No End In Sight

By: Patrick Murphy

The United States is in a financial hole, a hole that will take a very long time to climb out of. With it’s constant spending, the government is doing very little to decrease one of the largest debts that the country has seen since its inception. With the billions and billions of dollars heaping up, America is clueless. The politicians do nothing to stop the increase, and the citizens consume more than they need without a second thought. The government’s poor job of handling the situation allows the debt to build up without restriction.

As of November, the National Debt stands at $64.3 billion, which is a decline from the record high of $69 billion. This drop shows some signs of improvement, but even with this decrease, the debt is still increasing at a rate of $781.6 billion a year. This “improvement” is only temporary.

Even more recently, the value of the dollar was surpassed by the Euro, which hit $1.30 as of November twenty fifth. This raises even more concern. Not only does this incredible debt cripple the American economy, but it also allows the economies of other rival nations to expand and become far more stable than our own. This may be the death knell of the economic power of the U.S., unless the government can do something about it. The Bush Administration is downplaying the crisis that is on hand, and covering up the effect that this financial abyss will have on the country as a whole. The government that should be handling this crisis does nothing but keep citizens ignorant of what is happening around them.

The war in Iraq is not helping matters in the least. Every day, the nation’s budget spends billions on a war that has met little success over the past three years. This wasted money puts a solution further and further out of reach. The Bush Administration needs to stop playing peacemaker and focus on the needs of their own country instead of those halfway around the world. By ending the unjust involvement of America in Iraq and using that money to decrease the public debt, there can be an even bigger improvement that the miniscule one that the government is playing off as something of great importance. The corporations will have to take a backseat on Bush’s priorities list and decrease the import of foreign goods while increasing the exports of American-made goods. This way, the debt will be in check and a light can be seen at the end of this long, long tunnel.