Inspired Post #5: Spending for a Balanced Check Book

The CSIS presentation highlighted the essential doom occurring in Europe, and the presenter seemed to be happy regardless of the gloom of her research. I recall reading this unfold over the summer as I sat in on lunch during my internship and seeing Greece go further into political gridlock with a begging hand out to the European banks. According to CitiGroup, a collapse of the euro would spark global depression and unemployment could possibly go over 20% as well. However, the currency will likely not dissolve so as long as Spain, Italy, or other large countries leave the Union.

This same tune is playing over here in the States where an essentially useless Congress bickers over how to balance the budget and cut the deficit. The lack of action though seems to come from political tactics rather than a major disagreement. I personally do not see any way this debt will be paid off at all in the short term, with that time period being defined as fifteen to twenty years. The government has made cuts that amount to a few trillion over the period of the decade. Unless if I am mistaken, that means there will probably be a good amount of future budgets still running a deficit, continuing to run up the overall national debt.

The bear in the room has been mentioned previously and that is the elderly. Retirement will cause an implosion of demand for Social Security and Medicare. The future of these social programs might have to dissolve. So, a growing debt coupled with more people the government owes checks to, and you create a financial mess that is entangling Capitol Hill, suffocating it.

As it stands now, the debt is at $15.1 trillion dollars according to the US Debt Clock. The push to spend more and more without creating a sustainable infrastructure has created an environment where money needs to also be spent to upgrade the foundation of our nation, but it is also at a time when saving and cuts must be made.

Interestingly, the exact same basic advice we are given as children to "always buy what you need, not what you want" or "a penny saved is a penny earned" are washed away by the tides of aging, especially when young adulthood is reached. Even the group of people entrusted to manage a country's cash flow have failed to not only not save, but build a debt that has made more front pages than the college football BCS national title game. Well..it came close at least.

People to me are closing using their hand to block their ears and singing catchy tunes to procrastinate attempting a solution to the problem, ignoring the chance of a depression. Having a balanced budget should be a priority, and any deficit one year must have a feasible repayment in a span of five to ten years. This does not contradict when I brought up investing in science as I think scientific investment pays itself off economically, and our government seems to be redundant in many ways. I remember researching for the policy brief and finding boards and agencies with very similar functions. Cutting the national IOUs, spending, and creating smart investments now is the best way forward.