Individual Accountability and the National Debt

Individual Accountability and the National Debt

Is it seventeen or is it eighteen trillion dollars of national debt, which we will have following the next debt ceiling escalation? It is hard to keep track. The so-called “unfunded obligations,” which are measured in hundreds of trillions of dollars when state and municipal profligacy is factored in, are not accidental calamities but underhanded, back-door scrounging of national vitality. It’s useless to search for smoking guns; we are all to blame to some degree. It is the system that has failed; it has moved our population from abundance to complacency and dependence. Unions and associations concentrate political power and compel legislators to give evermore entitlements to their members. Ben Franklin warned that “when the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.” Citizens cry for more benefits for themselves while lamenting the crushing national debt. Political leaders struggle to balance patriotism against electoral reality.

People will not voluntarily give back excessive benefits, however under served, and pending congressional compromise over the method of fiscal suicide is no consolation. The “sine qua non” element is constitutional amendments. Universal respect for our constitution has been the essence of our national success, and it is the key to our future survival. Two specific constitutional amendments, “sanity amendments,” are desperately needed: a balanced budget amendment and a national debt repayment amendment. A balanced budget amendment would coerce partisans into sharing the dreadful but unavoidable national pain. Our country’s predicament is comparable to a recent movie called “127 Hours,” where a hiker gets one arm trapped by a fallen rock and is ultimately forced to cut off his own arm to survive.

Every citizen expects to get what they paid for, and rightfully so. It is a common misconception of retired Americans, however, that the Social Security and Medicare benefits that they now enjoy correspond to their previous contributions. Let’s begin by reporting a fair and honest accounting of every citizen’s contribution to the Social Security and Medicare entitlement programs. Let every person know what they put in, what a fair interest in that money has produced for them, and the total amount that in justice belongs to them. Let’s clearly pinpoint the end of everyone’s rightful compensation and the beginning of social charity. No person in need should be abandoned, but it begs the question, is anyone opposed to means-testing of deficit-financed social charity? We all have to accept that not all seniors are alike; some can pay their own way, while many more can partly contribute to their own retirement and medical costs.

A debt repayment amendment is never mentioned, and this is a major part of the problem. It is not enough to balance the budget over a number of years; the devastating debt we already have will zap our economy. A constitutional amendment will accomplish two very important things: it will create a debt repayment regime, and it will make it difficult for future legislatures to raise the national debt ceiling. A repayment regime would have to be designed as a generational, 75-100-year amortization plan. It would also require its own dedicated, tax-based revenue stream. Future augmentation of the national debt would not result from a painless stroke of the pen but with a corresponding increase in very public, mandatory taxes.

A final consideration for fiscal responsibility is the need to prepare for massive national spending on domestic issues like failing schools, illegal immigration, overcrowded prisons, energy dependence, crumbling infrastructure …, as well as possible expenditures for international issues like a pending space race with China, growing military and humanitarian involvement in developing Arab revolutions, possible escalation of our war on terror … As a society, we can and have practice “surrender management,” it is the inevitable result of a refusal to sacrifice. Immunity from sacrifice is not an American entitlement.

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