Our national debt is what we should be worried about

by Brad Crone, campaign consultant and NC SPIN panelist, April 11, 2108

It seems the national media and general public seem transfixed on the bimbo problem facing the President and his personal attorney.  Every day there is a new twist of the President’s relationship with a porn star and a former Playboy playmate.  Yes, it’s salacious, tawdry and something we have never seen in politics before.

But the big story isn’t an FBI raid of the President’s personal attorney.

No, the big story should be the Congressional Budget Office report issued Monday showing the country that we are on track to have a $1 trillion budget deficit in 2020 and an escalation of deficits for years to come.

Growing up in Clayton in the 1960s and 1970s, you would often hear the Fire Alarm, a large siren next to Town Hall on Second Street that sounded to call the volunteer firemen to the station, letting them know there was an emergency and they were needed.

It was a loud siren, you could hear that siren 4 to 5 miles away.  It would rev up and hit a high pitch that would drive the local dogs just crazy.  Luke Hinton was a dispatcher at Town Hall and he was probably the best at taking the fire alarm to high pitch and letting her rip then bringing the siren back to its base and repeating several times.

You always knew when Mr. Hinton was sounding the alarm, everyone in Clayton could hear it.

We a national debt alarm siren.  We need to let America hear it.  We need to know there is a growing debt emergency in this country.

Economists will tell you that we have never run a debt this high during such good economic times. If for some reason we have an increase in bond rates or we see another financial crisis – then our national leaders will lack the runway to deal with the problem because we have maxed out the national credit card.

There doesn’t appear to be an immediate crisis on the horizon, but in the event, we see a downturn in the future, the financial pain could be immense.

National debt is a drag on our economy because investors who buy our bonds could be investing in equities that fuel job growth and development. 

CBO Director Keith Hall issued a stern warning on Monday saying: “The bigger the debt, the bigger the chances of a fiscal crisis. When do you start to fix a thing like this? The longer you wait, the more draconian the measures have to be to fix the problem. That’s the biggest warning.”

Let’s say the Federal Reserve and the markets drive up interest rates to 5%, that means the cost to service our national debt will exceed discretionary spending.  If rates stay nearly the same and spending continues to escalate then we will see the same problem with our debt service exceeding discretionary spending.  That’s not to mention the concerns being raised about Social Security and Medicare’s future.

We have a major problem with our growing national debt. Will America hear the siren?