Our federal government is a marvelous thing — but one that is often hard to understand.
For just one example, consider our current national economic situation and some important recent congressional actions.
We have a national debt of about $13.8 trillion.
We are running annual deficits of well over $1 trillion — despite high taxes.
Obviously, members of Congress and the president are not making the necessary decisions to “make ends meet.”
But there was some “bipartisan cooperation” last week: The U.S. House of Representatives voted 277-148 and the Senate voted 81-19 to prevent big tax increases, and President Barack Obama quickly signed the bill.
We certainly shouldn’t raise taxes in current economic conditions, and avoiding higher tax rates surely will be welcomed. But we don’t see the cuts in spending that are needed to avoid increased national debt — much less to reduce the existing debt.
Congress and the president simply are not doing what is needed to cut excessive spending, and to relieve the growth of the red ink that is adding to our national debt. We are just kicking the problem down the road.
Does that look like responsible government?
In the bill approved last week, Social Security taxes were cut for one year for all earners. But no one wants Social Security benefits to be cut — or to run out! Yet Social Security is in serious danger without major reform.
Nobody wants to see unemployment benefit checks for the nearly 10 percent of our workers who are jobless expire as we are experiencing what is described as our worst recession in 80 years. So in an unusual agreement, Democrats and Republicans in Congress and the Democrat president also acted in quick concert last week to avoid that bad result by extending unemployment benefits again.
We wish that meant the problem is “solved.” Unfortunately, it doesn’t. All of the economic problems, for individuals and the federal government, still exist. And in some financial terms, they are worsened. While the stopgap action will help many people now, big economic challenges are just being put off till next year, and beyond.
We have a political “compromise,” but unfortunately, not an economic “solution.”