The Debt has Enslaved Us All
By Guest Post | Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011 | Economicsby Jimmy Frost
It’s been an interesting week in Greece. Apparently the Greeks overspent on a ride of economic optimism and are now seeing their society come down around their ears. It’s it strange now to have the Germans and the French basically deciding what will become of Greece, all but dictating the terms of Greece’s economic surrender to the European Union.
Greece is now as prostrate and helpless before the European Union than Greece was when Persian King Xerkes overwhelmed the Spartans at Thermopolie. If King Leonitous and his brave 300 Spartans knew what had become of their country, they would surely be spinning in their graves-surely this situation is not what they fought and died for.
So too, America is literally at the mercy of her creditors. Our bond rating has slipped form a triple-a to a double-a, our economy is anemic and as such, unable to create the jobs necessary to continue underwriting the debt the Obama administration is accumulating on our behalf. In fact, most of the programs proposed by the Obama administration are build upon deficit spending-it’s kind of like taking your credit cards to a casino-and maxing them out while you’re there.
But what happens if the day comes when we can borrow no more? Surely that day comes to every foolish borrower and it is probably why credit reporting agencies such as Trans-Union, Experion and Equifax exist-to compile and report on the creditworthiness of potential borrowers. In a former job as a car salesman, I use to see these reports as they came off the printer and some of the folks with poor credit would take any deal you were offering, but once that credit report came out you could almost track their movement down Military Highway from one dealer to the next.
Sooner or later, these folks would get the message that there just wasn’t any credit out there for them to be had.
I think the United States might be at such a juncture or at least, fast approaching one. Our income to debt ratio is almost even and soon, our financial liabilities will consume most, if not all of our Federal budget dollars-and like the hungry predator, government will go looking for more.
Either those of us who still have jobs will be assaulted yet again with higher taxes or, the government will like the poor car buyer, will venture out looking from dealer to dealer for someone, anyone to extend just a few trillion dollars more in credit-and there will be none to be had.
Having said all of that, I think that the very least we can do to start making ourselves creditworthy again is to pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. There really isn’t any excuse for our not already having done so except because someone in Washington didn’t want to curb their spending. You see, a lot of votes get bought with government projects, payments and entitlements. Passing a balanced budget amendment will put a lot of the unnecessary spending on the chopping block-and that might cost someone precious votes at home.
Otherwise, I would simply say take a good, long look at what’s happening in Greece-if things continue as they are, those events now taking place in Greece will surely repeat themselves here-it’s not a matter of “if,” just “when.”
Tags:
Contribute for Conservatism!
Comments
4 Responses to "The Debt has Enslaved Us All"
Pass a balanced budget amendment next year, what programs would you cut?
GO!
You’ve got to come up with what, $1 trillion in cuts by the end of the year.
Another option might be to raise taxes.
Yeah that’s what Greece did ToR. Take a trip there and see how it worked out!
Unpayable debt means default so if we don’t send the gangster socialists packing with their double digit unemployment (see Europe, Cuba etc) that’s what we will do. The Dems could care less. They will happily ration everything including health care (See the UK.) exempting the cronies (see Franklin Raines, Jim Johnson, George Soros etc etc) and blame someone else (See Occupy Whatever and the ethnic group they single out.)
Of course, every bi-partisan commission has had the same recommendation: cut expenditures, reform entitlements, raise taxes, and reform the tax code. Republicans alone stand in the way; they will simply not raise taxes, so the deficit will get worse, not better. Simply cutting will throw us back into recession, cut growth, make the deficit worse, and further depress our credit ratings.
Republicans have put us on a path to fiscal oblivion, and frankly, that appears more and more likely. Of course, some suggest that is what they want in order to defeat the President. Frankly, since McConnell has said that, it is not hard to beleive. But a large majority of our citizens know that a balanced approach is required. If the republicans continue to obfuscate, obstruct, and filibuster, the voters will hold them responsible as they should.
What happened to that measly 100B in cuts that so many campaign promises were made on? What justified the GOP vote to raise the debt? I heard the promises that fiscal prudence was on the way but for the most part I did not buy the empty promises..
Which candidates that are now seated promised not to raise the debt and take a jackhammer to the veneer protecting our view into the FED?
Leave your response
The comments section is for meaningful discussion. Readers are reminded to post comments that are germane to the article and write in a common language that steers clear of personal attacks and/or vulgarities.
Please take a moment to review our comment policy.