© 2016 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. “As
quickly as you start spending federal money in large amounts it looks like free
money.” Dwight Eisenhower
He was trying to make a different
point but I wouldn’t call the people who won elections my leaders. Leaders are
like the King and Queen. Leaders rule over me. Well, perhaps Congress is full
of leaders and lacks representatives of the people.
Many of the representatives we send
to Congress act like they are royalty. They get rich on the public dole. While
making less than $200,000 a year from their congressional salary their wealth
increases by millions each year. The media turns a blind eye to this.
Also, there is the long-term effect
of our representatives. They have put every man, woman and child in our country
very much in debt without our permission. Every year for decades they spent more
money than our country had from tax revenue.
Know this: I did not empower my
representatives to place me in debt. They won’t admit it either that our
country is broke because our representatives have consistently for decades
spent more money than they received from tax revenue.
In fact, our representatives have
and are spending more money than taxes can ever bring in. Our listed debt is near
twenty trillion dollars and our unfunded debt is near a hundred trillion
dollars. That means we could take every dollar in our economy for five years and
apply it to our debt but we would still be hopelessly in debt.
This has been done in less than
sixty years. During the Eisenhower presidency there were several years of
budget surpluses. Then starting in the 1960s our representatives spent and
spent and spent making government bigger and bigger and bigger. Each new class
of representatives seemed to outdo the last in making government bigger and
more intrusive.
Worldwide we see this in many
countries. Their politicians over decades have consistently spent more money
than tax revenue to the point these countries are completely broke but will not
admit it. At first they borrowed and borrowed and borrowed to keep their power
going.
When they couldn’t borrow any more
money they printed money. Now they are in default as will be almost all nations
who spend more than they take in. They still deny their debt and try to make it
someone else’s problem. Ultimately, that will not work.
In New Mexico it is a similar story.
States cannot spend more money than they take in from taxes so our
representatives starting with Governor Bill Richardson stopped only spending
what they had and started borrowing money so they could spend even more money.
Previously under Governor Gary
Johnson New Mexico only spent what it had. The state was one of only several states
who did not have debt. Richardson changed that and floated bonds for spending
which are debt instruments. Now a large percentage of our spending is paying
for the debt they borrowed. It only gets worse.
Everything in Santa Fe is about
bonding capacity and using more and more debt instruments. The debt of these
practices will bankrupt the state at some point. But the media didn’t take
Economics 101 so all they see is more spending, not realizing that the spending
is achieved with debt which must be repaid.
There is an old saying, “Laugh when
you borrow and you will cry when you repay.” Yep, we are about to have a
sob-session like no others. Look at countries that have spent and spent and
spent. They are forced to tighten their belts and the citizens often are
rioting because they feel entitled to money the country doesn’t have.
The very least we can do with the
debt that is being foisted upon the citizens of New Mexico is to admit that it
is debt and not good in the long-term. Our representatives are money-holics who
live to spend. First they must admit their addiction to debt if we are to cure
this problem.
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