America is going down, and it’s going down quickly unless something hugely positive happens. I truly don’t like to talk badly about my country, but it’s a sad reality for many people who care about what’s going on.
America has been facing debt for over two centuries. This really isn’t the problem. Why? Most people carry some debt or have to spend money on something. People spend money on things like credit card bills, rent, laptops, food and a host of other things.
The main problem is our federal political leaders fail to stick to a true budget. The states seem to have a better grasp of budgeting than the federal government. I understand that, in bad economic times, states have to make the tough choices when it comes to cutting back on things they spend money on. The federal government needs to take notice.
I hear stories on the news all the time about how America is going broke because of all the spending, entitlement programs, wasteful projects, etc. There is one fact that remains: if you keep spending and borrowing way more than you are bringing in, then you will remain in debt. Apparently, our leaders in the federal government don’t understand this easy concept.
Our national debt is somewhere around 13 trillion dollars, and growing. China is one of the countries to which we owe a lot of our monstrosity of debt. We can’t just keep making interest payments on this debt and expect to find a way out of a hole that we are digging deeper. I know the federal government can’t balance that huge debt load overnight; it will take decades. I feel if each person in the federal government does his or her part, then it will lessen the burden.
One thing the federal government has that normal people don’t is the ability to borrow, borrow, borrow. This is followed by spend, spend, spend. It’s hard to break this habit when there are thousands of lobbyists who have a list of demands when it comes to their pet issues. It is unfathomable to think of all the money wasted on non-existent jobs, people who have been dead for quite some time and people who don’t even need the help in the first place.
It seems like every time somebody in Congress wants something for his or her “emergency,” then money is spent unwisely. I don’t have a problem when cities need money for infrastructure projects or other necessities, but sometimes a person who doesn’t even follow things in the news like this can tell money is being wasted. In many cases, we borrow more money from China for things that are incomprehensible. For example, sometimes towns get money for a “bridge to nowhere.” Does anybody see a problem with that? I do.
And more of our leaders need to understand the money we are borrowing isn’t Monopoly money. It’s money borrowed with a high interest rate. It’s almost like we blindly pull out a credit card and just swipe away. When we realize all the things we spent money on that we didn’t even have money for initially, it seems like taxes go up and the economy goes on a downturn, even if temporarily.     
It shouldn’t surprise most people this country isn’t heading in the right direction fast enough. Many of the people in the federal government don’t know what it’s like to make tough decisions with their money. Many of them have always had money. It’s almost like they have the attitude of “we will pay for it later.”
I just shake my head when I hear many of those people talk about trying to help the middle class and the poor. I think it’s good they want to use borrowed money to help people who need it. It just seems like there isn’t a real plan to pay for that borrowed money. It’s sickening to me.
I wouldn’t be surprised if these countries we borrow money from get tired of lending it to us. If they do, America will be in more trouble than we are in now.
We will then probably have to claim bankruptcy like millions of people do when they get so far into debt they can’t possibly pay it back. I really hope that doesn’t happen because America can do so much better than what we are doing now.
Christopher Webb is a junior majoring in business administration. He can be contacted at [email protected].