Last week, I had the privilege to attend the Nashville stop of the Fiscal Wake-Up Tour. I am simply going to discuss my thoughts on the issues raised at this event. If you are interested you need to do more research on the issues explored by the Fiscal Wake-Up Tour on your on to come to an informed decision.
U.S. Comptroller David Walker with the help of the Concord Coalition, Brookings Institute, and Heritage Foundation has been to 22 cities in 21 states to make citizens aware of the pending crisis: federal spending on entitlement programs, such as Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid; and interest on the federal deficit is increasing faster than the most optimistic hopes for federal revenue growth. Another part of this crisis is the rapid increase in the cost of health care and the coming retirement of the baby boomers.
The Concord Coalition is viewed as a nonpartisan public policy organization with the Heritage Foundation being a conservative think tank and the Brookings Institute a liberal think tank. What all three of these organizations have in common is a realization that federal spending on these programs and interest on debt is unsustainable. Comptroller Walker and the Government Accountability Office are spearheading this education effort.
What does this mean to you and me? Federal programs we all are eligible for at retirement such as Social Security and Medicare will either have to be curtailed in the future or supported by general taxes. The economy will be adversely affected by continuing borrowing to support deficit spending. This will impact our capital markets crowding capital for business investment. Another impact is on our national security, foreigners are holding higher and higher percentages of the federal debt. This will increase their influence in politics of our country.
State and local governments will be effected by a decrease in federal funds. This will mean to continue state and local programs at the same level of service will require increased taxes. The same is true for the federal government if it tries to maintain the same level of services.
These are not easy issues to deal with. The longer we wait the harder and more expensive it will be to deal with these problems. What can you do today? Educate yourself about this pending crisis and let your elected officials know that you want them to act. It will take hard choices to solve this problem. As was stated at this meeting, we cannot grow our way out of the crisis. Let them know your ideas on solving these problems.
