A Nation in Hock

In April 1985 – and I encourage you to listen – President Reagan gave a powerful speech, encouraging America to get control of federal debt, spending, and deficits. He led a bipartisan effort – and it worked. Today, a strange wind blows – federal debt is not one trillion, as in Reagan’s day, but $31 trillion. Federal spending is wild, deficits endless. We are a nation in hock – but there is hope.

Do not look to President Biden for leadership – you will not find it. Do not look to Democrats in the Senate, or half of in either chamber, as they do not appreciate how dangerous debt, overspending, and deficits are to the future.

Still, there is a new wind blowing, shivering the mainsail, clanking the mast, and getting attention at last. Oddly, those who pay attention to the relationship between debt, spending, deficits, inflation, interest, jobs, growth, and what it takes to sustain the US economy, are speaking – and being heard.

On the Republican side, perhaps half a dozen Republican Senators are fiscally restrained, including Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Marsha Blackburn, Ron Johnson, Rick Scott, Ted Cruz and a few others. Too many shrug, imagining – to paraphrase Churchill – the “consequence crocodile” will eat them last.

On the Democrat side, irresponsibility is higher, with what you might call compounding disinterest in the connection between overspending, debt, and economic collapse. Senators Manchin and Sinema have, although not consistently, spoken up.

On the House side, as debt and spending ballooned, Democrats chose to ignore the warnings, pretend nothing mattered, spend like crazy, whistle by the graveyard. The leading offender – not missed – was Speaker Pelosi, who advocated mass spending, mass taxes, demagoguery.

Sadly, the once influential, fiscally responsible “Blue Dog Democrats,” have nearly vanished. With 64 members in 2008, they have seven. The idea of “centrist” Democrats is all but dead.

Still, reality is hard to ignore. Beyond the debt ceiling, a major fork in the road lies ahead. Choices this year and beyond will decide if America remains the world’s dominant reserve currency, or cedes that role to China; whether inflation will be contained or go “hyper,” wiping out savings; whether responsible action will be taken to cut spending – or not.

We are at the tipping point. Most economists, those willing to speak truth to politics, know this. We are at a point where interest on the federal debt will shortly consume federal revenue, crimping Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and discretionary spending.

Arguing about how we got here is just wasted breath, as all hands are unclean. The time has come to stop admiring the problem, talk solutions. This is where, surprisingly, there is hope.

As the 2024 election season sneaks on us, leading voices are talking debt. Republican Nikki Haley, running for the nation’s highest office, is talking about Reagan’s message, showing fiscal discipline, getting debt and spending down, responsibility up – as are Mike Pompeo, Ron DeSantis, at times President Trump. Interestingly, so is Democrat Joe Manchin.

Said Manchin last week: “President Washington warned of the dangers of putting the will of a political party ahead of the will of the nation. He warned against the accumulation of debt…Yet, here we are today, watching party politics and out of control spending threaten the very foundation of our great nation.”

“This is exactly what George Washington was talking about. If you love your children, if you love this country, you’ll stop the madness and start acting reasonably and responsibly to get our government’s financial house in order. The partisan politics can wait. But the looming debt crisis cannot.”

Manchin was blunt: “In 2013, federal spending was less than $3.5 trillion. Today, it’s more than $6.2 trillion. In ten short years, that’s an 80 percent increase” or “over $94,000 for every man, woman and child” in America. Right he is, and well served his party would be to listen. 

He zeroed on President Biden: “We need to pass the budget on time. The President’s already over a month behind schedule. His budget was due on February 6^th.” Right again.

So this may be the moment, perhaps the last clear moment, when men and women of sound mind, good heart, and love of nation might unite to get the federal debt monster under control. 

Republicans speaking out on this are right, and so is Manchin. This is not academic, not pretend, not political, not partisan, and not something we can put off. Needed is a real plan to contain and reduce the debt, deeply cut federal spending, reduce taxes, interest rates, regulations, and drag on the economy, to encourage growth and then use that growth to reduce debt. If not now, when?

That was Reagan’s basic point when the nation labored with $1 trillion in debt. It must be everyone’s focus as we labor under $31 trillion in debt. We are a nation in hock. To get out of hock, assure the future, keep the currency strong, investment, and growth stable, we must act. That wind you hear blowing is Reagan’s reminder to us all. This is on us, no one else.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.