Although everyone is focused on the presidential election results right now, it’s also important to remember that the national debt is currently over $27 trillion.
If certain promised policies and programs are enacted by the incoming administration, that amount could grow exponentially over the next four years. Joe Biden’s proposed climate change plan alone for example comes with a price tag of $2 trillion.
$27,000,000,000,000 is certainly a big number, but just how big?
Look at it this way: if you had a stack of $1 bills beside you and put one on the table in front of you every second of every minute of every day, it would take you about eleven and a half days to get to $1 million at the rate of $1 per second.
That’s a long time, but eleven and a half days is certainly within the bounds of comprehension.
However, if you kept going, it would take you about 32 years to get to $1 billion and almost 32,000 years to reach $1 trillion.
Let’s look at that current national debt number again: $27 trillion and growing. The magnitude of the problem begins to come into focus.
The national debt works out to about $82,000 for every citizen in the country and about $211,000 for every household.
It’s difficult to say exactly how much you and/or your household owes at a specific point in time, because the national debt never stops growing.
It will rise by about $2 million in the time it takes to read this blog post, and it will continue unabated every second of every minute of every day until the borrowing and spending stops.
Regardless of how responsible you are with your own finances, you are nevertheless deeply in debt because of a decades-long spending spree by politicians from both parties.
Nothing is more infuriating than having to pay off a debt incurred by someone else. It’s like co-signing on a car loan, but on a national scale. When the other party falls into bankruptcy, the citizens and taxpayers are left holding the bag.
So, how did this happen and what can be done about it?
Unfortunately, it’s a simple fact that the U.S. tax system does not generate enough revenue to cover the spending commitments enacted by Congress.
The imbalance between revenues and spending leads to higher and higher annual deficits, and the result is an ever increasing national debt.
Every president and every member of Congress knows this. But like irresponsible college kids running up the balance on daddy’s credit card, they prefer to simply ignore it.
How much more can the government borrow and spend on your behalf?
A Convention of States can answer that question: the amount you should allow the government to borrow and spend on your behalf is $0.
The government needs to start exercising some epic fiscal responsibility, rein in lavish spending, and get a handle on the almost inconceivable amount it already owes.
When politicians start talking about student loan bailouts, the Green New Deal, guaranteed minimum incomes, government-funded health care for everyone, or government-funded college, remind them that there is no such thing as “free” or “government-funded.”
The government’s money comes from you, the taxpayer. It’s your money they’re spending and your debt they’re running up to the tune of millions of dollars every day.
It’s been going on for decades, but now you can force them to stop with Convention of States.
