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And you thought your credit was bad.

Submitted by Sarah Schacht on December 22, 2005 - 7:27pm.

I was going to make my first blog post on Better Donkey a cheerful one about interesting political and news podcasts that are rocking my iPod right now. But while reviewing a recent podcast of NOW, I heard an interview with Democratic Congressman Jim Cooper, of Tennessee.

NOW's commentator remarked that a conversation with Cooper was "a downer." --That's because Rep. Cooper is a realist and a fiscal conservative who is understandably concerned about our federal fiscal situation. So concerned, that Cooper created "The Budget School", a Power Point presentation that effectively (some might say devastatingly) explains the national debt, it's significance, and the deep threat it poses to our generation. If you've been wondering why your American greenback hasn't been stretching as far recently, click the link to get informed.

Cooper's presentation is the most straight-forward, intuitive, understandable explanation of what is going on with the American economy that I've ever seen. He tackles federal spending, and how foreign debt saddles Americans like ourselves with, oh, just $133,000 in additional taxes per wage-earner. (Maybe Paris Hilton will bail me out?)

All the more disturbing, Rep. Cooper's presentation points out that by 2009, the US federal government will spend more on paying the interest on our national debt than on domestic (non-defense) programs. That's right. We'll be paying $426 billion to other countries while spending $405 billion total on all domestic programs like education, Medicare, police, and the judicial system.

While Rep. Cooper throws out some ideas on solving the crisis near the end of the presentation (that I don't necessarily agree with), it is clear that some tough choices are ahead of us. And with that information in mind, go enjoy a lovely holiday weekend. : )

Posted in National Politics | Sarah Schacht's blog
yes, I'm commenting on my own blog post.

Here's a follow-up to my post for y'all.

Some Democrats have recently taken issue with the growing national debt. Howard Dean has been saying since 2003 that "you can't trust Republicans with your money," and Democratic Senate and House members have jumped on the national debt discussion. However, many Democrats, and young Democrats in particular, seem to shy away from the issue.

My question is why? Why are young people tending to opt out of this important debate? For you-- do you have any interest in the issue? And why do you think others in our generation aren't getting upset about this? In the end, we'll be the ones paying for the bill Bush and friends have rung up.

Submitted by Sarah Schacht on December 27, 2005 - 2:46pm.
yes, I'm commenting on my own blog post.

Here's a follow-up to my post for y'all.

Some Democrats have recently taken issue with the growing national debt. Howard Dean has been saying since 2003 that "you can't trust Republicans with your money," and Democratic Senate and House members have jumped on the national debt discussion. However, many Democrats, and young Democrats in particular, seem to shy away from the issue.

My question is why? Why are young people tending to opt out of this important debate? For you-- do you have any interest in the issue? And why do you think others in our generation aren't getting upset about this? In the end, we'll be the ones paying for the bill Bush and friends have rung up.

Submitted by Sarah Schacht on December 27, 2005 - 2:46pm.
wait a minute...

Are you saying we shouldn't comment on our own posts? Yikes...

Submitted by Benny G on January 4, 2006 - 1:25pm.
It's the debt, stupid

It seems to me like this should be the first part of the answer to just about any question about federal spending. We could do so much more for education, health care, housing, defense, first responder support, hurricane recovery, fighting the war in Iraq, fighting the war on terror, working to reform immigration, prop up Social Security, and the list goes on. The fact is that this is money we are spending that isn't going into our pockets, it's going into the pockets of foreign banks that hold our debts. If we're serious about fiscal reform in this country, this has got to be the first piece of the puzzle and we shouldn't talk about tax cuts or tax increases, spending cuts or spending increases, until we figure out a plan to deal with this. Democrats can lead the way here if they'll start to actually put pencil to paper and come up with a unified plan to shrink the federal defecit that they can run on. Whether you're pro-choice or pro-life, pro-gun or pro-gun control, pro-tree or pro-logging, pro-growth or pro-protectionism, we can all get behind this as an actual worthwhile use of Federal Governmental efforts.

Submitted by Adrienne on January 10, 2006 - 10:36am.

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