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My suggestion for solving the national debt crisis

Sun City West resident: We should demand that Congress supplement program cuts by rescinding tax breaks for top earners

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OPINION — There is an imminent threat to our country and it isn’t illegal immigration, woke policies or any of the other distractions. It’s a disaster in the making I believe could bring down our country as a world power.

Our national debt is so large that paying just the interest on the debt is the third-largest expenditure we have — larger than even defense spending. It only trails Social Security and Medicare in budget spending.

That huge interest payment doesn’t reduce the debt itself, it just maintains it. This is not sustainable and the only real solution is to make drastic changes by cutting programs and increasing revenue.

The best solution would be to do both increasing revenue (taxes) and moderate changes to the entitlement programs. That way, no one group will face severe cuts.

However, I don’t think Congress has the courage to increase taxes — even to those who could afford it. That means reducing the largest programs is the only option left

The only programs large enough to impact real debt reduction would be Social Security, Medicare and defense. Given that our defense budget is larger than the next three countries combined, it would make sense to focus there, but any suggestion of cutting that budget would not be taken seriously.

That leaves Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said as much in a recent interview when he said Congress will be looking at those programs in this next session.

All of us need to be prepared for this looming crisis, and we need to be vocal in demanding that cuts be supplemented by increase in revenue (taxes) by rescinding tax cuts to the highest earners.

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Congress, national debt, national debt crisis, interest on the debt, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, tax cuts, revenue, tax cuts, defense budget

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  • arwinroe56

    I completely agree with your analysis. Too often our leaders focus on lesser problems to distract us from this looming fiscal cliff. I just wish congress had the courage to take a more balanced look at what needs to be done to bring us back to fiscal responsibility.

    Friday, July 10 Report this