Young America - We have a problem
Across this country, young adults are looking
to the 2008 presidential candidates for a change of policy and for fiscal responsibility.
We will no longer support the culture of deficit spending and pork barrel legislation.
The youth of America will have to bear that burden, crippling our future and America’s
economic might.
Americans always hear about the political apathy of our nation’s youth. And yet,
Concerned Youth of America, a nonpartisan, grassroots organization devoted to educating
the American populace on the dangers of our rising national debt, consists of our
nation’s maturing generation. The national debt angers us. We fear that the next
President of the United States will continue the attitude of reckless spending.
We have a plea for the candidates: please do not neglect the livelihood of future
generations, as has been done for years.
Why do kids worry
about arcane federal budget policy? Because the evidence shows that this crisis
will hurt our generation more than any other, even though we did nothing to make
it. U.S. Comptroller General David Walker recently said, “I would argue that the
most serious threat to the United States is not someone hiding in a cave in Afghanistan
or Pakistan but our own fiscal irresponsibility.” Our fiscal irresponsibility?
The blame for fiscal irresponsibility falls on the generation in power. So that
generation must rectify this looming crisis.
Over two-and-a-half centuries after colonists fought for their
rights against an oppressive British Empire, American youth are facing the scourge
of “taxation without representation” once more. Even though we did not enact the
current spending polices, we will have to pay for them through our taxes. Through
the burgeoning federal debt, a malignant tumor has grown as a result of irresponsible
fiscal policy at the highest levels of our government. Debts accumulated to pay
for bloated and inefficient entitlement programs and the War in Iraq will have
to be paid for not by the current leadership, but by us, the youth of America.
The irresponsible spending policies of today will weaken the American economy if
not stopped. According to the Concord Coalition, a nationwide, non-partisan, grassroots
organization advocating fiscal responsibility, the total national debt was $8.408
trillion as of 2006, which was equal to 68.4% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product.
This translates into a cost of $28,026 per American, including children and the
elderly. In January 2006, the Congressional Budget Office projected that, with
current fiscal policy, the national debt will exceed $10 trillion by early 2009,
and approach $13 trillion by 2016.
As today’s leaders, businessmen, parents, and
grandparents age and retire, their children and grandchildren will have to bear
the burden of a bloated debt. Those children will face high taxation to service
exploding interest payments. By allowing this disastrous spending to continue,
they condemn their children to live without American economic strength. They condemn
their children to live under a government unable to care for its citizens. Paying
the interest on the debt alone will leave our nation impotent, helpless to fund
worthwhile programs, and captive to our lenders.
The severity of this issue is
not lost on our nation’s youth. It should not be lost on anyone. We want to know
from the candidates: What will you do as president of the United States to stop
this culture of fiscal irresponsibility? Spend less? Raise taxes? Advocate for
fiscal responsibility? Only allow the government to spend money it has (a basic
financial principle expected from all responsible adults)? Will you stand up against
earmarks and pork barrel legislation, ending the abuse? Will you protect the future
of your children? Will you protect the future of America’s children? Will you free
us from crushing national debt?
This is not an issue of large government or small
government, conservatism or liberalism, Democrat or Republican. This is an issue
of America’s future. Our position is simple: the generation with power, especially
the next president, must maintain fiscal responsibility at all times. The next
president must spend only what the government collects in revenues, while only
deficit spending during recessions and emergencies. Not only is this a fair position.
For America’s youth, it is a necessary one.
Concerned Youth of America