Letter to the editor: We must cut the debt, now
· The Washington TimesOPINION:
When Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, he cited our national debt, then over $9 trillion, as irresponsible and ruinous. That debt has since ballooned to $40 trillion.
We now pay more to service the debt than we do for any other single item, including the military.
Congress’ one real job is to manage the budget, yet when the department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) attempted to reign in the federal bureaucracy, every cut was fought tooth and nail. Now, when our Justice Department is trying to identify and eliminate undeniable massive fraud within federal programs, it too is fought by those meant to be guarding the nation’s purse.
Every taxpayer should be outraged. It’s all too obvious that our government has become a massive money-laundering machine used to keep the current power structure in place.
As those who have been deeply in personal debt already know, cutting the national debt will be painful. However, whatever pain we suffer will be far less than if we continue to ignore it. That path leads to bankruptcy and a drastic devaluation of our money and destructive inflation followed by industry grinding to a halt and a scarcity of goods, then bread lines, black markets and starvation.
We’ve seen this scenario play out in nation after nation around the world, yet we apparently refuse to learn from history. If we are to avoid this future, massive reform is needed.
This will require a budget that forbids new borrowing and requires no new spending that is not accompanied by a bigger cut to existing spending. In addition, our gargantuan government and its supporting bureaucracy must be put on a strict diet that cuts the “fat.” Fraud must be diligently identified and prosecuted.
Finally, we must stop electing the same politicians who brought us here. That said, we must also avoid falling for new faces who promise more “free” goodies. Their empty promises are not the reform we need and their dream of a socialist Utopia is at best unrealistic. Whenever tested, such dreams have proven disastrous.
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We need leaders made of sterner stuff, men and women who are willing to face hard truths and make the unpopular cuts needed to save America. I sincerely hope such leaders can be found, will step up to run and will then be elected.
KATHY DEMAY
Knightdale, North Carolina