This is my entry for the Blogging Scholarship by yourlocalsecuriy.com http://yourlocalsecurity.com/scholarship#embed
"As the nation approaches its 57th Presidential Election, we're asking the future leaders of this country, students, to define the single most important political issue in this election. Tell us not only what that issue is, but also tell us why and how you propose we come to a solution that benefits the majority?"
The most important political issue of the upcoming election lies within the economy, with special emphasis on the plan for handling the growing federal deficit. The debate has been on whether or not to balance the federal budget.
The federal deficit continues to grow out of control, reaching an alarming $14 trillion. To be honest, I don’t see how this isn’t getting more attention. I think it’s pretty obvious that President Obama’s miraculous Stimulus Package didn’t have the effect everyone was hoping for. The relief was temporary and now we are back where we started; unemployment levels remain the same. The only thing saw change was our growing debt levels. It’s time to try something else. The Keynsian model has failed us again. When are we going to realize we can’t make our problems disappear by throwing money at them? The reality is, our problems aren’t going away, and every dollar we print is becoming less and less valuable as interest rates soar.
The federal budget was not meant to be balanced each and every year. It is intended as a cushion used to enact fiscal policy that sometimes ends in surplus and sometimes in deficit. However, it was never intended that our nation would end up at the bottom of a hole, $14 trillion deep. We have abused the purpose of the budget. At this point, we need to balance the budget before we see a crash that mirrors that of the housing market. We’ve had our warning; we cannot continue to spend like there are no consequences.
All of this has left me rather disillusioned with fiscal and monetary policy of any sort. I’m beginning to understand Ron Paul’s infamous view of disposing of the Fed altogether, although I find that a little extreme. I do, however, think it is of utmost importance that we balance the budget and get our act together regarding savings and investments in all different sectors of the economy. I think government spending should be cut in a variety of areas. For example, we are in grave need of social security and Medicare reforms. The demographic of our country is changing, and the increase in life-expectancy should logically lead to an increase in the age at which people qualify for benefits.
As detrimental as it is for our country to get out of debt, raising taxes at this point in time would backfire and send our economy crashing down again. Hopefully, consumer confidence (which is only half of what is considered “healthy”), will begin to grow again and people will begin to invest once more. We need to encourage the private sector of the economy to start growing, so we are less dependent on government funding.
Obviously, our economic situation is a huge, complicated, issue, and there isn’t an easy solution. At this point, it is of utmost importance that we get back out of debt and start reclaiming or economy. We cannot recklessly spend and invest, as has been too common the past several decades. This is our wake up call. It is time to start using discretion, and move forward with wise monetary policy.
