The College Fix

Nobody said this was going to be easy. Nobody. The United States national debt is $13.7 trillion and counting. Counting rapidly.

Liberals who say that this problem will fix itself and that everything is going to be just fine, that Social Security is going to be A-OK or that major cuts will not be needed are naïve at best and delusional at worst. Likewise, conservatives who place this all at the feet of President Obama and Democrats in Congress or argue that government spending during a recession is a bad idea are willfully ignorant at best and straight up dishonest at worst.

It is clear, however, that politicians on both sides of the aisle are a) treating American voters like we’re children and b) putting political tactics before problem solving. And this is why Winston Churchill famously declared democracy to be the worst form of government, except for all the other ones.

It’s also why the only serious proposal to get our national debt under control came from two appointed (read: people who don’t have to worry about election) members of a commission. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) comes close, but his plan has national debt at 96% of GDP by 2037—the Bowles-Simpson plan at only 40%, less than half of Ryan’s.

That’s not to say that the Bowles-Simpson plan is perfect. It isn’t. In fact, it doesn’t actually get around to balancing the budget until 2037. But, hell, any plan that both Paul Krugman and Americans for Tax Reform criticize has to be doing something right—that is to say, it both raises taxes and cuts spending. Because even though that’s not something that’s politically popular, that is, inevitably, exactly what needs to happen. I’m assuming that’s why nobody likes it.

Not that I’m surprised. And you shouldn’t be either. This is something our politicians have put off for over a decade. Or even longer, depending on how you look at it. David Stockman, director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Reagan, had some scathing words for his own party (and Democrats) back in August, providing a solid, and in my eyes unprecedented, analysis of where we are and how we got here. I highly recommend reading it.

The worst part of everything is that, today, we need to be making investments on tomorrow. If we don’t, we will be left in the dust. Fareed Zakaria (Disclosure—he’s my homeboy) had a great interview with CNN the other day in which he outlined some unusually specific steps the US could take to spur job creation and growth.

“If we were to have a 5 to 7 percent consumption tax, it would be the lowest in the industrialized world. It would raise a lot of revenue. You could set it up so that the revenues from that tax would only go into investment, none of it is for current expenses,” he said.

“And if there is a consequence of this tax, which is that Americans consume a little less, that ain’t the worst thing in the world either.”

Yeah, I was shocked to hear him say “ain’t” as well, but he raises a lot of good points. Without significant investment, even—and arguably, particularly—at a time like this, American hegemony is at significant risk of slipping away. Indeed, there are signs it has already escaped our grasp.

This isn’t a time for scoring political points or caving to what may be the political flavor of the moment. This is the time to put everything on the table, do what has to be done to balance the budget—including painful tax hikes and massive spending cuts—but also remember that there are a number of non-monetary investments and changes we can make to spur job growth and innovation.

Some wise words from my fifth grade social studies teacher come to mind. “What is popular is not always right; what is right is not always popular.” They seem particularly valid, given that our politicians are behaving like school children.

Make hard decisions, dammit. That’s why you’re our elected officials. You volunteered for this. Do your job. Let history be the judge.

Zach Wahls is a columnist for the Daily Iowan. He is a contributor to the Student Free Press Association.

Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter