My Economic Concerns

     Many people that I know think that I have completely lost my mind because I am supporting Mitt Romney in the current election cycle.  They tell me that he is going to defund Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security/etc. which he can NOT possibly do but somehow they are convinced that this will happen.  Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are all off the books programs and are not part of the national budget though they do count toward the national debt.  They tell me that he will defund programs for women, children, the elderly, etc. which he can NOT do.  The majority of these programs that garner their concern are part of Medicare or Medicaid and thus are part of the unfunded mandate pool.  Let me address the reasons that I feel we must remove the current occupant of the oval office which is the major reason that I support Mr. Romney.

     At this moment our current national debt is roughly 16.04 Trillion dollars.  That is $16,040,000,000,000.00, an astronomical number to say the least.  That currently means that each citizen of this nation is $51,018 dollars in debt at this moment.  Yes, I did mean citizen, which means that each child born as I write this is Fifty-One Thousand and Eighteen dollars in debt at birth.  Breaking this number down to something more realistic, each American taxpayer owes $140,255.00 right now.  The reason that I am stating the timeline here is that the debt is increasing moment by moment.
     Current federal spending is at $3,500,000,000,000.00 per annum.  Current federal revenue is $2,300,000,000,000.00 per annum.  That leaves a difference of negative $1,200,000,000,000.00 per anuum.

     Both parties are at fault for this current situation.  One must remember that Constitutionally speaking ALL government spending must start in the House of Representatives.  The Republicans under Denny Hastert went nuts.  It was exacerbated under Nancy Pelosi.  Some will say all of the spending grew much more under President Bush than at any other time.  When President Bush took office the debt was at roughly $6,000,000,000,000.00 and it grew to $11,000,000,000,000.00 during his 8 years in office.  Under President Obama it has grown further to 16,000,000,000,000.00 in less than 4 years.  To say that government spending, regardless of leader, is out of control is an astounding understatement.
   
     Numerous articles have been written by various economists the world over regarding the impending American debt crisis.  The general consensus is that should the debt reach between 18 and 20 Trillion dollars, especially with the way that the various credit agencies are downgrading the country's credit rating, America will start to see a crisis on par with Spain and if it is allowed to grow further than that on par with Greece.  Essentially our debt will take us down to second or even third tier country level.  Many of these experts expect this to start taking effect within the next four years unless spending is brought under control.

     Part of the Fed's plan to get the economy growing again is to buy more mortgage backed securities to bolster the economy and get people buying property once more.  They plan to spend $40,000,000,000.00 per month to boost this sector.  In order to do this the Fed will increase the amount of money that it is printing on a monthly basis.  Does any of this sound familiar?  You might remember that just a few years ago banks were trading mortgage backed securities in an effort to increase the value of this sector.  It gave us the housing bubble that burst and sent the economy into a nose dive.
   
      Virtually every major organization from Forbes, to Bloomberg, to Investors Business Daily, to the New York Times, to the London Financial Times and many other worldwide financial reporters see this as a sure way of increasing inflation to levels that few living have seen.  Some are saying that it could create a situation that would make 1929 look like a walk in the park.

     Now I am not saying that Romney can save us from this.  I am not saying that he can definitely slow this down.  What I am saying is that we know that the current administration thinks that what they are doing is helping, with no evidence to support their statements.  I don't believe that my daughter, my nieces, my nephews, nor any of my relatives children or grand-children can afford four more years of Obama-nomics.

     Addendum:  So to clarify, while you may be interested in specific programs, I'm interested in ensuring that there is an America for the next generation to enjoy.