Government spending is reckless

Written By:
Stephen Donnelly

Published:
Nov. 06 2009

The national debt as of November 6, 2009 is close to 12 trillion dollars, and rising every second. Trying to grasp the amount of that much debt is nearly impossible, but as much as Americans loathe this number, it is very much real. The cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is nearly a trillion dollars alone. Much of the other debt was borrowed for a couple dozen government departments, stimulus bills and social security.
This is a scary prospect that America may one day have to pay this debt, but the debt also accumulates interest which also adds up. A trend of borrowing is not new, America has been doing it for many years, but in recent years it has been irresponsible and reckless. It seems that the government borrows money without losing any sleep, but it is extremely difficult to cut spending when just about all government spending can be justified by someone.

Every year since 1969, congress has spent more money than it has made. Much of the borrowed money is from China. In the past China needed the U.S. to buy its goods as much as the U.S. needed China to borrow money which created some sort of balance. However, what will happen if China, who is working on this presently, creates its own domestic market for its goods and no longer needs Americans’ greed to fuel its economy? If China’s working citizens accumulate enough wealth, (even though this might require Chinese businessmen to actually pay them), then goods produced by the Chinese will be bought by the Chinese. This would allow China to drop the U.S like a bad habit and it would no longer have a reason to lend to America.

China knows that the U.S. cannot pay 12 trillion dollars in the foreseeable future, but lending money meant that Americans would fuel a huge Chinese economic boom, so it was allowed. China in the future may try to stranglehold America with debt, but if China does one day come asking for cash, how will the U.S. respond? The U.S. will likely be in no position to pay its debt back to China, which may in the worst of circumstances result in World War III. China will want the U.S. to give it money, and the U.S. may just say no.

“When they start talking about trillions of dollars I cannot imagine that amount of money and its going to have to come from somewhere,” social studies teacher Elizabeth Kelley said.
The sad thing is, is that if the debt has to be paid back by students’ generation, it will be very hard on every student who is expected to do worse economically than their parents, which has never happened before. Also, much of the student body although they could not vote, supported President Barack Obama, who has spent an unprecedented amount of borrowed money in the past months. Obama may think that he is giving Americans a helping hand, but in reality he is crippling them for a future of costly government dependence as well as having to pay back an obscene amount of debt.