Debt, Debt and More Debt!

Is there anything the United States Congress will not borrow money for?

Congresses  and Presidents (current and past) borrow to bail out banks…borrow to bail out automakers…borrow to give states (including Florida) “stimulus”   money…borrow to finance wars and borrow for a multitude of other projects and programs.

Who are the guilty parties, so to speak, of these acts of malfeasance? With few exceptions, it is every Democrat and Republican who has served in the U.S. Congress during the last 40 years.

Year after year, officials in Washington have supported budgetary legislation that has put this generation and future generations into insurmountable debt.

We have all heard many of these elected officials tell us how they are “fiscal conservatives”.

How can they call themselves fiscal conservatives when they vote for programs that are paid for with the federal credit card?

In essence they believe in all the conservative values except for paying our nations bills.

The definition of malfeasance is “the performance of an unlawful or wrongful act by a public official”.

The last 40 years of deficit spending has not been unlawful…that’s because the U.S. Congress passed laws that allow them to do this…but, it is a “wrongful act by a public official”.

Because the definition says it is an unlawful OR wrongful act, their actions certainly meet the meaning of malfeasance.

I never thought deficit spending would increase to the point that when we look back to the years when the annual deficit was “only” $200 billion, that would actually look good.

Deficit spending started going exponential in 2000 with the election of George Bush and continues to get worse. The current Congress and the Obama administration show no interest or courage in reversing this trend.

I believe there is in the dynamics of debt, a point of no return. A point where you are paying so much interest on the debt that it is impossible to pay anything on the principle.

If a President or a member of Congress feels strong enough to spend money on a project they should also be willing to vote to raise the money necessary to pay for it.

Instead, they put it on the federal credit card. What a bunch of wimps!

It looks as though we are going to send another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. According to the Wall Street Journal, this troop surge could cost $30 billion a year.

This will be put on the federal credit card.

Where have our leaders gone? The federal government imposed or raised taxes to help pay for World War I, World War II, and the Korean War.

This responsible behavior ended with President Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam. This war was fought with borrowed money.

The 1960’s was the start of Washington spending money they DID NOT HAVE!

Just to be clear, over the years, there have been a lot of expenditures on programs that were very legitimate and needed.

The only problem…they were funded with borrowed money. The programs were good, they just should have been paid for and not charged on the federal credit card.

If our country has not reached that point of no return in the dynamics of it’s debt, we are rapidly approaching this reality.

Ernie Padgett resides in Marianna, Florida with his wife. He worked 30 years in state and local government. He served as county administrator for over 21 years in 3 Florida counties. He retired after serving 12 years as Manatee County Administrator.