Like many Depression-era parents my parents taught us to spend within our means and to avoid debt if at all possible. Similarly, they stressed the importance of paying ourselves first by setting aside whatever we could afford at the end of the month. It was sage advice that I have adhered to throughout my life.

Unquestionably there are unexpected challenges at times, like the COVID pandemic, that are so disruptive this is just not possible.

Those aside, however, it’s unfortunate that debt has become a way of life in this county, at home and in government. Ben Franklin observed, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes and taxes, noted Franklin Roosevelt, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.

This country is undeniably one of the wealthiest in the world. On the other hand, we are among those nations that have amassed the greatest per capita debt to GDP. Simply put, the government spends more than what it taxes. Americans love to rail about paying taxes but have no problem exhorting the government to meet our infinite demands. While those “wants” have to be paid for, the resounding anthem across the country is “don’t raise my taxes.”

Those words don’t fall on deaf ears, rather they form a familiar echo chamber heard by all those seeking political office, enjoined seemingly into every election campaign. It’s really quite simple, however, and herein lies the problem — we can’t have it both ways.

To quote Robert Heinlein from his book “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”: “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” The latest last minute federal budget congressional showdown to raise the debt ceiling again is yet another nail in the deficit coffin.

When President Biden was elected the national debt reportedly stood at $26.9 trillion, a mind-numbing figure that is difficult to wrap our heads around. A billion is a huge number to me let alone a trillion. To put it another way, the debt is 26,900 billion or 26,900,000 million.

We need to keep in mind that the federal debt is not a new phenomenon. On the contrary, it’s an embedded economic reality of any government which has no magic crystal ball and thus cannot anticipate every imaginable human crisis we may face.

The level of debt, however, even taking into account inflation, continues to escalate at an alarming rate.

So how did we get here? you might ask. Looking back at history, 27 presidents from Washington through Taft (1790-1913) amassed a total debt of $2.9 billion during their 123 years in office. The debt over the past 108 years for the last 18 presidents from Wilson through Trump, not adjusted for inflation, has grown 9275+ times greater than the total debt of their predecessors. Congressional leaders of both political parties and their party faithful, of course, are quick to begin a new round of finger pointing and passing blame on one another. The truth be told, all we have to do is look at our historical economic data to realize we all share in the blame for the debt crisis.

Six Democrat presidents amassed $633.9 billion of debt from Woodrow Wilson through Jimmy Carter. Six Republican presidents from Warren Harding through Gerald Ford amassed $369 billion of debt. So, when did the wheels fall off the bus?

Ronald Reagan’s administration amassed 1.5 times more debt during his presidency than all the US presidents combined who proceeded him from Washington through Carter.

Ironically, he remarked “We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough, we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much.” George H. Bush followed suit and the two administrations added $3.41 trillion of debt in 12 years. Presidential candidate George H. Bush at the 1988 Republican National Convention famously said, “Read my lips: no new taxes.” When his administration couldn’t keep the promise, it was cited as a key reason he lost the election to Bill Clinton four years later.

To be sure there have been historical events that, in large part, contributed to our massive debt. For example, monetarily, wars are very expensive. The expenditures for WWI, WWII, Korean Conflict, Vietnam, Persian Gulf War, Iraq, and Afghanistan added roughly $2.83 trillion (not adjusted for dollars today).

Legislative measures passed by the government in response to the Great Depression inherited by FDR and the Great Recession passed along to President Obama from his predecessor, George W. Bush, likewise added substantial debt. To paraphrase Friedrich Nietzsche, we are our own worst enemy.

All we have to do is look at our own consumer spending practices. According to a recent New York Fed’s Household Debt and Credit Report, U.S. household debt climbed to a record high $16.1 trillion dollars in 2022.

One thing is undeniable, at some point in time there will be a financial reckoning if we don’t stop kicking the deficit can down the road to the next generation. At the very least, we owe it to them.

Anthony Johnson

Baker City