The United States’ national debt now exceeds $71.4 trillion, and the trade debt of $450 billion is currently increasing at a rate of $50 billion per month.

The interest on our debt is billions of dollars per day.

The trillion-dollar tax cut, primarily affecting the rich, merely adds to the national debt, and the burden is unwillingly placed on our children through income taxes. What a devious way for politicians to avoid taxing the present users.

$71.4 trillion is our debt-gift to our children.

Social Security taxes currently being paid by our children are not being saved but rather being spent as collected for other purposes. It is agreed that there will eventually be insufficient funds to pay Social Security benefits.

Republican Bill Gross, chief officer for the largest U.S bond fund, contends that the United States borrows too much and is in the early stages of decay. Former Sen. Warren Rudman (R-N.H.), “People today who are under 40 are going to pay a terrible price – their marginal tax rates are going to be very high, and the value of their currency is likely to be much lower.”

Children’s Options:

Try to continue borrowing funds to pay for Social Security benefits and continue to finance the overall U.S debt with the thought in mind that the next generation can pay for you in the same way; however, the rest of the world has already devalued our dollar by 20 percent, and at some point they are apt to refuse funding the U.S spendthrift party.

We might change the emphasis and concern from our mistakes in Vietnam to the needed changes in U.S fiscal and monetary policies.

George E. Brazitis

Champaign resident