Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted the United States will collapse due to its massive debt. Addressing the Kuwaiti media, he asked, "How long can a government with a $16 trillion foreign debt remain a world power?" This is a question many Americans wish would be contemplated in the presidential debates. Neither candidate is serious at all about paying off the debt; they won't even balance the budget, which would be a start in the right direction.
The Iranian President continued his analysis, "The Americans have injected their paper wealth into the world economy and today the aftermaths and negative effects of their pseudo-wealth have plagued them." How many times have Obama or Romney referred to the "pseudo-wealth" in the United States? Instead, all these stooges do is raise the debt ceiling indefinitely, pretending debt does not matter. This is the all-important issue Libertarian candidate Governor Johnson would raise in the debate. But imagining Johnson in the third debate is like imagining Ahmadinejad in the third debate - not going to happen. That actually sound reinvigorating: Ahmadinejad could add that fiscally responsible touch to the third presidential debate.
Photo Source: Jose Cruz
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Comments: 4
The libertarian path of razing government to the ground would not solve the problem because it would destroy the country and its economy. While government may be bloated and wasteful it is also absolutely necessary in a variety of ways. Doing the Ron Paul thing and throwing everyone off of their "entitlements" would lead to massive chaos, homelessness, starvation, crime, rioting and the complete deterioration of the American way of life. Gutting government's role in the economy and market place and the infrastructure of the country would lead to sudden and rapid decay on many levels. This is why no country in the world has done this with their government.
But Americans are one of the lowest taxed jurisdictions in the industrialized world yet are convinced that they are overtaxed because anti-government and anti-tax ideologues dominate the airwaves.
Everyone likes to pay less, but when it comes to everything other than government services everyone also understands the meaning of "you get what you pay for".
With government services everyone wants the Cadillac but insists on paying only for the Lada. And that is why you have the world's biggest debt and deficit.
Governments pretend that they can act as outsiders to the economy. As if everything they do will be a benevolent economic gain. But the truth is that government spending, since it does not respond to market forces, often causes more malinvestment and creates more localized bubbles that will only worsen our debt issues in the long term.
I can't think of any good theoretical reason why a caretaker government would suddenly stop exercising its power and begin bootstrapping. I assume politicians typically get into that line of work to exercise power- not to balance budgets.
Johnson's got the numbers right, and neither he nor Paul are or were out to raze entitlements that citizens had paid into for years, earned by service, and had a right to expect. Neither are up for signing up for more. Funny how much disdain both get for recommending a path that won't add trillions more to a debt that can't even be serviced soon.
There's almost absolute denial of the fact a broke nation will have to resort to the measures these men are falsely accused of intending. As ironies go, this will be one for the books. Not voting Libertarian hastens the day of its ascendancy, putting Johnson in charge would actually prolong the superstate. But their loss erases any chance of a soft landing.
Difficult to say what Romney will do.