Guest Column: If the debt numbers don’t scare you, they should
By State Sen. Dave Syverson
When it comes to the debt facing America, the numbers should be alarming to every taxpayer and citizen. Today, the federal government’s debt stands at $14.5 trillion and growing. The interest on that debt is $430 billion a year, or $1.2 billion a day. In addition to that record amount of federal debt, Washington is spending $4 billion each a day more than the revenue coming in. That’s $167 million an hour more being spent than incoming revenues — a number that is unfathomable!
But the federal government isn’t the only government spending that’s out of control. According to a recent report by Treasurer Dan Rutherford, Illinois’ debt totals $200 billion. Local governments are also deep in the red, with Chicago and Cook County communities facing a $61 billion shortfall, and downstate communities billions more.
No matter what politicians, economics professors or some in mainstream media tell you, this kind of spending and borrowing is totally unsustainable.
Some in Washington want the debt ceiling raised enough so (in their words) we don’t have to “play politics” with budget issues until January of 2013. In other words, they want to put off the tough decisions until after the November 2012 elections. Governments at all levels have been putting off the hard choices long enough. We have two options — take some real short-term pain now, and cure ourselves of the fiscal crisis, or face a terminal fiscal situation in the future.
We hear from the president and some political leaders who say we can balance the budget painlessly by cutting “future” spending and raising taxes on “the wealthiest Americans.” While this makes for effective campaign rhetoric, it will not solve the budget crisis. The deficits facing us are so large that there simply aren’t enough “corporate jet millionaires” out there to cover the $4 billion a day (and growing) federal shortfall, let alone cover the deficit. In fact, if you took another $10 million from each corporate jet owner, that would cover less than two weeks of this year’s federal budget shortfall. So, regardless of what some claim, we cannot cut around the edges and tax our way out of a fiscal crisis this large.
Another very important point to remember — just because government raises taxes doesn’t mean it will use that revenue to pay bills or reduce the debt. On the contrary — when politicians raise taxes, the pressure to cut government spending decreases, often resulting in more programs and even larger deficits.
Take Illinois, for example. Earlier this year, state Democrat leaders told taxpayers they needed to raise our income taxes by 67 percent to pay off the $8 billion in short-term unpaid bills. Then, they promised that once those bills got paid off, the tax hike would be reduced.
Of course, as with so many political promises, that didn’t happen. While they went ahead and raised taxes by 67 percent, not one penny went toward paying off bills. Instead, the money went to cover increased spending, new pay raises and pension payments. The lesson in this is clear: raising taxes without first implementing responsible spending cuts will only make the problem worse.
Those generations that came before us sacrificed and paid a great price for what we have today. That’s why it is incumbent on us to leave a legacy of responsible government for those who come after us. The good news is it’s not too late. If we, as a country, are willing to do what’s fiscally responsible today, America’s future will be bright for generations to come.
State Sen. Dave Syverson (R) represents the 34th District.
From the Aug. 10-16, 2011, issue
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6 Comments
Watever Dave! The sad thing is your part of the problem. As long as you guys make your millions off the backs of the tax payers who cares right? I was making more money per hour twenty years ago, interesting huh? It’s the law to balance the state’s checkbook just like we have to do with ours. The corruption and overspending and greed in Il. has been going on for decades, you guys should be stripped of your pay and benefits and pensions and thrown in jail! Also you guys ( R’s & D’s ) should be ashamed of yourselve’s for allowing the U.S.A. to be in bed with a communist country! Be prepared for the Chinese invasion soon to come. Thanks for the spin.
“not one penny went toward paying off bills…. Instead, the money went to cover… pension payments.”
Last time I heard, pension liabilities were bills. And this is a person that routinely gets re-elected? If he can’t get this simple information correct, what else is he getting wrong.
The people who will recive pensions paid in their part. The state with its mismanagement failed to pay into the pension in bad times and good for the past 30 years. Gee we could beocme like WI and punish those who have done the right thing.
While I agree with most of Dave had to say I find him hard to listen to as a fellow conservative due to the fact that he supports collecting the big fat pension he is guaranteed now that he has served as a public servant. There was a time when elected officials would not have dreamed of even being paid let alone being paid a pension…..yet he would support greatly reducing teacher’s pensions because he and other politicians have not done their job for the last three decades.
The GAO (Government Accountability Office) says that between 1996 and 2000, nearly 2/3 of corporations with assets of $250 million and sales of $50 million doing business in the US paid zero federal taxes. A favorite scheme is using offshore subsidiaries to launder profits.
It is troubling that someone faults others for a program which they will partake in fully. The workers are not the problem, the elected officials who were supposedly in charge are at fault.
When reviewing the news topics of the day regardless of the subject it becomes increasingly clear that our elected officials have exceeded the Peter Principle of advancement years ago. I am not certain how many have achieved the status of the Dilbert Principle but in light of our elected officials performance during the debt debate it appears the majority have achieved the highest level of both Peter and Dilbert status.
What scares me is a politicians who will not do what needs to be done to fix the problem. What scares me is that these politicians created the problem to begin with…why do we reelect Dave and Don neither get it. What scares me is that you need several things in place to fix this and yes one is less spending and the other is to pay for things and the politicians decided not to pay for things with the Bush tax cuts and now we get the true cost of being penny wise and pound foolish. The Bush tax cuts and the two unfunded wars added 7-9 trillion dollars to the current debt. Add in deregulating wall street and we can add another 3-5 trillion. Does not take a math whiz to see if those things did not happen we would not be in the mess we are in. And a high school economics class would tell you that you need to not only cut spending but also raise revenues.