Frank Watson: Our Achilles Heel

I wrote a letter to the candidates during the 2008 campaign. I outlined my three biggest concerns for the future of our country and asked for their position on these issues. I received no response from McCain but did get a note from Obama requesting a campaign contribution. Little has changed in the past ten years. Politicians still ignore input from the voters. I dug into my old files and retrieved the letter to compare it with my current list. I found that my number one fear for our country’s future hasn’t changed. My second concern is now number three while a new issue occupies the second spot.

The biggest threat to our country and to the world remains the American national debt.

The numbers are too big for most of us to grasp.

If you divide the total debt by the number of American taxpayers it comes to $170,351, about the same as a home mortgage.

Those of us with typical 30 year mortgages have a home as collateral to protect the lender, and our payments gradually reduce the amount owed.

Not so for our government.

Our government continually renegotiates the debt such that the principal never decreases and has no assets to protect the lender.

Our nation’s largest creditor is the Social Security Trust Fund.

Every month when you and your employer make a contribution, the government writes an IOU to your retirement account and spends the real money.

The remainder of our debt is held by private citizens, American companies and foreign governments.

When, not “if” but when, we arrive at a point where we cannot borrow money to pay the interest on our debt, the whole shaky system will fall apart. The debt defaults in Argentina, Greece and Puerto Rico give a glimmer of the economic chaos that will follow.

Yet, we choose to ignore the problem.

The current meltdown in Venezuela is a disaster but received only a fifteen second sound bite on the network news.

We don’t want to hear about it.

My second concern is the growing trend for politicians to put their own best interests ahead of the country.

I realize that there have always been individuals in government who look after themselves first.

In the last ten years, however, self-servitude has become institutionalized.

The two parties absolutely refuse to compromise.

The recent government shutdown is a prime example.

Each party demanded absolute victory, and the country be damned.

Politicians and parties have discovered that they can buy votes with public money.

We need to cut spending and raise taxes to get out of debt, but raising taxes and cutting popular programs do not help win the next election.

Politicians would rather shut down the government than risk their chances for one more term.

My third issue is our increasing economic dependence on foreign countries.

We have moved away from being the world’s manufacturing center to being the world’s consumer.

The largest corporation in America is a retail outlet.

When I checked my old college economics text, I couldn’t find the chapter that said shopping venues add to the national net worth.

A couple years ago I decided I was going to buy all American made Christmas presents for my wife.

I found I couldn’t do it.

I could not find ladies clothing made the USA! Keytronics used to make all their products in Spokane.

Now their primary manufacturing plant is in Juarez.

My Chevy truck was made in Canada.

Fords are built in Chihuahua.

American manufacturers don’t thrive in America, but foreign companies do.

The largest Toyota plant in the world is in Alabama, and the profits from that plant go to Japan.

We have a great economic marriage with China.

They make it; we buy it.

Sooner or later that model will fail.

I will save my list of concerns for the next general election and send it to the candidates. What are the chances that they will answer my mail?

Frank Watson is a retired Air Force Colonel and long-term resident of Eastern Washington. He has been a free-lance columnist for more than 19 years.