Bert Dirschell,
Centertown
Dear Editor,
When President Biden took office Jan. 20, 2021, the national debt was $27,752 billion ($216,000 per U.S. household). The national debt has now blown through $33,700 billion ($248,000 per U.S. household) and it is growing at an astronomical rate.
The Congressional Budget Office projects the annual deficit will never again be less than $1.5 trillion. For FY2023, the federal government spent $6.134 trillion, State and local governments spent another $3.33 trillion. Government had to spend at a rate of $10,800 million every hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week to spend that much. Do we really need that much government?
Only 16.2 percent of FY2023 spending went for military defense, civil defense, veterans, foreign military aid, foreign economic aid, military research and development, police and fire services, and prisons.
FY2023 taxes collected were virtually equal to FY2019 spending, but DC politicians found a way to spend $1.7 trillion (38 percent) more in 2023 than they did in 2019. DC politicians will never be satisfied until they control every dollar in the nation.
For FY2020, which ended Sept. 30, 2020, interest on the national debt cost us $345 billion ($2,700/household). For FY2023, the cost of interest on the debt was $661 billion ($5,000/household). By FY2028, the annual cost of interest is projected to be $960 billion ($7,000/household). Is there anyone who can't understand that continued massive annual deficits is not sustainable? These deficits are a far greater threat to our youth than global warming.
In January 2021, the nationwide average price per gallon for conventional gasoline was $2.24, it was $2.68 for diesel. In October, the nationwide average price for a gallon of conventional regular gas was $3.44/gallon; it was $4.51 for a gallon of low sulfur diesel.
In January 2021, the Urban Consumer Price Index (CPI-U), which measures the cost of a specific "basket" of retail goods, was 262.6, for October 2023 it was 307.7. Unless your household income increased by more than 17.1 percent since President Biden took office, you have lost buying power.
Are you better off than you were on Jan. 20, 2021?