The goal is to power the party, not the people
Dear Editor,
“Make America Great.” We are great, by far the world’s greatest debtor. Presidents for the last 25 years asked congress to raise our national debt limit, and congress response was “HOW HIGH.” The more money we borrowed the more pet projects of theirs, the lobbyists and campaign contributor’s they could fund. For one term presidents Biden and Trump were responsible for record borrowing and Trump is on track to do it again. We just rolled over $38 trillion in debt; we added and spent this last trillion in 3 months! Trump said the tariff dollars and the Big Beautiful 1000-page Bill would reduce our need to borrow. The interest for our debt will be $1 trillion this year, divide that by 365 days, our interest payment will be over $3.3 billion a day!! They say if we paid off the deficit at the rate of $1 million an hour without interest it would take 3200 years! We are borrowing money to pay interest for money we borrowed and spent years ago. That is a recipe for financial disaster. How long can we live on credit? We keep cutting taxes and borrowing more money. Freedom isn’t free; I have been paying taxes since 1959. I don’t mind paying taxes. What I do mind is the way our two political parties have squandered it. Their goal is power to the party, not the people.
We have people who are saying our economy can sustain a National Debt of 50 trillion. On the other hand, some bankers and analysts say there are a lot of similarities between today’s economy and that of 2008; when the banks and the economy crashed while millions lost their homes. With $1.2 trillion in credit card debt, their interest rate in the 20+% range, they must be making big profits. I asked our money manager if we should buy some credit card stock, and he said the smart money was selling their stock. The default rate for credit card debt was rising rapidly. The news reported that auto loan defaults are also rising. Rent, homeowners, auto and health insurance premiums have had a substantial increase this year. The cost of food stuffs and durable goods has not retreated as promised. We watch these side-byside all-terrain vehicles driving down our road all day long; a dealer told me they can cost upwards of $40,000 and 90% are financed. I guess we’re a society that doesn’t mind debt. They say AI will eliminate millions of white-collar jobs. That means a lot fewer dollars flowing into the social security system.
The framers of our constitution had the foresight and intelligence to draft a document that guided this democracy for 250 years. Why did they limit a president to two terms while congress members can serve for life? Should we limit them also?
I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth like some presidents, but by the time I was 10 I had a hoe in hand. My 6 siblings and I spent a lot of our time hoeing cabbage, hilling potatoes, weeding strawberries and tending the animals. Sometimes our mother would work with us and talk about what we wanted in our futures. She always gave us little bits of advice; two I remember well. “Make your money work for you, don’t work for your money.” She always said paying interest for things that are not appreciating in value is a fool’s errand. The second bit of advice came after she shopped at one of the first Wal-Mart stores. She said buy their stock. If I had listened to her and I purchased 100 shares when the stock opened on the stock exchange, they say it would be worth $3 million today. If only I had listened, I would not have mucked one stall or cut one acre of grass during my 30 years of retirement.
— Tom Janicki
Almont
