Colman: GO TO JAIL

This is a great idea.  Jail every politician who votes for deficit spending?  Add to that, that they are fined for deficit spending.  Maybe a ban for life for politicians that deficit spend—never allow them to hold public office again.

The real problem is that the voters continue to elect these free spending (with your money) politicians.  The problem starts at the voting booth.  Since we continue to elect free spenders, they have no reason to stop.

Remember this on November 5.

GO TO JAIL

By Richard Colman, Exclusive to the California Political News and Views,  9/9/24  www.capoliticalnewsandviews.com

People who did not pay their debts were once sent to prison.

About 400 years ago, an estimated 10,000 people in England went to jail for unpaid debt.

Things have changed over the last 400 years.  Not all debtors go to jail.

A good example of debt is the national debt of the United States.  Currently, this debt is $35 trillion.  In 1981, the debt was $1 trillion.  In 1837, when Andrew Jackson was president, there was no national debt.

The 2024 presidential candidates have said virtually nothing about America’s debt.  If the debt is not reduced or eliminated, should American politicians go to jail?

In 2010, President Barack Obama appointed a bipartisan commission to study the debt.  The commission was officially called the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

Unofficially, the commission was called the Simpson-Bowles Commission.  Alan Simpson was a former Republican senator from Wyoming.  Erskine Bowles served as chief of staff to President Bill Clinton.

The commission made several recommendations.  They included:

·      capping government spending at 21% of the nation’s total output of goods and services (called Gross Domestic Product, or GDP.

·      reducing mandatory spending.

·      reducing federal health-care spending.

·      making Social Security financially stable.

·      ending tax loopholes.

Needless to say, the recommendations of the Simpson-Bowles Commission went nowhere.  The recommendations were too controversial politically.   Congress never got to vote on the commission’s recommendations.

Meanwhile, the national debt continues to grow –- and grow rapidly.

The debt is financed by the sale of government bonds, generally called U.S. Treasuries.  These bonds are bought by American citizens, citizens of other nations, corporations (domestic and foreign), and such foreign governments as Japan and China.

The bonds have been considered financially safe because over many years the buyers of such bonds were assured of repayment (with interest).

But what happens if and when the buyers stop buying?  How does the United States pay its bills if no one wants to buy American debt?

No one knows if or when a day of reckoning will come.  But one cannot rule out that at some point buyers of U.S. debt will stop buying this debt.

None of the current presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, has discussed the debt.

Someone should ask these candidates what will happen if the nation defaults on its financial obligations.  Specifically, what might happen if Social Security payments were halted?

When Bill Clinton was president, there were four consecutive balanced budgets (from 1996 to 2000).  These budgets contained surpluses.  The budget surpluses allowed the United States to pay down the national debt.

Since Clinton left office, the national debt, as previously mentioned, has exploded, leaving the United States in a position somewhat like a person who has incurred huge a credit card debt and cannot pay the debt off.

Maybe America’s national debt can go on forever.  But no one should bet his life savings on that possibility.

Remember, debtors used to go to jail.