Bert Dirschell, Centertown
Dear Editor,
Are the politicians in D.C. purposely trying to destroy our nation by driving us into insolvency? The national debt just topped $31 trillion, 1.29 times the projected 2022 GDP. According to the federal budget historical tables, which only go back to 1940, this is the highest level on record.
FY2021 federal spending was 2.3 times what it was in 2008, when we had 190,000 troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. For 2022, inflation adjusted per household federal spending is estimated to be 3.3 times greater than it was in 1950 during the Korean War, and 2.1 times greater than it was in 1970 during the Vietnam War. Who granted the federal government the additional authority to undertake tasks that require these massive spending increases?
National defense spending, one of the few constitutionally authorized federal powers, is not the culprit. National defense spending was 15.4 percent of 2019, pre-COVID, spending and 11.1 percent of 2020 and 2021 spending. Even the 15.4 percent was a near record low percentage.
Total federal, state and local government spending for FY2021 was more than $10 trillion, $77,000 per household. With government costing us $6,400 per month per household, it seems like they should have enough to furnish us all with free food, housing, etc. Perhaps Will Rogers had it right when he said, "It's a good thing we don't get all the government we pay for."
Government paying people to stay home and not work not only increases the massive debt burden on the shoulders of our children, it also is causing the highest inflation in 40 years. Fewer people are working (making things) but they have free (vote buying) hand out money to spend and drive up the prices of goods still available.
The media gasps every time the Federal Reserve mentions raising interest rates. The current fed funds rate is 2.50 percent, up from only 0.25 percent a year ago. Over the past 15 years, the fed rate has averaged 4.63 percent, over the past 50 years it has averaged 5.43 percent. Interest rates have been, and remain at historic lows. Is the government's plan is to entice everyone, not just students, to borrow to the point of insolvency.