CR Nation

A piece by Jacob Ventura, former executive director of the Massachusetts College Republicans:

The United States of America is on course for a financial disaster that could cripple our federal government as early as 2027. Throughout our nation’s short history, we have encountered various threats to our national security and economic stability such as a foreign military invasion, full scale civil war, international terrorist attacks, two world wide wars and the Great Depression to name a few. Our country has consistently prevailed over many of these threats and we have shown the world the true strength of the American people. Unfortunately, our nation’s greatest threat is going unnoticed by mainstream America.

Our internal fiscal policies and total unfunded liabilities ($57,396,626,955,000.00 and increasing) coupled with the demographic glitch, the baby boom generation is paving the way for what will make the Great Depression look like child’s play. Massive entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are our largest spending programs. Because record numbers of baby boomers will soon be retiring, these entitlement programs will no longer be sustainable. Many of these programs are currently experiencing negative cash flows. We are making promises to our citizens that we will not be able to keep. We are spending more money than we generate, we are printing money out of thin air, and we are financing these expenditures on future generations. Each U.S. citizen’s share of our national debt is $188,000.00 and growing by the second.

Politicians often talk about putting an end to pork barrel spending and government waste. This only accounts for about 1% of our federal budget. They often talk about the financial burden our overextended military involvement has placed on our budget. Unfortunately, if we eliminated all waste, duplication and corruption from the federal government as well as the entire Defense budget, we are still on pace for a financial disaster. This is partially due to health care costs rising at double the rate of inflation in combination with the number of current workers supporting each retiree decreasing. Couple these spending programs with a massive trade and savings deficit and you have the makings of what is certain to be our nation’s greatest challenge at home and internationally.

David Walker, former U.S. Comptroller General said, “I would argue that the greatest threat facing our nation isn’t some terrorist hiding in a cave in Afghanistan or Pakistan, but our own fiscal irresponsibility.” Walker points to the collapse of the Roman Empire and sites one of the main reasons was due to internal fiscal irresponsibility.

If what Walker says is true, our country must quickly wake up and demand a new course of action from our elected officials. Both Republicans and Democrats, and liberals and conservatives must come together to pass bipartisan solutions and fundamental reforms that will ensure an equal or better living standard for our children and grandchildren. Politicians in Washington must finally face the people of America and tell them the truth: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are in jeopardy. We cannot simply ignore this issue any longer. The longer we wait to finally pass bold solutions, the sooner we are to a government that cannot afford to operate basic programs like national defense, homeland security and education. Washington needs to wake up. America needs to wake up.