills for this willful exercise for generations to come.
(see http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704402404574523613159447566.html Nov. 9, 2009)

I feel as if this sums up the entire Obama administration and the current congress. Congresswoman Maxine Waters’ (D- California) well-known slip of the tongue demonstrated what all of the liberals in congress are trying to do. In this slip she started to say that she would work to make sure that this country becomes socialized, but caught herself before the word was completely out, but we all can tell, if we watch the YouTube.com video, that socialism is this woman’s goal. Interestingly enough, she represents Compton, Watts, and other similar, ghetto districts. It becomes clear that these are the only people who want this, people who are three and four generations of welfare and have no intention of getting out. I have a feeling, however, that she is not the only one who feels this way, given the actions that congress is taking.
Congress and the President are making a direct attempt to Europeanize our American society. This is a dangerous position to take, because it is becoming obvious that socialization of these countries has not worked, and in our own country, we have seen the downfall of Social Security, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Welfare, Medicare, Medicaid, and many other social programs are finically broke, and in this recession, it would not be wise to engage in more deficit spending to push though a bill that is largely unapproved by most of the population of America.
In Europe, Canada and elsewhere where there is socialized medicine, dogs can get a CT scan in 24 hours of an injury, but human beings that live in these countries have to wait, on average, 6 months to get one. Heart transplant waiting lists are up to two years long and dental care? Forget it. (Maybe this is why people have such gnarly teeth in Europe.)
I remember 9 years ago, right before my grandpa's death, how the doctors were doing all they possibly could to save the poor, sick man's life. My friend's mom, who is from New Zealand, told me that my grandpa would have been left to die in her country. This was thankfully not the case here in America. He was blessed with another 4 months on this earth, because gratefully, we were not even considering adopting such outrageous ways of practicing medicine at that point in time.
The economy continues to struggle, and yet this spending continues to increase. Inevitably, as has happened with the other societies who have embraced this destructive way of doing things, the first people to be denied care will be the aged and chronically ill. Currently, it is a financial advantage for private medicine to treat these people because they keep coming back for more treatment
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has, many times, made statements against socialism. President Ezra Taft Benson, a prophet of the Lord, told us the Book of Mormon is there to help us "combat the false ideas of socialism". He was a prophet of God, a God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, thus invalidating the argument so many liberals present of "Well, you see, times have changed, and so should we along with it." The Church stays with tried and true methods, and it continues to run better each day. The government, on the contrary, goes with the changing mindset of the day, and they have to come up with new rules and laws to cover their behinds every time they screw up things even more than they already have. And because of this mindset, we are watching morals, and consequently our economy, decay at an extremely rapid rate.
Little wonder that the Church brings full-time missionaries back to the US (if they are American citizens) to receive serious medical treatment... i saw this once when I was 12 years old, and countless times as a full-time missionary in Seattle.
Following is an excerpt from an email from a lady who I came to know very well on my mission. I served in her ward, I respect her opinion greatly. I will vouch for her honesty and her effort to follow the prophet and do what is right. She and her husband are credible, educated people, and I urge you to listen to what they have to say, and take it into deep consideration before supporting what President Obama is trying to put in place. This is

It is such a shame that our country's great heroes are treated in this manner. I have been in Mexico and see different hospitals there; this hospital is only a small step up from those. Other hospitals in our area are great by comparison.
The HMO's our family has used in the past are better than this. Our current family health coverage through my husband’s work is perfect and affordable for our family. We get to choose our doctors and have the coverage that we need.
This is representative of how the government manages health care.... God help us if all the hospitals in the US become government run. They will be like this!!!
I am sending this to everyone in our address books and asking them to contact their representatives to vote "NO" for US run Health Care.
Please vote NO, too!!!
Sincerely,
Kristine Farley

(Edited for length, clarity and errors)


Clearly, the President and Congress are not listening to the majority of the American people. These secretive, late-night meetings are reminiscent of the ancient days in which the Savior of the world was brought to stand before the Sanhedrin, in the middle of the night, so that the people would not be aware of the trial. The Savior represented freedom, but not the kind the Pharisees wanted.
Today, two thousand years later, we are seeing freedom again under attack. It has been prophesied by the Prophet Joseph Smith that the Constitution will be hanging be a thread before the return of the Savior, only to be held up by the Elders of Israel. The constitution guarantees life, liberty and property. By socializing this, the best healthcare system in the world, our right to property, and liberty to use it as we please, will be trampled.
President Barak Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and other Democrats are not listening to us. They have taken office to listen to our voices but are miserably failing to do so, by engaging so heavily in pork barrel politics. With that office, have taken an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. By putting this bill into the arena, these people are in violation of this oath, and consequently should be, in my humble but angry opinion, impeached and removed from office.

How to create a band

What you're seeing is something my sister posted this on her blog some time ago. I thought it was cool. Above are my results. Try it for yourself:

Instructions:
To figure out your band name, first album & your album cover:

1 - Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random”
or go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.... Read More

2 - Go to Quotations Page and select "random quotations"
or go here http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last few words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or go here http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use www.picnik.com to put it all together.



Have fun band-making!

Trains

This morning, I was a few minutes later than normal leaving the house, and as I was walking to my bus stop to go to school, I observed a train, stopped dead in my path. So I turned around and walked to another closer bus stop. I don't normally take this one because it would mean getting up far earlier than I have to already, or it would mean being about 20 minutes late to class. The latter was the case this morning, but I obviously didn't have much of a choice.
The bus began to move, and I stuck up a nice conversation with the lady next to me, who was headed the same direction as me and showed me the connections I needed to make to get up to school. She was really great, a God-send, really.
However, the train had finally moved, again intercepting my path, and you know what? The danged thing stopped again.
We eventually made it up to the commuter bus at the transfer station, after about a 20 minute wait, and I was able to catch up on sleep, accompanied by some rather strange dreams. Here's the best part: I walked into class approximately 45 minutes after the start, and you know what? I caught right up and finished the assignment/activity right along with everyone else. My classmates were a bit blown away (and creeped out by the fact that I has sneaked in so quietly)
And you had better believe that I got extra credit for the day.

Disease

Quote of the week:




THERE is this disease in Utah... called
"Provo Disease"... makes you want to have kids.
I think it only affects WOMEN, but it can affect MEN too..."


-My Dear friend ELICIA BENTLEY