Debt and the Budget Deal

The national debt is over $20 Trillion and rapidly rising. This works out to be more than $60,000 for every man, woman, and child in the U.S. and nearly $170,000 for every taxpayer in the country. Just the interest on the debt costs taxpayers over $250 Billion every year. The fact that the national debt continues to grow shouldn't come as a shock. The national debt has grown every single year since 1957, even in the so called “surplus” years at the end of the Clinton presidency. Since 1962, Congress has approved lifting the debt ceiling 74 times. It hasn't mattered if the Democrats or Republicans were in charge, the result has been the same.

Last week Congress did it again. Not only did they pass yet another short term spending bill, they added almost $400 Billion more to the debt and eliminated the debt ceiling. The government can now borrow an unlimited amount of money. Right now that is expected to add well over $1 Trillion dollars to the national debt just this year.

This is not sustainable. Congress hasn't passed a full budget and appropriations bill as required since 1997. Temporary spending measures are expolding the national debt. We are already at the point where future generations will be hard pressed to pay the bills we have run up. Children born today will not be able to afford the enormous tax burden we have placed on them. In 20-30 years the interest alone will eat up more than our entire current discretionary budget. There will be no money left for schools, roads, defense, healthcare, etc...

Representative Womack, along with all but one of his Republican colleagues from Arkansas, voted last week for this huge increase in debt. In fact, Mr. Womack has voted for every short term spending bill, spending increase, debt increase and effort to raise the debt limit since he was elected to the House seven years ago. In those 7 years, Womack has increased the debt by $5 Trillion. That's almost a trillion dollars a year. His reward for his fiscal irresponsibility was to be named chairman of the budget committee.

Our government is broken. We need to drain the swamp. We need some hope and change we can believe in. To do so we need to do something different. #VoteDifferent Don't waste your vote on another Republican or Democrat. You have a much better option. It's long past time to vote Libertarian.

Vote Michael Kalagias for Congress.