Debt Bomb Anybody?

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis at the Department of Commerce, U.S. national debt officially exceeded gross domestic product on December 20, 2011. Translation: We are spending more than we are producing. You might be wondering what that means. Let me give you a hint. It’s not good. This is bad news for the future of our republic. To make matters worse, there is a man in the White House who continues to run up deficits with utter disregard for the consequences of his actions; saddling future generations with mountains of debt while vastly increasing the welfare state to unfathomable levels. Whether you wish to believe he is managing our decline intentionally or that he is genuinely doubling down on Keynesian economics in the hopes of creating growth is irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that we are racing toward the cliff’s edge with no signs of a slow-down. Last year, the Wall Street Journal estimated that one out of seven Americans was receiving food stamps and we finished the year with roughly 45 million people on the government dole (nearly 15% of the population). From January 2009 to May of 2011, approximately 14 million people began collecting food stamps. To be fair, the numbers were up under Bush, but unlike our Dear Leader, Bush wasn’t promoting new enrollees via government policy. Obama has encouraged the increase. Congratulations, Mr. President. To paraphrase your now infamous 2008 campaign quote…”When you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.” I guess that would depend on who you talk to. The great Margaret Thatcher said it best and I would offer this as a rebuttal: “The problem with socialism is that at some point you run out of other people’s money.”