Maybe our debt isn't that big of an issue?....What are your thoughts?

It may seem counter-intuitive to say that 15 TRILLION in public debt is "no big deal", but the causes of it are an interesting slice of politics, and the solution (to reducing the debt as a percentage of GDP) is relatively simple.

You see back about a decade ago, we elected one of the good old boys from Texas and the folks that crafted his public image and got him elected were the ones who benefited from his administration and the heavily Republican congress that supported his policies. They also had a pretty effective publicity arm that seemed to perform "arm twisting" on public opinion while making it appear to be mere back slapping, "join the movement" that was literally a matter of making it illegal not to "step back in line" with the direction the government had chosen. What direction was that?

The main direction of the government was to create ambitious opportunities for their political "sponsors", the oil & gas industries along with the rest of the "military industrial complex" that President Eisenhower warned us about back in the 1950's. It has widely been reported that members of the administration were talking about setting Iraq (and obstreperous Iraqi leader Hussein) straight long before the September tragedy of 2001. So we (they?) jumped on the chance to start a couple of wars that meant we had to use the resources of the military in terms of ammunition and other expendables. (The whole concept of "acceptable losses" of combatants from our side seems to me to sum up the core of "military thinking".) Never mind that a couple hundred special forces elite troops toppled the Taliban government of Afghanistan in a matter of weeks, we poured billions after billions into the Iraq war, while we put Afghanistan on hold for a few years, then picked up and moved east from Baghdad to resume the fight for Kabul. All of this largess pouring into expense the government was incurring without the slightest intention of including it in any budget discussions, even though it was continuously given tacit approval by the majority Republican Congress in both houses, by quietly voting to raise the debt ceiling. It was money already spent, and raising the debt ceiling was just a rubber stamp saying, "yes, we bought it, pay the invoice now, please" to the Treasury Department. As President Obama pointed out this was done 18 times under President Ronald Reagan and 7 more times under President George W. Bush. Do I need to point a finger at the other primary beneficiaries?

... continued ...

... Continuing ...
The largest user of petroleum products in the world is the US military. And has been for many years. One hardly needs to mention that Iraq was a small, but not insignificant source of oil, while our largess poured into Kabul arming mujahideen fighters to expel the Soviet occupation forces (a great publicity coup) but then abandoned those we had armed to fend for themselves in the war torn ruins of their country. All of this drew relatively little attention because the deficit spending on military was patriotic, and opposition nearly criminalized by the (unconstitutional) Patriot Act. But with all that domestic spending by the Republican administration the economy continued to grow and prosper (most of the time) so the debt catching up to the GDP went relatively un-noticed, or at least under-exploited by the Democrat opposition.

Is the debt a bit deal? No, GDP and structurally inherent inflation will take care of that as long as we don't continue to flagrantly overspend the federal budget AFTER we inject similar stimulants to those provided by the Bush government. A trillion dollars for the Iraq war is the low estimate of costs. A trillion of stimulus that isn't all Republican inspired "compromise" tax cuts/spending, but solid infrastructure investments (remember Ike and the Interstate Highway construction boom?) and export development, hopefully tied to the expansion of green technologies. The debt will take care of itself as the economy recovers, assuming we don't elect another free spending set of Republicans who talk about small government but spend big government bucks on their friends and family plans.

Sincerely
Stafford "Doc" Williamson
http://lifestyle.psyrk.us

I'm glad we don't need to worry about paying the interest on the debt.