The National Budget and Debt

In every day life, the average citizen does not recognize the importance of the national budget. Seemingly, government spending does not affect the daily lives of citizens. However, upon considering where you work or go to school, how you get there, how you would handle medical emergencies, and various other aspects of importance to each individual, it becomes clear that national spending should be an issue of extreme importance to every United States citizen.

Most people would probably be unable to acknowledge that the national debt currently reaches $9 trillion. The number is mind boggling for many people; most citizens will never encounter an amount that massive in their entire lives. But the national deficit is something that lies on the shoulders of each person in the United States whether they recognize it or not. The budget is spent on services for the people in some way or another and therefore must be paid by citizens’ tax dollars.

As part of the accepted social contract that provides the government with authority over the people, the people expect services in return for their taxes and compliance with laws. Programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid have grown out of this expectation. However, as the baby boom generation retires, the burden put onto the national budget to continue these programs for the swelling number of benefactors will become insupportable. The debt already stands at $9 trillion, and will only increase as the government becomes responsible for the pensions and health care of more and more of its citizens. The current debt compounded by the need for increased spending will result in more borrowing and therefore more interest on loans, mostly from countries like China.

This is a frightening prospect for our national economy. The United States, which after World War II was the only viable lender nation in the world, is fast becoming dangerously beholden to a communist nation, a fact that would have been unacceptable to most Americans less than twenty years ago. Even with China’s moves towards free market enterprise, being indebted to any nation is a dangerous position to be in for the United States. With increased concerns within China concerning energy, population swell, and possible rebellions from marginalized sects, China could at any point demand payment on loans that would be impossible for the United States to meet.

The national debt presents a very serious dilemma for the next generation. The economy is ailing and the job market is waning. With increased spending associated with the baby boom generation, the government will most likely find itself unable to provide services to our generation. Besides being extremely unfair, this will leave millions of Americans without retirement savings or access to healthcare. If the economy does not surge, next-generation Americans will not have stable, well paying jobs to be able to pay taxes to support the baby-boomers or themselves when the time comes. Overall, the situation appears grim if immediate action to counteract the deficit is not taken.