Our Federal Debt: The 13 Digit Elephant In The Room

December 6, 2007 – 2:36 pm

Presidential campaigns in this country have become interminable affairs, stretching out for months and years. Seemingly, every topic is broached by the candidates, from their position on abortion to how much money they spent on their latest haircut. Some of these issues are more important than others, yet one issue that directly affects everything our federal government can do yet rarely gets a mention is the mounting federal debt.

Clocking in at $9 trillion plus and growing, our country is literally running up the biggest credit card in world history with no end in sight. In fact, many of the candidates running for the highest office in the land are promising to increase it by making President Bush’s tax cuts permanent. With so much of our taxpayer dollars going to various entitlements and military spending, where exactly do these individuals think this money is going to come from?

Have any of the candidates running for president released a plan for reducing the federal debt? Have any of the candidates taken a breath in between telling us what they will give us if elected without acknowledging the fact that our dollar has been significantly weakened due to the monstrosity? It’s much easier for them to ignore the issue and hope it goes away. Can we really blame them? They have all learned from Walter Mondale that running on a platform of raising taxes to restore fiscal sanity is a first class ticket to political suicide. Why deal in reality when fantasy can be so much more fun?

This post is being submitted to the Facing Up Blog Carnival on the $9 Trillion Debt.