Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems

I really don’t understand the excitement over voting to raise the debt ceiling before America defaults. This isn’t great, it’s tragic.

I can guarantee you that for the next week our news stations are going to be devoted to airing clips of lawmakers high-fiving and praising each other for reaching this bipartisan agreement - but these celebrations should be treated like a slap in the face to American citizens. This vote isn’t a solution, it’s just prolonging the inevitable and giving government more room to spend money it doesn’t have. We will find ourselves back here once again with even more debt.

My biggest pet peeve about all of this comes back to being a young adult, fresh out of college, with years of student loan payments staring me in the face. Our government expects me to be able to budget my finances responsibly and make absurdly large monthly payments to them in an economy where the jobless/homeless population is rapidly expanding. How is it fair to ask me, and millions of other college graduates, to be held accountable for debt (that is not forgiven even in death, as it clearly states on our on contracts) when they aren’t being held accountable for the debt they have accumulated on behalf of the country?

I won’t pretend that I have a quick and easy solution; the nation’s budget and debt is obviously quite a bit more intricate and complicated than my own, but it would be silly to not point out the simple economic principals that our government feels is beneath them. First: in order to effectively manage money, you need to actually make some to be able to spend. Second: borrowing money isn’t a bad idea, but you must be able to pay it back or there will be consequences. Lastly: if you make money, but spend it in excess plus money you don’t have, said money will run out - fast. I learned this stuff in middle school for cripes sake, and these guys have PhD’s.

So what do I plan to do about it? Well, I thought about stopping my loan payments and ignoring my debt since the “leaders” of this country seem to be doing the same, but I don’t want to sink to their level, and I also don’t want to spend time in a minimum security prison for failing to cooperate with the federal government. So I am choosing to do something a little less dramatic, but possibly more effective: I refuse to vote for any of them when their position comes up for reelection. If everyone in America refused to reelect anyone, in any position, we could actually change the fate of this ill-ran nation. New blood, new ideas, less games. The likelihood of this happening? Slim to none because people, as unsatisfied as they are with the status-quo, are uncomfortable with change on a large scale. But, I’m going to do my part and encourage others to do the same because that’s all I really can do.

Now I know I’m going to get flack from people who were hoping this deal would pass so they would continue to get their social security and other payments from the government that they have earned. I am glad these people will get their money, especially if they depend on it to survive. But what happens when we end up right back here again because we’ve hit this new debt ceiling? Or what happens when China decides to stop lending us money because they realize we aren’t ever going to be able to repay? Or worse yet, what happens if war breaks out and we lose all allies that are in a position to lend us money?

America is in a financial crisis, we have been for quite some time. Our government needs to get it’s spending under control, start repaying our debts and figure out a way to become financially responsible and independent. The games and shortcuts our lawmakers have been taking for decades have gotten us into a kind of trouble I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to get out of, but we have to try something. I say it’s time for American citizens to get uncomfortable and start demanding changes with their votes.