U.S. on the Brink of Default
By Phil Kent
Who would have thought just a few years ago that our once-great country would now face financial default and bankruptcy?
Government spending, dramatically rising during the last years of the Bush administration, is out of control under socialist President Barack Obama and a Democrat Congress. Estimates are that federal spending has climbed to 25 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Annual entitlement program spending accounts for 54 percent of the budget— and these fixed costs have soared by 6.4 percent since 2000.
Liberals who currently control Congress seemingly could not care less about the nation’s staggering and growing debt. In fact, it is incredible that the interest payments alone will climb to a record $800 billion a year by the end of this decade. At the same time, the rate of citizens’ savings is low and the per capita debt for Americans has never been higher.
The number of people employed by government, including people who work for government contractors, is on the rise under Obama— and this has little to do with the recession. Economist Gary Schilling estimates that 58 percent of the population is dependent on government checks, ranging from government employers to Social Security and welfare recipients. It is shocking that, according to the Tax Policy Center, 47 percent of all households– or 71 million people– will not owe any 2009 federal income tax. Some will even get additional government money because they qualify for refundable tax breaks!
This country will further slide downhill as the private enterprise system continues to be undermined, which causes unemployment to be at high and which translates into less tax revenues for the government to receive.
Our huge financial and economic crisis also dictates that every American should worry about preserving our constitutional freedoms. As President Ronald Reagan once warned, “Freedom is not something to be secured in any one moment of time. We must struggle to preserve it every day.”
If political apathy allows Obama and Congress to destroy our economic freedom through runaway spending and debt accumulation, thereby eroding the value of the dollar, then the loss of more freedom isn’t far behind.
Polls, however, currently indicate an aroused Middle America is turning against Obama’s tax-and-spend schemes as well as his weak homeland security policy. This is especially underscored by the Massachusetts election of an independent Republican over an ultraliberal in a seat long held by Democrat Sen. Ted Kennedy. (Significantly half of all union households voted for Republican Scott Brown in defiance of their Democrat bosses.)
Let’s urge family members and friends to keep up with political and economic news, get them registered to vote if there aren’t already, and become active in local or state Tea Party movements. It is also necessary to get involved in congressional primary races in order to defeat establishment candidates in favor of promising independent conservatives.
It is very conceivable that a growing political backlash fueled by Tea Party protests will awaken and energize more voters, leading to the ouster of an unprecedented number of big-spending liberals in all 50 states during the 2010 congressional elections.