The sky is falling

A tactic being used in the bid for the top U.S. position has been to find discrepancies in both presidential candidates’ past military records during a war that most people under 35 have little recollection. The current war in Iraq and the fear of terrorism have also been used to scare up more votes.

We find it interesting that one particular issue, which was a hot topic 12 years ago, has been given very little attention by the candidates or the media. This issue can and will create greater terror than any radical thug strapped with explosives could ever generate. Thomas Jefferson wrote shortly after helping pen the Constitution: “I place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared.”

Former U.S. Senator Warren B. Rudman stated: “America is at war. Perhaps not the standard definition of war, but a very real war nonetheless. We are at war economically…

“The blame for the economic collapse of our country ultimately will fall at all of our feet. But, to a large extent, it has its roots in a conspiracy of silence among presidential candidates and most members of Congress. That silence is due to fear…fear that if they confront the problem and honestly point out its severity to the American people, they may lose votes and elections.”

That quote could easily describe the situation today, but Senator Rudman wrote it as a foreword to a book published in 1992, when the national debt was a whopping $4.064 trillion. The most recent count of the U.S. national debt shows it has now ballooned to $7.385 trillion (see www.brilling.com/debt_clock/).

Now most people have a difficult enough time trying to fathom a billion dollars, so a trillion dollars is even more difficult to comprehend. If you were to stack one-dollar bills on top of each other (250 bills making one inch), then a BILLION dollar bills would be over 63 miles high—which would qualify someone flying that altitude to become an astronaut.

If one-dollar bills were stacked on top of each other to pay the current national debt, it would be almost enough to go to the moon and return back to the earth (466,225 miles). The crazy thing is that you would not be able to find enough money to try the experiment because, according to the 2002 World Almanac, there were only $564 billion dollars (U.S.) in circulation.

Economists and financial gurus have been sporadically predicting an economic collapse for almost 15 years, yet the economy has been able to chug along as if there was nothing to worry about. That end is coming closer and the Henny Pennys who predict the sky is falling have been given a little more credence with Alan Greenspan’s “concern” about aging baby boomers who will start reaching retirement age in 2008. The Fed chairman, who deals with monetary policy by changing the interest rate and printing more green paper, backed by nothing more than confidence in the U.S. economy itself, is concerned with the human tsunami that will hit when people start to claim their Social Insecurity benefits.

You see, during the four-year period from 1998 to 2001, politicians claimed a $557-billion surplus, yet the total national debt increased to $438 billion during that period—a difference of nearly $1 trillion, which would make the executives at Enron seem like mere neophytes in their ‘hide-the-debt’ scandal. The general government spent more than its general revenues every year and covered it up by siphoning-off all $2.9 trillion surpluses incoming to trust funds and replacing it with IOUs. This included spending every penny remaining in the Social Security trust fund on non-pension items.

What is the plan to deal with the largest debt in U.S. history? NOTHING. What plan do candidates have to trim down the ever-increasing deficit ($422 billion this year)? NOTHING. And what can retiring baby boomers expect when they start waiting at the mailbox for their retirement checks? You got it.

We do have a real war brewing, which will have far greater implications to the future stability of the U.S. and the world. It could become a war on another form of terror if current spending and fiscal irresponsibility is left unchecked. In the CNMI we are dealing with similar issues on a much smaller scale; however, they will have the same impact on the island’s inhabitants and its current and future retirees. What is the government’s plan to deal with revenue shortfalls, increased spending, bilking the retirement fund, and other issues? As far as we can ascertain—NOTHING!

(Rik is a business instructor at NMC and Janel is the owner of Positively Outrageous Results. They have consulted with over 400 businesses in 40 different industries. For better business results go to BizResults.biz to read previous articles.)