Where Is The Love (And Money)?

     “Rule #1: Never lose money. Rule #2: Never forget rule #1.” Warren Buffet was definitely on to something when he espoused this advice to the American public. Today we hear both President Obama and former Governor Romney talk about the budget, and how, especially on the Republican side, our country has “no money” and that we are running a deficit. Well, to tell you the truth, neither side is wrong, so let’s try to make some sense of this budget issue. When former Arkansas Governor and President Bill Clinton took office in 1993, he was welcomed by a roughly $290,000,000,000 budget deficit. However, with some tax raising and belt tightening, Clinton was able to leave the country with a roughly $46,000,000,000 surplus by the time he left office. This means that Clinton managed to run our country relatively smoothly, and acquire a net gain of roughly $336 billion dollars. If these numbers sound ridiculous to you, just hold on. After eight years of former President George W. Bush’s administration, two wars, four years of an Obama administration, and countless bailouts, our budget has exploded, and exploded again, to $16,000,000,000,000. 

     So you’re probably thinking, how do we get out of this debt? That’s a very good question, and anyone with a plausible answer should contact 1600 Pennsylvania ASAP. Well, our country needs money in order to operate, there’s no doubt about that. However, we also need another country to buy the debt from us. There are only a few countries who are endowed with a functioning government, and the means to absorb all this debt. In the case of the United States, this country happens to be China. China essentially acts as the United States’ credit card, alleviating the debt and subsequently allowing the American government to conduct its day to day business. In return, the United States gives China certain rights, mostly diplomatic, but it also allows, and sometimes even encourages American businesses to set up their factories and manufacturing plants in China. This explains why the American Olympic uniforms were not made in America, but in China. Ridiculous, but I’m not joking, I promise...(http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-07-16/made-in-china-olympic-uniforms-are-a-win-for-the-u-dot-s-dot). 

     Undoubtedly, this issue has taken its place in the 2012 Presidential election with both Romney and Obama having already reiterated their views on the issue. In a nutshell, the Republican ticket of Ryan/Romney have taken staunch positions against raising taxes and have advocated a smaller government budget as well as a smaller government in general. President Obama and Vice President Biden have advocated for a continuation of our current budget situation, while not raising taxes, at least not in the near future. 

     Simply put, there’s no easy answer to this debt problem, and it’s one that will have to be tackled head on by the next administration, and lowered by any means possible. For further reading and enjoyment, here’s the live running national debt clock (http://www.usdebtclock.org) and another article explaining the national debt situation (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/national-debt/story?id=17159803). Until next time B-Readers!!