OP/ED: Time for Restoring Fiscal Responsibility is Now

The current national debt is now over $16 trillion – that’s $16,000,000,000,000.  That means that every man, woman and child in this country currently owes approximately $51,874 on the debt and every family of four’s share of the national debt has surpassed $207,000. 

In January 2009 when President Obama took office the amount each individual owed was $34,420.  Under President Obama as the national debt has increased by more than $4 trillion, each individual’s share has also increased by $17,454.

Chief Justice John Marshall wrote, “An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation.”

His words ring true today.  They apply to over spending as well which so often correlates to over taxation that like the proverbial chicken and egg dilemma it can be difficult to determine which precedes the other.

Our country is facing a fiscal crisis.

For four straight years we have been spending money we do not have and wasting billions to bail out failed companies like the now bankrupt Solyndra.  Additionally we are implementing a government health care take over that will lead to nearly $500 billion in new taxes.  We are quickly approaching the point Chief Justice Marshall warned about – a point past which we can no longer bear the burden the government is placing upon us.  A point at which the government begins to destroy the institutions and individuals that make this country great.  More spending and more taxes are not the answer.  That agenda has plunged our country into deeper debt and despair rather than delivering us from economic woes. 

We need to rein in federal spending now.  The non-partisan Office of Management and Budget (OMB) projects that by 2022 the national debt will be $25.9 trillion if this spending binge continues.  We cannot continue down this path. We must restore fiscal sanity to Washington by implementing lower taxes, less regulation and smaller government.

PO Box 464

Windham, NH 03087