Oct. 3 became one of the most defining moments of the 2012 Presidential Race. At the University of Denver, President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney met for the first of three debates the two candidates will participate in before the election on Nov. 6. Governor Romney had arguably one of his best debate performances on record, and President Obama had arguably one of his weakest performances on record. Naturally, the media has been analyzing every clip for the best points of the evening. One that stood out to me in particular was Governor Romney’s comments about tackling the nation’s deficit. Governor Romney argued that the deficit is a moral issue due to the fact that the debt of this generation shall fall on to the shoulders of the next generation. As such, he said he would set out by asking the question, “Is this program worth borrowing the money from China?”
There are two reasons this point resonated with me. The first reason was that it had not been too long ago that I heard the exact opposite argument made by a UA student. On Sept. 27, The University of Alabama Thomas Paine Project held an economic town hall forum. At this forum delegates from the College Democrats, Republicans and Young Americans for Liberty came together and discussed how their party could solve America’s economic woes.
After each party made their points, the audience posed a series of questions to the individual parties. One of the questions asked was (and I am paraphrasing), “Why was the deficit and the government’s deficit spending being so heavily criticized and focused on in the debate?”
The student that had asked the question revealed himself to be a believer in Keynesian Economics, and began to explain how those that believe in Keynesian’s economic theories believe that debt and deficit spending is needed to stimulate the economy. Therefore this student did not believe that there was a significant deficit issue and that nothing needed to be done about the debt right away.
Both arguments revealed to me how divided a nation we truly live in. The national debt, which is now getting close to seventeen trillion dollars, is growing at a rate of over five billion dollars each day. This rapid borrowing of money, coupled with impotent leadership incapable of paying the money back, has led the U.S. to receive a credit rating of AA-. The growing deficit is like the blade of a guillotine growing heavier with each passing second. Sooner or later we will not be able to put off paying our lenders. On that day the blade will fall and will bring to an end the greatest empire the world has ever known. Then our generation will be the ones that must endure the aftermath.
Our leaders on both sides of the aisle, out of either ideological dogma, fool hearted hubris, or sheer political corruption, still refuse to come together to curb their spending and avert this crisis. What is even more tragic is that the majority of these inept leaders will continue to be re-elected by their constituency, simply because they have held the same seat for over 20 years, or because they have fooled the voters into believing they actually care about them.
The only hope that our nation now has is that our generation will wake up from this apathetic hibernation to overthrow this oligarchy of the corrupt bureaucrat and to restore the republic of the people.
Kyle Jones is a freshman majoring in political science and Spanish.
