National Debt Concerns

To the Editor:

The political news of years past talked about the Nation’s Debt being too high and today’s news is continuing the same story. When it was in the low teens just a few years ago, it was considered a crisis. Our political system needs to control spending and be responsible just as its citizens. We wake up today to see our debt in the 36 trillion range and climbing.

Obviously, the people of America have lost their sense of the size of our debt. The Bible cautions us in Proverbs 22:7, “The borrower (debtor) is a servant (slave) to the lender”. We’re seeing that played out politically before our very eyes today. Let’s play some games with the numbers: 1 million seconds equals about 11.57 days at 24 hours a day 1 trillion seconds equals 31,709 years 36 trillion seconds equals 1,141,552.5 years I know it’s a political stretch, but let’s translate seconds into dollars with the idea of possibly paying off this debt: $1 per second would take the US over 1,141,552 years to pay it off, that is if we could freeze the interest rate at zero. Obviously, that’s unrealistic, so let’s up the payback: $1,000 per second of every day with no accumulating interest would have the US all paid off in just over 1,141 years. Considering the age of our nation nearing 250 years, this may again be unreasonable and unrealistic. Let’s see what happens when we up the payment per second: $1,000,000 per second with the same terms (no interest, no additions) would have the debt settled in just a little over a year...1.14 of a year or about 13 months. Yes, we are being unreasonable, but the size of the numbers is overwhelming.

No need to increase the amount per second any further. I think we all get the point. Then people wonder why Elon Musk and Trump say we have a “crisis”… really? But what bothers me more is the horrible name calling by the “Established Swamp,” including Congress and the Government Bureaucrats. I continue to be amazed how elected and appointed people working for “us” can put their hate for individuals above their love of the country.

Obviously, America’s problem is not only financial or even political. It has a “God” problem. Our current administration has taken some steps in the right direction. Let’s hope it’s not too late. Only God can help us if and when we turn to Him.

Frank Cernosek Ammannsville