The following was written by Brad Johnson and originally appeared in the Washington Examiner.
One of my favorite episodes of “The Office,” titled “Surplus,” is one in which the paper company’s staff becomes divided into two separate, warring factions over a spending decision. One side wants to purchase new chairs. The other wants a new copier. And all of them scream at the boss to make a decision.
This scene is eerily reminiscent of the way in which government hands out funding to special interests who, in turn, grow dependent on the cash flow. And government loves to take advantage of this by raising their level of financing into certain programs. Rather than wean themselves off the subsidies, special interest groups wax poetic about how bad life will become should their government funding be stifled. A Daily Beast article exclaimed that proposed budget cuts in 2017 would kill hundreds of thousands of people. This “sky is falling” tendency makes it very difficult for politicians in need of votes to cut spending at any level of government. And there is certainly cause for panic. But the panic should stem from these special interest strangleholds that cause ceaseless spending increases. And everyone should be worried — especially young Americans.
Young people must not allow ourselves to be swayed by the media-fostered panic the Left plunges themselves into at the mere idea of cutting spending. Spending cuts are sometimes necessary, particularly in a country with $21 trillion in debt. And ours is the demographic with the most cause for concern over ever-increasing spending levels. After all, we will be the ones footing the bill should the debt become too large to ignore. It’s imperative that individuals live within their means.
Millennials, on average, seem to do this pretty well in their day-to-day lives, yet have a baffling trend to throw their support to the government’s own ridiculous spending. The higher spending climbs, the closer to defaulting our nation becomes. And the consequences of defaulting would be financially traumatic for everyone — including young business owners. The cost of doing business would skyrocket and the value of the dollar would plummet. Interest rates across the globe would drastically increase, and a harsh recession could very well follow.
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Johnson is right. Irresponsible government spending is one of the biggest threats to this generation of young people, and they owe it to themselves and their children and grandchildren to fight it at every turn. That's what the Convention of States Project is all about. Sign your name to the petition below to join millions of other Americans in the movement to force the feds to be fiscally responsible and get our nation back on track.
