Debt

Can one man make a difference? Yessiree bob! Jim is a bright young man who feels in his heart that he is destined to help others. He knows that to have the power to make changes he must get elected to public office. Politics will be the road to bringing about a better life for the people. He starts slow by becoming a state representative and through hard work and determination he gets to the US Congress. Jim is good with numbers and soon finds himself on the Ways and Means Committee which is all about money and taxes. Jim's goal is to bring the debt under control because he knows it is a time bomb that in the long term will destroy the country. The answer is simple. They must either raise taxes or cut spending or a combination of both. But what is the best way to do this? He quickly discovers that raising taxes won't work because as soon as the government takes in more money it quickly finds ways to spend it on new programs. Next, he finds out that cutting spending means cutting benefits and that is not the road to staying in office. His plan must allow for a smaller government but still stay in office. Jim realizes that it took many years to run up the debt and thus will take many years to remove the debt. He convinces Congress to pass a law saying that all future growth must be limited to one-half of one percent below the inflation rate of the previous year. The law cannot be overturned without a two-thirds vote. This means that only in the case of a national emergency, like a war, could Congress overturn the law. The budget for this year is $6 trillion and the debt is $34 trillion. If inflation over the next 100 years is 3% and the government increases spending by 2.5% then the inflated budget would be $115 trillion and the budget increases would be $75 trillion for a difference of $40 trillion and the debt would be gone. Of course, if there is a better way Jim would like to hear it.