{"id":75,"date":"1980-02-07T18:07:51","date_gmt":"1980-02-08T01:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/?p=75"},"modified":"2014-06-12T16:29:04","modified_gmt":"2014-06-12T23:29:04","slug":"hs-time-for-feds-to-face-deficit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/?p=75","title":{"rendered":"It’s Time for Feds to Face Deficit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/a>The time is long past due for the federal government\u00a0to blow the whistle on routine deficit spending.<\/p>\n

This year\u00a0the national debt will top $890 billion – more than $4,000 for each American, and the projected $15.8 deficit in President Carter’s whopping $615.8 budget for fiscal 1981 will keep the spiral soaring.<\/p>\n

Just the interest on the fiscal 1980 budget is estimated at $73.3 billion, according\u00a0to a Wall Street Journal chart from the Office of Management and Budget. The estimate is pegged at $79.4 billion for 1981.<\/p>\n

Each year, the interest is one of the major items in the federal budget. What a boon it would be to the economy and the inflation fight if we didn’t\u00a0have it to my pay!<\/p>\n

Deficit spending as a way of life in peacetime is deplorable for a country blessed with the abundance America possesses. We should be building a surplus in case of war or other emergency instead of routinely plunging deeper in debt.<\/p>\n

Let’s have a look at the public debt’s growth, total and per capita:<\/p>\n

Back in 1915, the debt was only $1.2 billion – $11.85 for each American. Fifteen years later, after World War I\u00a0and various other ups and downs, the debt was at $16.1 billion – $131.51 for each American. Spending programs to cope with the great depression spiraled the debt to $42.9 billion by 1940 ($367.48 per capita) and to $48.9 billion the next year.<\/p>\n

America’s entry into World War II sparked the upsurge to $72.4 billion in 1942 and to $269.4 billion by 1946.\u00a0That would be the high water mark, people thought, with a debt for each American of $1,911.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the debt was cut to $258.2 billion in 1947 and to $252.2 billion in 1948. The Korean War had a role in a new upswing, but that didn’t end the spiral by any means. Despite some years of balanced budgets the debt reached $288.9 billion in 1961 and $336 billion in 1967.<\/p>\n

In the past 19 years, the administration and lawmakers have balanced the budget only once – in 1969 – and the new deficit over those years totaled a shocking $377 billon.<\/p>\n

President Jimmy Carter vowed he’d bring the budget into balance in the latter part of his term. But talk by him and in Congress of an “austere” budget to the contrary, red ink spending has continued.<\/p>\n

The record – sadly – shows that the national debt, in modern decades, has climbed during both Democratic and Republican administrations and in peacetime as well as war.<\/p>\n

Excessive spending\u00a0tends to cause a decline in public confidence. Indeed, an Associated Press poll in February, 1979, found that “distrust of politicians is so deep that Americans do not believe their elected officials will act. Seventy percent said politicians will not work to wipe out the debt.”<\/p>\n

Holding the spending\u00a0line is a problem that requires resolve and discipline firmer than Washington and the people at home have shown for a long time. Now, at the beginning of a new congressional session, is a good time to sharpen that resolve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The time is long past due for the federal government\u00a0to blow the whistle on routine deficit spending. This year\u00a0the national debt will top $890 billion – more than $4,000 for each American, and the projected $15.8 deficit in President Carter’s whopping $615.8 budget for fiscal 1981 will keep the spiral soaring. Just the interest on… Continue reading It’s Time for Feds to Face Deficit<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24,8,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}