Ignoring the federal debt cannot continue

The Comptroller General of the United States, David M. Walker, has been embarking on a campaign across the country, educating the public on the dangers of increasing federal debt.

Walker heads the General Accountability Office (GAO), and has visited college campuses, spoken to lawmakers in Washington, and toured 19 states in the last year and a half.

"If [the candidates] don't make [the debt] one of their top three priorities, in my opinion, they don't deserve to be president and we can't afford for them to be president," he told CNN.

The federal debt has soared during the last two decades -- from $2.13 trillion in 1986 to $5.22 trillion in 1996 and $8.51 trillion in 2006.

The federal debt now stands near $9 trillion.

He has also warned that if Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare are not reformed, expect an additional debt of $50 trillion during the next 20 years. Thus, a balanced budget would cease to exist for the considerable future.

Why is no one worried? Because interest rates are low. According to Christian Weller, senior economist at the Center for American Progress, "The budget deficit brought in all of this foreign cash, and that foreign cash basically washed into the credit market, [making] it easier for homeowners and for others to borrow money."

Alright, that's good, but can this last forever? Of course not. Would we expect countries like China and Japan to continue to buy up U.S. Treasury bills and bonds? Some may believe so because they do not want to see a U.S. economic collapse which would also severely hurt the international economy. Yet, some countries may not care about that. Both China and Japan hold vast reserves of foreign currency. Some would like to see a third-rate U.S. instead.

In any case, we cannot continue to have massive federal deficits. Everytime the national debt goes up, so does the interest on it. Over $400 billion of our federal budget was for the interest last year. Reform must be done on the three entitlement programs now to avoid financial disaster. Once that has been accomplished, we must focus on eliminating pork projects, inefficient programs, and better tax enforcement.

So far Democrats and Republicans have no concrete plans to offer for reforming our entitlement programs. The AARP refuses to consider any changes and are "willing" to let our children live in a bankruptcy world. Massive tax cuts are a thing of the past. So goes for massive tax increases. I am sure that substantial amounts of political capital must be spent to help keep our financial future intact.

EdmondSun.com - A trillion here, a trillion there

Sun-Sentinel.com - National Debt

Daily Reckoning - National Debt? It's Just 450 Billion Twenties

Salt Lake Tribune - Government needs to clean closets

The Conservative Voice - Goliath Debt Strangling U.S. Future