(Letter to the Editor - Graphic Illustration/MetroCreativeConnection)

A word about the national debt. In 1993, Ross Perot, as a presidential candidate, was able to get 19% of the vote running on a balanced budget and reducing the national debt. Of course, he lost. I believe this was the beginning of the general public and elected officials lack of concern for debt. By the recession in 2008, it was getting easier to add to the debt and by 2020 there was total capitulation and adding trillions to the debt in one year was the norm. There was a time when the process of raising the national debt ceiling meant something. Now it is nothing more than a tool for a political stunt. No one, anywhere, thinks the government will not raise the debt ceiling. As a nation, it is absolutely necessary for us to feed at the trough of deficits (spending more than we take in) to run the country in the way we are accustomed.

For most of the public, there is no difference in debts of $20, $30, or $40 trillion, because they don’t understand it and it doesn’t appear to affect their daily lives. Remember, this debt is yours and mine. You may be a debt-free, sensible investor. But we are collectively in hock up to our ears.

Douglass Reeder

Vincent