With the new $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill passed, we hope Congress and the White House will now show some concern about something that will hang around longer than this pandemic — the national debt.
The coronavirus has been difficult on many people, particularly those who make their living in the service industry or rely on crowds for their retail or restaurant success. This new bill should plug some financial holes for them.
But with our national debt nearing $30 trillion — it was just under $28 trillion at this writing — attention needs to be paid as to how to get it back under control. With this flood of money from the feds, inflation becomes a concern. That market killer has been mostly under control for the better part of two decades, though costs have definitely risen for the average family in the areas of housing and healthcare (insurance, in particular).
Neither party can claim to have the high ground on the national debt. Both have added to it to further their own aims, whether it be boosting unemployment benefits or offering tax cuts. But now it is time for partisans to come together and get control of this beast.
We remember being concerned when President Ronald Reagan increased the national debt in the early 1980s from $1 trillion to $3 trillion to further his “peace through strength” initiatives. Those numbers now seem quaint by comparison. The Peter G. Ferguson Foundation, which keeps an eye on the national debt, states that responding to disasters has fueled debt crises in the recent past, whereas historically we used debt only to finance war efforts or spur spending during the Great Depression.
Today, our deficits are caused mainly by predictable structural factors: our aging baby-boom generation, rising healthcare costs, and a tax system that does not bring in enough money to pay for what the government has promised its citizens.
All of our leaders need to start making frugality a priority. Perhaps the feds could borrow from Texas’s “pay-as-you-go” budget model. Texas isn’t perfect, but neither is it in debt up to its eyeballs.
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