Debt Burden Threatens American Families

Last week, as most Americans were celebrating the holidays with family and friends, the Obama Administration announced plans to seek yet another debt ceiling increase in the New Year. While some fiscal conservatives will try to block this increase, their efforts are designed to fail thanks to the procedure set up by the last debt ceiling negotiations. Congress would have to pass a joint resolution opposing the increase, which the president could simply veto. Thus, an additional $1.2 trillion on top of our already unsustainable debt is a foregone conclusion. Our Gross Domestic Product continues to contract and now stands at $14.5 trillion. The debt already far exceeds that and will soon hit the new ceiling of $16.39 trillion.

Everyone in DC acknowledges that the debt is unsustainable, yet few are willing to take serious steps toward addressing it. Politicians in Washington cannot face the fact that the blank checks must stop. Many think we can ignore the mounting debts and deficits and eventually the economy will magically turn around and grow its way out of the mess. If you really understand why the economy is foundering, you understand the burden cannot all be put on the backs of the American people while politicians stick their heads in the sand.

According to a USA Today analysis, there are currently over $61.6 trillion in unfunded future government liabilities, which amounts to $528,000 per American household. A huge part of these liabilities are Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security – promises made to make the American people feel secure in their futures. But how secure should the American people feel knowing that a default is becoming more mathematically unavoidable with every NEW program added, every bailout, every debt ceiling increase, every new war we rush into, and every round of quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve? The last thing politicians should be doing is adding to that $528,000 household burden with either more spending or more taxes. This is unequivocally a problem of too much spending by a government far outside its Constitutional bounds.

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