New leadership must tackle debt

Using “radical” (by definition someone willing to use violence) to describe Paul Ryan is a misuse of the term [Kennedy column, Aug. 27]. I seriously doubt that anyone with common sense would label Ryan or any other mainstream politician a radical.

Kennedy’s list of issues should not drive what voters pay attention to this election. Federal funding for Amtrak, Planned Parenthood, Medicaid, student loans, and projects that would be required by the Environmental Protection Agency to stop global warming (assuming you believe that it is controllable by mankind) are all topics that should be discussed as part of cutting government’s excessive spending habits.

The most important issue in this election year is our massive debt and its effect on jobs and the economy. U.S. tax revenue in 2012 will be $2.2 trillion. The federal budget (assuming we had one) will be $3.8 trillion. That leaves an annual deficit of more than $1.6 trillion. This places our national debt at $14.3 trillion. Recent budget cuts equal $38.5 billion.

If we remove all of the zeros we can put this into the perspective of your own personal budget situation. You family income is $21,700. The money your family will spend this year is $38,200. That is new credit card (borrowing) debt of $16,500. The outstanding balance on your credit card is $142,710 and you have decided to reduce your spending by $385. Just the interest on your credit card will eat up the majority of your family income.

Continuing along this path puts our freedoms and all of democracy at risk. We will not only be unable to fund the military, the police force and the teachers of our children, but we also will be unable to deal with any of the issues Kennedy finds important.

Add to this the federal government’s printing of money to try to force this economy to restart, and we all will have experienced a lowering of our standard of living. New, courageous leadership is required, such as Ryan and Romney.

People like Kennedy, while trying to help, are simply standing in the way of solving this problem. Ignorance is bliss, but in this case only temporarily.

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Mark Wade, Carmel