Suppose a family of four earning $50,000 a year took frequent around-the-world trips, bought a new luxury car every two years, dined at only the finest restaurants and wore the costliest fashions — all on credit.
You might chuckle if the family formed a “commission” to get to the root of its financial troubles. After all, anyone watching the family’s spending habits could diagnose the problem.
But the Obama administration and some Democrats and Republicans in Washington believe they need a commission to understand why our national debt is nearing a crippling $14.3 trillion — and to search out some way to reduce that debt. The president has therefore appointed a bipartisan “National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.” The assumption is that that will help the country get a handle on what has led us into massive debt — and annual interest payments of nearly half a trillion dollars on that debt.
But that is not some huge mystery!
We have out-of-control debt for one obvious reason: out-of-control spending.
In a time of recession, Democrats in Congress approved a $787 billion “stimulus” — whose price tag has since grown to $862 billion. Prior to that, there was the costly bailout of banks and automakers — many of which had behaved irresponsibly but, instead of having to suffer the market consequences of that irresponsibility, were rewarded with taxpayer money.
A few years earlier, Republicans and Democrats alike approved a vast Medicare prescription drug benefit. The American people were first told the benefit would cost $400 billion over 10 years. But soon after the entitlement was approved, the “guesstimate” rose to a shocking $534 billion. A bit later, the guesstimate jumped again — to more than $700 billion!
Now, the president is pushing for a mammoth medical takeover that he says will cost “only” $1 trillion.
Yet despite all of Washington’s unsustainable taxing and spending, he considers the exploding national debt some sort of riddle that it takes a “commission” to unravel.
Another commission or panel or study group won’t solve the problem. Congress and the president know full well why our nation is buckling under a growing load of debt — much of it owed to Japan and Communist China. Our elected leaders have the tools to begin slashing budget deficits.
But sadly, it appears they won’t get serious about that task unless the American people send them a clear message at the ballot box.