The Donkeys & the Elephants need to work together and balance the budget

Our generation is going to be faced with some of the most difficult choices in the history of our nation. The national debt is roughly what $13-14 trillion dollars. If folks don't understand that figure, here's an illustration that I've heard: if you earned a million dollars every day from Jesus Christ's death until the present, it would only pay off roughly 7.9 percent of it. DAMN!!!!

Republicans and Democrats have contributed to this debt, but Americans disagree over whether their contributions were equal. We'll get to that, but first there's something else far more troubling. The baby boomers are retiring, they're living longer and had far fewer children then their parents. None of these are bad if they hadn't consistently voted for congressmen who wouldn't change the social security pay-as-you-go system. With more retirees than workers, our generation will pay more taxes than ever and receive fewer benefits. The social security actuaries report that this unfunded liability may reach $11.1 trillion by 2042, doubling the national debt over 30 years from what I've heard

The reason the debt is so important, aside from the fact that inflation damages our economy, is that it is an indirect tax on the American people of all classes, secretly extracting more of their hard-earned money. Asking for an alternative is not a partisan diatribe, it's an honest question.

If social security balloons to more than the entire national debt and Medicare balloons to more than six times it, cutting "essential" services is going to be the challenge of our generation.

Remember President Clinton's 1993 tax hike did not balance the budget; it was the dot-com bubble, sending revenue to the federal treasury above and beyond the tax hike. Balancing the budget is easy during economic booms; the real test of leadership occurs in a recession. Democrats are willing to raise taxes, but they are not willing to cut spending. Higher taxes are sometimes necessary, but with increasing global competition they will hurt America's robust economy. And higher taxes, even on the wealthy, will not fix the social security and Medicare unfunded liabilities. Republicans are willing to cut spending, but not raise taxes, which is good, but how will that notion help fix SS or Medicare?

The sooner both sides address this probem, the better it will be for all of us.