$1.42 trillion dollars. That's $1,420,000,000,000! That is the amount currently of our Federal deficit. That is not the National Debt. The National Debt stands at $11,957,469,307,131.18!!! To make that a little more understandable, that means that all of us, men, women, AND children, each of us, owes about $38,933.73 in order to pay this debt off. Who among those of you who reads this has this on hand or will be willing to pay it off in increments? C'mon now, let me see a show of hands!! Any takers? No, I didn't think there would be!
But this is the dilemma that we're in. We have lived so high and mighty as a nation without regard to any fiscal responsibility at all, that we have managed to tie our next several generations' livelihoods up completely before they're even born. For the next several generations, our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great grandchildren, great-great-great grandchildren and so on will be saddled with finding ways to pay for our excessive spending.
I put my two grandchildren at the top of this piece to illustrate just who the future tax payers of America are and how we have severely mortgaged their futures. They will be faced with taxes that we can't even imagine. Their life-styles will probably not equal ours. Fifty years after I am gone, they will still be paying for Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Wall Street, GM, AIG, and thousands of other interests that are simply too numerous to mention.
This country faces very critical times. I believe our fate as a republic hangs in the balance. Oh sure, you hear the pundits and representatives from the White House proclaim that things will get better and we'll get on with life as usual. But we cannot afford to get on with life as usual. We cannot, as a nation, continue to spend like there is no end to the money supply. We are spending money we don't have. How many of you can take your checking account balance, whatever it happens to be, and keep spending once your balance has dropped to zero like there is no tomorrow? None of us as individuals has that luxury. Banks would not allow it. Then why are we allowing our elected representatives spend money like they're on a drunken binge?
I all of our recent financial crises, not one elected official has been heard talking about sacrifice. Yet, sacrifice is what is called for if we are to avoid handing our future generations this mess. If we do nothing in a meaningful way to try to change our spending habits as a government so that those who come after us will not have to give up as much as it appears they will at this point, then we can only come to the conclusion that we, as a generation, are selfish and egotistical preferring to let the next generation clean up our mess. I am not suggesting that we have the ability ourselves alone to clean things up. What I am suggesting, however, is that we do have the power within us to begin acting more responsible where governmental spending is concerned.
We must put pressure on our elected officials by making our voices heard loudly and clearly that we will not tolerate this out of control binge we are on any longer. So what if they call us organized mobs? We are the citizens of this country and have been endowed by the constitution with the authority over those who represent us. We have to realize that government cannot possibly provide for every whim and wish we may have. Earlier generations certainly didn't depend on the government for their every need! What makes us different?
Take a long look at the picture at the top of this piece. Then take a look at your kids or grandkids and try to come up with an explanation to them as to why their lifestyles will probably be below ours because we just didn't care enough to get involved! Tough assignment, isn't it? Yet that is what we must do unless we begin to demand accountability from the government WE have elected to represent us. What will you say to the next generations?
