The average age in the United States in 2023 will be 39.1 years old. According to the Census Bureau:This means that roughly half of the country's population was born after 1984.
What was happening 40 years ago when roughly half of America's current population was being born? (Related article: Rep. Tim Burchett: Your tax dollars are going to the Taliban)
In 1984, then-President Ronald Reagan Re-electedAt the time, the country's biggest foreign policy concern was The ongoing cold war With the Soviet Union June 12, 1987President Reagan visited West Berlin, which was surrounded by Soviet-controlled East Germany and separated from Soviet-controlled East Berlin by a wall.
Reagan became famous He gave a speech. That day, we were in front of a wall that was blocking access to the 18th century structure known as the Brandenburg Gate.
“We, the presidents of the United States, have come to Berlin because it is our duty here to speak about freedom.” He said.
“Behind me stands a wall encircling the free sector of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe,” Reagan said.
He then issued a clear challenge to Mikhail Gorbachev, then leader of the Soviet Communist Party.
“There is one unmistakable sign the Soviet Union can show that would dramatically advance the cause of freedom and peace,” Reagan said. “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you want peace, if you want prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you want liberalization, come to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
Two years later, on November 9, 1989, the German people Breaking down wallsReagan's successor, President George H.W. Bush, At that timeBut it was Reagan's vision and tenacity that ended the Cold War.
At the end of January 1981, the month President Reagan took office, Treasury Department statistics showed the total federal debt was $934,073,000,000. Monthly Government Bond ReportBy the end of June 1987, when Reagan called for the destruction of the Berlin Wall, that figure had risen to $2,309,296 million. By the end of November 1989, when the wall came down, that figure was $2,923,589 million, $1,989,516 million more than the month Reagan took office and $614,293 million more than the month Reagan called on Gorbachev to tear down the wall.
When the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, 117,912,000 people were employed in the United States. According to According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the federal government's debt at the end of that month was $2,923,589,000,000, or about $24,795 for every worker.
What has happened to the debt since then?
As of the end of August this year, According to According to the Monthly Public Debt Report, the total federal debt was $35,256,057,000,000, nearly 12 times the $2,923,589,000,000 debt the federal government had the month the Berlin Wall fell.
In August of this year, 161,434,000 people Employed person In the United States, the federal debt at the end of the month was $35,256,057,000,000, or roughly $218,393 for every worker.
On January 20, 2021, when President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office, the total federal debt was $27,751,896,236,414.77. According to the Ministry of FinanceAs of Monday this week, it was $35,346,469,569,597.74.
So far under the Biden-Harris Administration, the federal debt has increased by approximately $7,594,573,333,182.97.
This increase in debt in less than four years is more than two and a half times the total debt accumulated over more than two centuries, from the Declaration of Independence to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Where are we heading now?
“If current laws governing taxes and spending remain broadly unchanged, federal budget deficits would increase substantially as a percentage of gross domestic product over the next 30 years,” the Congressional Budget Office said in a report.Long-term budget outlook” was published in March.
“A continued increase in the federal debt, measured relative to the size of the economy, would increase the likelihood of a fiscal crisis because rising debt could undermine investor confidence in the U.S. government's financial condition,” the CBO wrote. “Such a loss of confidence would reduce the value of Treasury bonds and further push up interest rates on federal debt as investors demand higher yields for their purchases of those securities.”
As we approach the end of the federal fiscal year and a new federal election looms, the American people have a right to hear what politicians with power over federal spending intend to do about this issue.
And future generations of Americans should not have to pay the price for these politicians' failure to address this issue.
Terence P. Jeffery is investigative editor for the Daily Caller News Foundation. To learn more about Terence P. Jeffery or to read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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