Yesterday the Herald appealed for faith in America in overcoming the serious problems which beset the country. There are things government itself must do to inspire that confidence – and one of these is to establish fiscal responsibility in the nation’s capital.
Over-spending over many years has spiraled both the national debt and inflation. Government spending beyond its means is a major cause of inflation and we’ve had ample opportunity to see how it works.
The national debt – now $495 billion but due for another sharp increase – is a disgrace for a country with the wealth and natural resources possessed by America. The $30 billion a year we pay for interest on the debt makes the picture still worse.
In peacetime and wartime, during Republican as well as Democratic administrations, the debt has climbed in the past 60 years – especially since 1930.
The national debt totaled only $1.2 billion or $11.85 per capita in 1915. Now, capping years of overspending by administration after administration, the Ford regime has called for boosting the debt ceiling by $109 billion or 17 per cent to $604 billion by mid-1976.
The huge increase, partly needed to finance the proposed tax cut and other anti-recession measures, raises serious questions since spending reductions to match the tax trimming apparently isn’t being demanded. Figured on a basis of today’s population of over 212 million, the new proposed debt limit would amount to more than $2800 per capita. (Population, of course, will be higher by mid 1976.)
From the debt of $1.2 billion of 1915, the figure I rose to $16,185,309,831 by 1930 when President Herbert Hoover was in office. Then, in the depression era of the Franklin D. Roosevelt years, it began to really soar, reaching $43 billion by 1940. At the close of World War II the debt had reached $269.5 billion in 1946 for a per capita high to that point of $1911.
Since then, with the exception of several scattered years of balanced budgets, the debt has continued to rise, reaching $286 billion in 1960, $328 billion in 1965, and over $400 billion in 1972.
The Herald strongly urges Congress and the Administration to immediately re-evaluate spending programs and act to cinch up, hold the line, and get the country back on a sound fiscal basis.
Over the years, many candidates for office have run on economy platforms, but once in Washington, they’ve been caught up in the big spending syndrome. It’s time for all to unite now and get the house in order.
We sincerely hope the emergency measures President Ford and Congress come up with will work. In any case, in the long haul, we are firmly convinced that government must do whatever is necessary to bring spending within our revenues. And if that means “biting the bullet,” let’s do it…and without the marshmallow topping.