Borrow It Forward: a Fiscal Calamity

Re “Burden on Our Kids? They Will Thank Us,” Opinion, Dec. 7: David Gelernter misses the key element of the deficit issue: debt and the necessity to pay it off. Budget deficits and surpluses refer to annual government income versus expenditures approved by Congress. Budget surpluses are not automatically used to pay off the national debt. Although there were large budget surpluses during the Clinton administration, very little was used to pay down the enormous national debt racked up by the Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations.

Congress decided to spend that surplus elsewhere on items that would not make people “yawn,” a key economic consideration according to Gelernter. The Bush deficits are piling up on top of an already staggering national debt, the debt service (interest payments) on which continues to become a larger part of the budget. We’re not paying off principal, only the interest, while piling on record amounts of new principal.

Thomas Haskin

La Mesa

*

I was outraged to read Gelernter’s opinion piece. Since the end of fiscal year 1981 we have seen the national debt increase from $1 trillion to over $7 trillion in the current fiscal year. It is projected to exceed $9 trillion in fiscal year 2008. Interest payments to service the debt will increase from $333 billion last fiscal year to $510 billion in fiscal year 2008. The figures cited are not based on voodoo or trickle-down theory economics; they are the projections of the Congressional Budget Office. Based on the CBO projections, the amount spent on defense and interest on the public debt will essentially be equal in fiscal year 2008: $514 billion for defense and $510 billion for interest. No person with any degree of intellectual integrity can say that such a burden will be good for America or that our kids will thank us.

John McDonald

Oceanside

*

Re President Bush’s policies, Gelernter states that “the mistakes he has made would have been hard for any president to avoid.” Really? I suppose any other president would have had a hard time avoiding making a preemptive strike in Iraq without solid evidence of weapons of mass destruction or the support of the United Nations? Please. It may not be immoral, but being in debt to force your will and agenda on the world is irresponsible and shows an incredible lack of foresight or concern for the American people.

Tapia Martinez-Russ

Sherman Oaks