As we work up our nerve to belly-flop into $20 trillion in red ink over the next decade or so, one can only wonder how anybody with any sense could even think about piling on more spending and debt.
That, of course, ignores the fiscal depravity of Senate Democrats, who never saw somebody else's money they did not lust to spend. This past weekend they joined in a frenzy to spawn the Patient Protection and Affordability Act -- government health care -- that will cost Americans $2.5 trillion in its first decade of actual operation (2014-2023) and adds or increases more than a dozen taxes, totaling $485 billion -- including one for abortions.
Can we afford it? Are you nuts? We cannot afford dental floss. The United States already owes about $13 trillion, and we have rung up $1.6 trillion in debt this year alone, with at least $9 trillion more expected within 10 years. (A stack of $100 bills totaling $1 trillion, by the way, would be 789 miles high.)
Well, then, you may ask: Who holds our IOUs? It may surprise you. Nearly $5 trillion of our debt, as of March, was held by the Federal Reserve system, the U.S. Treasury says. How much has been added since is anybody's guess. Then, there is China, with $776 billion, and mutual funds, which manage about $769 billion of Treasury securities. They are followed by Japan, with $712 billion and then a collection of everything from individuals to brokers to trusts to businesses is owed $630 billion. The lengthy list goes on.
We even owe Luxembourg -- a nation easily misplaced in a Walmart parking lot -- $104 billion.
Mind you, national debt is nothing new. It's the breath-taking magnitude of today's obligation that should make us as jittery as crank addicts on espresso.
But debt is not kryptonite to Senate Democrats. They decided to do whatever was necessary last weekend to nail down 60 votes for cloture to push Nevada Sen. Harry Reid's health care abomination -- slapped together behind closed doors and without public input -- onto the Senate floor.
How far would they go? Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu unabashedly sold her vote for a $300 million earmark for her state. Here's the other slimy thing: While she and 59 other Democrats and Independents were busy looking for a fiscal straw to break the back of the nation's economic camel, they still wanted Americans to know their votes meant nothing.
Why, our own Sen. Mark Begich shamelessly ran up that tired, old flag.
All he did, he said, was vote to "move forward" the debate for discussion and amendments. No guarantee of later support, he said. These people believe we are stupid. Sure, the cloture gambit allows the bill to go forward, but here is the rest: The Congressional Research Service says that since 1999 senators have approved 97.6 percent of all bills that survived cloture. That's 97.6 percent. So a cloture vote virtually is the same as the real thing. It was a sneaky tactic allowing senators to do something ugly in the dark and later claim a halo. At the final tally, when only 51 votes are needed, party bosses will allow senators from iffy districts to vote no. What a wonderfully cynical system to trick the rubes.
Aside from the added debt, this bill is genuinely bad, giving us government-run health care, with increased insurance premiums and increased taxes on just about everybody, including small businesses. It would slice $500 billion from Medicare, and, if you do not buy a government-approved health care plan, you could be fined up to $6,750.
With our financial boat fetched up hard aground on a socialist rock, spending, and the borrowing that goes with it, must stop. If not, we may be forced to default on some of our debt, with devastating consequences.
Rampant inflation. Surging interest rates. Fiscal cooties of every sort.
We already are on the brink of having a debt larger than our Gross Domestic Product. Adding to all that yet another $2.5 trillion is insane.
One could only hope the Senate, that august body of calm deliberation and detached reasoning, would get it. But with votes selling for $300 million a pop and halos a dime a dozen, what are the odds?
Paul Jenkins is editor of the Anchorage Daily Planet.
PAUL JENKINS
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