No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

      The United States is in serious debt. The U.S government owes trillions and trillions of dollars to support its obligations to social security and Medicare. In this year alone, the U.S. Government debt is going to top 13 trillion dollars. However, this explosion of debt did not happen overnight. It started in the 1980s when the Regan administration slashed the taxes from the high taxes of the Carter era. It was at this time that the deficit and public debt was rising significantly because of higher defense spending and the lowering of taxes. However, Regan who was worried about the U.S. public debt toward the end of his term raised taxes in hopes of reducing the deficit. After the Regan Presidency, the U.S. public debt became a concern in the early 1990s in the post defense hangover, George Herbert Bush or Bush 41 tried to cut spending and raise taxes in order to reduce the growing gap of U.S. spending and its tax receipts. However, after the debacle of his “Read my lips” speech, along with his disconnect with the voters, Bill Clinton defeated him in the 1992 Presidential election. In mid to late 90s, Clinton along with the Republican Congress manage to strike a deal of keeping spending in check and using pay as you go rules which requires a Senator or Representative to either cut money out of a program or raise taxes to fund a new program or initiative. The pay as you go rules and a booming economy of the late 90s help created a surplus. However, by the start of the 2000’s, this surplus would end with a recession of in 2001, a massive trillion-dollar Bush tax, and two long expensive wars. The pay as you go rules also expired around the early 2000s, which leads the U.S. into its current problems with debt.
      Fortunately, this massive debt problem is solvable, but for some people it will require the dreaded word “sacrifice”. The system cannot sustain the Bush tax cuts while keeping current entitlements the way they were. This would require higher taxes and cutting entitlement spending. Many people think it cannot be done, but it can be done. In the early 1980s, the very conservative Ronald Regan and the very liberal, at the time, Congress were able to make a deal on adjusting Social Security benefits to keep it sufficient for decades. In addition, we also have to recognize that taxes have to come up in order to make up the rest of the deficit. It may require a reforming the tax system including raising taxes in order to raise a significant amount of income for the Federal Government. In addition, the Congress needs to go back to "Pay as you go" Even though in the media presents that the U.S. is drowning in a sea full of red ink, this massive debt problem can be solved. It is only a matter of time whether this will be solved in a crisis or bargaining between the President and the Congress. In order for the U.S. to continue its great prosperity, it must make adjustments on its entitlements, taxes, and pay down the debt that we so much to the world. As I said, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Vocabulary Word
Initiative noun
1.
an introductory act or step; leading action: to take the initiative in making friends.
2.
readiness and ability in initiating action; enterprise: to lack initiative.
3.
one's personal, responsible decision: to act on one's own initiative.
4.
Government .
a.
a procedure by which a specified number of voters may propose a statute, constitutional amendment, or ordinance, and compel a popular vote on its adoption.
b.
the general right or ability to present a new bill or measure, as in a legislature.
　
Sufficientadjective
1.
adequate for the purpose; enough: sufficient proof; sufficient protection.
2.
Logic . (of a condition) such that its existence leads to the occurrence of a given event or the existence of a given thing.