Because the path our government entities (all of them) has put us on in the recent years goes well beyond fiscal mismanagement and heads us down the road of skyhigh inflation and taxation, even with which we may not avoid national bankruptcy. Both political parties have their share of blame for this, as do we for our tolerance up to now.
We all probably know a family that bought too much house and every expensive toy, maxed out on credit cards, took out a second mortgage to pay off the cards, maxed out their cards again and now are headed for bankruptcy. Our government is doing no better.
Consider the graph of the projected deficits in the header above; these have been declared as unsustainable by nearly every major fiscal analyst in the private sector. And this preceded the even worse actual facts of recent days:
- Tax revenues for April were down 34% from the previous year (the lost jobs plus the market crash)
- The U.S. is in danger of losing the AAA rating for bonds; if that happens, it will cause of cascade of substantially higher costs of the deficit
- The Chinese and other major players are showing extreme reluctance to purchase more of our debt; the U.S. treasury has had to raise the rate at which they paid for bonds, adding to the costs. They are rightfully concerned that we will simply print money, causing massive inflation.
- Some estimates of the impact of the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is that the current tax rate will have to double indefinitely just to sustain the current obligations. This before the ‘health care reform’ being planned in Washington (and when has any ‘reform’ out of Washington cost less?)
The time to act now, because if this continues, our children will inherent a generation of crushing debt, hyperinflation and capitalism fleeing the U.S. for more friendly environs. Change must begin in2010 and 2012; there is no time left.