America is a great nation. It enjoys unprecedented wealth. Its people are among the freest in the world. And, with the world’s most powerful armed forces, the United States is largely the master of its own destiny.
Yet there is an insidious threat to America’s continued greatness. It gets scarce attention because its effects are not immediate, but that threat is real. It is the threat of crushing government debt…
Unless we reverse course, this means that – in our children’s lifetime – the U.S. military might be unable to protect a sea lane vital to trade and military supply lines. We might be unable to suppress an enemy regime that launches a terrorist attack against us. And absent the great American economic engine, we might lack the resources to stay on the cutting edge of technology, leaving our soldiers vulnerable to being matched or even trumped on the battlefield by better-equipped foes.
Other ruinous scenarios are possible as well. Suppose foreigners refuse to buy U.S. debt, leading to debt-induced inflation that eats away at productivity and the currency. In this situation, Americans could completely lose confidence in protecting our interests abroad. Beset by inflation and other towering economic problems, Americans could understandably turn toward isolationism, as they had by the 1930s. This would create power vacuums around the world and unleash enemies bent on challenging the great “sick man of America.”
To me, this is America’s main challenge right now. The real problem isn’t health care, or housing, or the over-the-top partisanship in Washington, D.C. No, it’s about the debt. History shows that massive debts are one of the major reasons great civilizations fall. See, for instance, France under Louis XVI, the British Empire and Ancient Rome.
Washington’s main challenge is to bring down America’s debt. This should be the number one priority of elected officials. The other subjects are nice and all, fun and interesting, but they are not even remotely as urgent and as important as the incredible size of the debt.
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