national debt

Corruption, incompetence, and wasteful spending hinder our ability to remain a world leader

Ukraine and Israel need military aid. They need United States taxpayers’ money.

But citizens here need help too.

We have an open border and unprecedented, illegal immigration. It takes money to initially take care of all of these people—money that could be used to assist legal, tax-paying citizens or at least used to pay down our national debt. And some of these illegal crossers are not migrants. They’re individuals who desire to harm us. Our national security has been gutted under the Biden Administration.

We have high inflation and high interest rates. The gold standard of achieving the American dream through home ownership is slipping away.

We have soft on crime policies. Many do not feel safe in their own neighborhoods.

Citizens want and deserve benefits derived from their taxpayer dollars.

Outspoken foreign policy hawks try to convince us that we can do both—take care of the homeland and help allies abroad.

But it’s tougher than it used to be. Corruption, incompetence, and wasteful spending within the federal government—from both elected leaders and unelected bureaucrats—is so pervasive that it hinders our ability to remain a world leader.

We’re starting the year with a national debt of $34 trillion.

Somehow, we’ve mindlessly accepted being trillions of dollars in debt. Perhaps the average citizen believes that if we have that much debt, it must mean that we have a lot of very important needs.

The truth is that we have a lot of government blunders.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, recently released the annual Festivus Report. It details $900 billion in wasteful government spending.

Interest, alone, on our debt was $659 billion. We’re spending more than a half a trillion dollars a year on debt that should not even be there. Every person and every business must balance a budget to survive. The one place where sound financial prudence doesn’t happen is with the federal government.

The National Institutes of Health (taxpayer-funded agency) signed a $33.2 million contract with a business to house, feed, and care for 3,000 monkeys before they’re shipped to various research labs around the country. That’s $11,000 per monkey. Contrast that with what a foster parent receives in subsidies in order to provide a home for a child who—for many different reasons—cannot remain with his or her birth family. Some foster families receive as little as $5,000 annually. We spend more to take care of monkeys than caring for children.

The United States Agency for International Development (taxpayer-funded agency) shelled out $6 million to the country of Egypt in order to boost tourism there. Stupefying.  

A full $38 million in COVID payments went to dead people. Apparently it’s perfectly acceptable to admit this data failure, but mainstream media and party liberals are outraged when any effort is made to ensure that vote counts are accurate and elections are fair.

The Department of Defense (taxpayer-funded agency) blew $169 million by letting military equipment—such as engine, transmission, and tank parts—sit outside in the elements until they were ruined. This is no big surprise when we left $7 billion of exceptional military equipment with our enemy when we hastily withdrew from Afghanistan.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (taxpayer-funded agency) spent $477,000 on giving female hormones to male monkeys. There is no limit to the government’s obsession with transgenderism.

And the Biden Administration doled out $236 billion in improper payments—money sent to the wrong person, in the wrong amount, or for the wrong reason. There are only 330 million living in this country. That means every man, woman and child had to come up with $700 just to take care of government nothingness.

There’s more on the Festivus Report. Unfortunately, there’s more.

And it’s this incompetent, wasteful, corrupt activity that will hinder our ability to help our international friends when they’re in need.

We used to be able to keep the homeland burning brightly while firmly situated as a world leader.

Ah. Those were the good old days.

We can no longer do both.

Make term limits kick in when national debt climbs

Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Lincoln was speaking, in 1858, about those supporting or opposing slavery—the ultimate division in our land.

Today, our country is again divided. Cable news talking heads and politicians say it is Republicans versus Democrats, Conservatives versus Liberals, or as Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has stated, normal versus crazy.

But those words mean less to the average American. Our country is built on families. It seems every extended family has Republicans, Democrats, Conservatives, Liberals, normal and even crazy people. Political identity may create some tension, but most still stick together as families.

The real division is—just as it was in 1858—an issue of justice. The house divided today is the average citizen’s expectation of fairness versus the powerful and elite’s flagrant disregard for fairness.     

Corruption is growing. It can be found within wasteful, trillion-dollar bills, bloated government bureaucracies, and “too big to fail” corporations bailed out by taxpayers.

There’s a lot of work to be done to reinstate fairness, and our elected representatives aren’t helping matters.

Think of the national debt as a corruption barometer. According to usdebtclock.org, the national debt is at 31 trillion. It’s a factual indicator of either complete incompetence or a clear abuse of power by the Beltway elites. What’s best for the country and its citizens takes a back seat to what is best for the politician and holding on to a powerful seat in Congress.  

Term limits legislation could take care of this problem, but it takes legislators to pass it. That won’t happen. And the argument that citizens can institute term limits through voting doesn’t always work that simply. Incumbents have name recognition and access to financial support that makes it difficult for them to be unseated.

But there may be another way—tie term limits to the national debt.

Start with a generous term limit of 18 years—three terms for a senator and nine for a representative. Then tie national debt performance to it after that. If debt is less than it was when the politician originally took office, an additional term will be allowed. And continued to be allowed as long as the debt continues to fall.  

Call it “qualifying term limits.” Make politicians qualify for the right to run for additional terms beyond 18 years.   

It would be an embarrassment for any candidate to refuse the idea of qualifying term limits. Wanting to hang on to a job after 18 years in which the national debt only increased—is just plain whining.  

Something more interesting could happen, though. Votes may no longer fall strictly along party lines. If qualifying term limits were in place, second thoughts might be given to recklessly spending trillions.  

Never underestimate a politician’s need for self-preservation.

When our national debt returns to zero, qualifying term limits would no longer apply. Politicians could stay for as many terms as they can get re-elected. It’s called a bonus for doing a good job.

Some will say that emergencies require policies that increase the national debt. But Americans know that most emergencies are greatly exaggerated by lawmakers.

It wouldn’t even take legislation to make qualifying term limits happen. Every member of Congress has an official website. Challengers running for office have websites, as well. During the next campaign season, pressure each candidate to make a public statement of support or opposition to qualifying term limits and to permanently post it on the website. It will make a difference to voters who expect fairness.  

Lincoln went on to state, “I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.”

This nation cannot endure with the average citizen seeking fairness and a land it is proud to pass on to the next generation while the powerful and elite seek personal gain at the destruction of it.

Let our beloved house stand for fairness.