Desmond Lachman, writing in Forbes:
History is littered with examples of major economic and financial crises in countries that have engaged in profligate public spending. These sad experiences should be raising red flags in the U.S. Public finances suggest that the country could very well be on the path to either a destructive burst of inflation or an outright government debt default.
There is little question that U.S. public finances are on an unsustainable trajectory. In scoring the Obama administration’s 2009 budget, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projected that government debt is set to increase at its fastest pace in peacetime history. Indeed, the CBO projected that on present policies the net U.S. government debt would approximately double from 42% of gross domestic product in 2008 to 83% by 2019. It also projected that the U.S. budget deficit would remain at between 4% and 6% of GDP even after the economy had fully recovered.
Lachman sees only three alternatives: Tough choices to cut costs and raise revenues, default or hyper inflation. None of these is appealing, but the first option is the only one that doesn’t do potentially irreparable harm to the United States.
Yet Obama and the Democrats continue to try to spend even more. This should worry you – a lot. This bunch would not know fiscal responsibility if it beat them over the head with a bat. They appear to be totally clue proof. We are reaching a crisis point with a flagging economy and a spendthrift cabal in charge.
