America’s debt

The greatest threat to our national security is not China, or sugary drinks, immigrants, or other assorted hobgoblins elbowing about for the title. The real menace, gathering on the horizon, is our federal debt. This is routinely ignored in congressional scrambles to keep the federal government funded.

The excess of federal spending over revenue is now projected to surpass $1.9 trillion this year and expand into the future. Total federal debt ‒ an accumulation of annual deficit spending ‒ is more than $35 trillion, nourished by more than $3.5 trillion in tax cuts set to expire after next year. The debt ceiling has been suspended by Congress until 2025.

Thus the government must print more money (sell more bonds) to pay its bills. More money in circulation has nursed inflation, adding to the cost of goods and services with little boost to the economy.

Household budgets are squeezed by mortgage payments, car loans, insurance premiums. Farm income is pressed by looming trade wars, low grain and livestock prices and increased production costs. That’s only the beginning of inflation.

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When members of Congress talk about the need to cut spending in Washington, they don’t really mean it. We’ve spent untold trillions on war and insurgency in the Middle East. We have troops in Africa, Europe, and Asia. The Congress nods along, increasing appropriations in the name of “national security.”

Instead of any sensible debate over Pentagon spending, or that $50 billion border wall or other wasteful ventures, the Congress throttles our ability to pay at least part of the invoice by cutting taxes chiefly to benefit the upper brackets.

At the same time, aid to the elderly and the poor is demonized. There are demands to cut “entitlements,” namely Medicare and Social Security, casting the benefits and those who receive them as a drain on the federal treasury. It’s as though filching on promises to our own citizens, building border walls and dropping bombs on other lands will make America a stronger country.

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It would make America better if we had an honest look at ourselves and our priorities. We did that once, in late 2010. A bi-partisan commission appointed by President Obama drafted a blueprint for returning sanity to the federal budget.

This was known as Simpson-Bowles, named for the commission’s leading figures: former Congressman Alan Simpson, a conservative Republican from Wyoming, and Erskine Bowles, former chief of staff for President Clinton. Their politics were disparate but they held a shared purpose and campaigned for reform.

Their plan became a bill. It recommended cutting federal spending by $2 trillion over ten years and, at the same time, raising $1 trillion in new tax revenues. The plan also would reform Social Security, including an increase in the program’s retirement age. It would also cut Medicare benefit increases for high-income workers.

Simpson-Bowles failed because Republicans promised to squash any program or measure that Democrats liked. The Congress has since looked the other way, cutting taxes and revenues, and increasing spending mostly for things that go boom.

Until the Congress develops brains and a backbone, the folly will continue, and the only thing getting stronger in America will be that inflationary storm banked on the horizon.