How To Make Our Country Debt Free

How To Make Our Country Debt Free

We are nearing the end of another presidential campaign. Finally. And I, for one, am breathing a sigh of relief. I am tired of mud slinging, empty promises, and endless tirades of the various political pundits. I am tired of the mainstream medium doing it’s best to put one candidate in the White House while trashing another. And neither candidate is addressing the actual problems of the country.

Oh, they have mentioned the problems. Energy, the economy, the creation of jobs, taxes. They have mentioned them, but they have not addressed them. No one has offered concrete solutions. They have offered us cotton candy solutions. One wants to raise taxes on the rich, while lowering taxes on the poor and the middle class. The problem with that? He’s not quite sure what defines “rich.”

Energy? One says we can’t drill our way out of our energy crisis, while the other says “drill, baby, drill.” What about alternatives?

But there is one problem that neither candidate has addressed; that of our growing national debt. The richest country in the world has become a debtor nation. We owe $56,000,000,000,000. And that is growing daily. And we don’t want to forget the penalties and interest. We are electing officials who want to continue to spend money like a drunken sailor (with apologies to all the drunken sailors; you at least earned the right to get drunk and spend your money.) But I am not blaming congress. It’s not their fault. They have been taught that they will be re-elected if they vote for more and more entitlements

No, my friends, the blame does not lie with congress. The blame does not lie with the President. The blame lies with us.

Think not? Who elected for these political whores, who will sell their very souls for a vote? Who, when these charlatans showed us what utter chicanery they were capable of put them back in office, again and again? You did. I did. We did. We just won’t learn.

It is time for us to teach congress how to do the very thing they don’t seem to be able to do. We have to teach them how to balance a budget. We have to teach them how not spend more than they take in. It’s not easy. But we have allowed congress to teach us how spend money. We figured “If it’s okay for the government to spend on credit, then its okay for us.” We started changing our spending habits. If we wanted it, we didn’t save for it. We just whipped out the credit card. We just signed on the dotted line. But gradually, as individuals and families, we began to come to our senses. We began to think about what we were doing. We got sick and tired of being sick and tired. We began to look around for solutions.

Some of us decided to become debt free. It wasn’t easy. (For those of you who want to be debt free but haven’t figured out how to do it, trust me when I say it ain’t easy, but it can done.)

Listen up, folks. There’s a guy out there that’s been writing books, and teaching people how to get out debt and stay out of debt, while keeping a roof over their heads, and food on their tables. His name is Dave Ramsey. He has a wonderful web site, http://www.daveramsey.com, and he can teach you all the tools you need to know to live without debt. What Dave asks is that everyone who gets out of debt helps someone, not by paying off their debts, or giving them money, but teaching them, or pointing them to a teacher. Dave’s latest book, “Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover,” teaches people how to live without debt. He explains his method clearly and simply. And he knows what he is talking about. If you’ve read the book, or heard of Dave Ramsey, then you know the story. If not, you’ll be inspired.

It is our job to teach our elected officials how to live this way. We have to teach congress how spend only what comes in. We cannot spend what we do not have. Congress must establish an emergency fund. In this case, they must completely fund social security and Medicare. The social security trust fund has been raided time and time again. It must be placed off limits, fully funded, and the money invested in various markets so it will grow.

Once that is done, congress must begin paying off debt. That means no new spending. That also means no raises for congress. It means they have the same retirement program the rest of us have. And they don’t get a pension for serving a couple of terms.

Once we have paid off the debt, then we need to invest for the future. Our country won’t retire, but our citizens will. It is a shame that any American who has worked and paid into the system, is suddenly thrown into poverty when they retire.

And there will be wars to be fought. There will be problems. Murphy’s Law applies to everyone, be it individuals, businesses, or governments. The only way to keep Murphy in his place is to be prepared.

I would like to say that it makes no difference which party is elected, but I would be less than truthful if I said that. This congress, with a democratic majority, has accomplished less, while promising more, that any congress in history.

It is time to hold congress and the president fiscally responsible and see to it that our country is debt free.