Although we students at WHS are older than the children featured in the video below, we, like them, will be paying off the $12 trillion in debt our government has already accumulated and a further $9 trillion that is projected to build up over the next ten years. Unless Congress is brave enough to take action now to reduce future debt, our generation will suffer.

“I pledge allegiance to America’s debt, and to the Chinese government that lends us money, and to the interest, for which we pay, compoundable, with higher taxes and lower pay, until the day we die.” ~ From DefeattheDebt.com

en Washington spends more money than it takes in through taxes, there is a budget deficit. We finance this debt by essentially taking out loans from creditors. Our three largest creditors today are China, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

This debt causes a whole host of problems. Without the easy credit from foreign governments, our own government would not be able to function. This gives non-Americans a say in American policy; in effect, we lose some of our sovereignty. Furthermore, debt could lead to hyperinflation if we try to pay off the debts by printing more money. Most importantly, debt could cause interest rates to soar, making credit less accessible.

These problems are compounded as debt increases. At $12 trillion, it’s fair to say that the United States has an extremely serious debt problem. So much of a problem, in fact, that we will soon have more debt than is legally allowed.

Under law, the federal government is only allowed to hold up to $12.1 trillion in debt. Because of this, Congress will soon have to raise the debt ceiling. Sadly, this is not uncommon. Congress has been forced to raise the debt ceiling about 100 times since 1940 when the ceiling was first raised to $50 billion. This practice is untenable.

We must reduce debt. However, there are only two ways we can do it: either increase revenue (i.e. taxes) or reduce spending. Increasing taxes is not feasible for both political and economic reasons, for taxes would have to be raised disastrously high.

This leaves only spending cuts. The best area for reducing spending is entitlements: programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Because of the so-called “Baby Boom tsunami,” costs in these areas are expected to skyrocket over the next two decades much faster than either GDP growth or inflation.

Hopefully the current health care reform debate will help reduce government health expenditure somewhat. However, the current legislation does not do enough. What we need is a fundamental overhaul of entitlements.

Now is the perfect opportunity to achieve this. When Congress votes to extend the debt ceiling in the next couple of months, it must take the chance to produce meaningful debt reform.

If no action is taken to reduce debt, it is going to be the classes of 2009 – 2013 who have to pay.