As I write this article, our nation has $40 trillion in national debt. Many of you may acknowledge it and just move on with your day. You think, what difference does it really make. We have been increasing our debt for decades now, and nothing has really changed in my life. Is there anything magical about $40 trillion?
While that number is astonishing, it’s only part of the story. Roughly half of the states in the US currently face significant budget shortfalls or carry billion-dollar debt burdens. Louisiana continues to face projected budget shortfalls and has a very uncertain future financially.
The public university system in Louisiana faces a very difficult future with current budget deficits, rising athletic program costs, and uncertainty around future federal and state support.
One may ask, how did we get here. How did we get $40 trillion in debt nationally and in such uncertain financial conditions on the state and local levels (in some cases)?
On a national level, we can point to the social security program’s plan not keeping up with life expectancy, Medicare and Medicaid program cost demands, foreign war spending, foreign aid, and many other spending programs as the key reasons. All those examples are true to a point, but there is something deeper.
The rationale around those programs, if we go back to the original decisions, were likely to provide help or protection to people. Now, we can debate the effectiveness, but the initial desire was for the federal government to establish a program or to take action to initiate the impact.
It wasn’t always that way. The nation was founded by men and women embracing uncertainty, sacrificing, and doing hard things. They worked for everything they achieved. No one gave them anything. They fought for freedom, sacrificed for one another, and took care of their families.
Those people weren’t perfect by any means. Mistakes were made, and we live with the ramifications today of some of those grave mistakes.
However, over time, people became comfortable with the achievements and accomplishments. Those in positions of oversight started seeking (approval) rather than serving. Political party platforms turned more to popularity driven programs than advancing the nation’s convictions.
Comfort eventually turned into complacency. Access to credit was easy. Borrowing enabled those in authority to make promises and enact programs that they could not pay for. It was easy. It was popular. We became dependent on it.
In many cases, the continued spending is in response to an attempt to provide, protect, or prevent, but there remains a problem.
When we fund programs or make decisions that we cannot pay for, there will be a consequence. It may not be immediate, but there will be a day when the deficit is too large, or the debt is due. There is always that day.
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