THE NATIONAL DEBT

The national debt, today, stands at over $9.1 trillion.  It's expanding by $1.4 billion every day, nearly a million dollars every minute.  It was $5.7 trillion when Bush took office, and it's projected to exceed $10 trillion by the time Bush leaves office.  The government is doing nothing to stop its constant growth, and it's wreaking havoc on the economy.

It affects the average American every day. Every tax-paying American has to spend his or her hard-earned cash to pay interest on the government's expenses-this year, interest on the national debt comes to a whopping $239 billion dollars, enough money to give 10.2 million students a college education. Because of this "debt tax," the government is forced to waste taxpayer dollars and spend less money on education and national defense.

Not only does the debt take taxpayers' dollars today, but it risks worse in the future.  As the Baby Boomer generation retires, increasing Social Security and Medicare costs will put more demands on the government's resources.  If the national debt continues to grow, the government will have no choice but to raise taxes, deny healthcare to millions of retiring Americans, or both.  Also, the government may see the debt roll over to higher interest rates, multiplying this undue burden on the American taxpayer.  And on top of it all, because an increasing percentage of national debt comes from abroad, we risk our national security doing so.

In 2008, we have a chance to stop this nightmare from coming true-by electing leaders who promise not to spend money we don't have.  While John Shadegg pretends to be a fiscal conservative while supporting Bush's out of control spending, Bob Lord will do everything he can to stop us from sliding down the slippery slope of unsustainable national debt and to make sure that the government does not waste hard-earned taxpayer dollars.