OPINION:
President James Madison said, “Each generation should be made to bear the burden of its own wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense of other generations.”
Since Barack Obama has become president, he and Congress have become responsible for one-third of the current national debt. Record spending levels for entitlements, war and bailouts to banks, businesses and states have paved the way for future unfunded liabilities that will reach $100 trillion.
President Obama and the Democrats, who hold to the Keynesian theory of economics, spout the class-warfare argument that we need to tax corporate-jet owners, raise taxes on millionaires and billionaires and preserve all the sacred cows of government. The clueless leadership in the Republican Party, meanwhile, demands spending cuts. If both sides get their way to close loopholes and cut spending, there still will not be enough money saved to reduce the national debt, the greatest threat to our national security.
By raising the debt ceiling, we essentially will be borrowing on the earnings of future generations, on our children and grandchildren who have not joined the work force or even been born yet.
Madison warned us of the need for each generation to pay for its own wars. If he could have envisioned the burden we have heaped upon the backs of future generations, he would have been appalled at the corrupt and morally decrepit actions of our elected leaders at all levels of government. I know I am.
MUIR BODA
Vice chairman, Maryland Libertarian Party
Salisbury, Md.
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