EDITORIAL: Does anyone care about the looming debt disaster?

Jul. 28--As Democratic presidential candidates prepare for next week's debates, there's one question nobody's worried about getting.

What do you plan to do about the national debt?

There's really no reason to ask, since we already know the answer -- Nothing.

Democrats are not alone. When it comes to avoiding financial calamity, both parties have finally found common ground. They plan to live for today and let future generations suffer the consequences.

That was again made clear this week when White House and congressional leaders agreed on a budget. It will increase federal spending by $320 billion and kill spending caps established in the 2011 Budget Control Act.

The deal runs through 2021, so politicians won't have to grapple with pesky things like deficit ceilings and possible government shutdowns during an election year.

Basically, it gives both parties more leeway to try to buy votes -- and put them on the nation's credit card.

It's already carrying about $22.5 trillion. But fear not, President Trump vows to get serious about reducing it during his second term.

This is the same Donald Trump who as a candidate said he planned to eliminate the entire national debt in eight years. The same Donald Trump who tweeted that annual deficits are "a national security risk of the highest order."

Of course, that was in 2012 when Barack Obama racking them up at record pace. Now Trump is almost outspending Obama, who added more debt than the previous 43 presidents combined.

Republicans used to at least pay lip service to fiscal responsibility. Now Tea Party deficit hawks are like old Japanese soldiers who hid in the jungle thinking World War II had not ended.

Under Gen. Trump, their party has totally surrendered. As for the other party, Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected a White House offer that would have cut spending by $150 billion over 10 years.

That might sound like a lot, but it would have been about 0.3 percent of the $57 trillion the federal government is projected to spend in that time.

To show how serious Democrats take the issue, there were 170 questions asked in the first round of presidential debates. None were about the national debt.

None of the 20 presidential aspirants in next week's debate address the issue on their websites. Many have endorsed free college, free child care, Medicare for all and the elimination of student debt.

Are they for president or Santa Claus?

All of the senators running cosponsored the congressional resolution endorsing the Green New Deal. Depending on which study you believe, that would cost $10 trillion to $93 trillion.

Trillion.

It's hard to wrap your mind around that number. One way is to check the digits on the national debt clock. There are 14, and the final few spin so fast your eyes cannot keep up.

The debt increases approximately $1 million every 25 seconds.

For two centuries, a tenet of the American Dream was to provide a better life for your children than you had. Those spinning numbers will make that impossible, but nobody listens to fiscal realists.

They explain how we're projected to spend $7 trillion in the next decade just on servicing the debt. That's $7 trillion that won't be spent on building roads, schools, security, housing and other programs.

They explain how the flood of red ink will raise interest rates. If rates increase just 1 percent next year, we will spend more on interest than we do the U.S. Army, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

They explain how rising interest rates choke private investment, which stifles economic growth. They explain and explain, but it's too abstract for many to grasp.

Let's put this in real-life terms. If we had to pay the debt today, every person in America would get a bill for almost $69,000.

That's not going to happen, but the average annual income for a family of four will decline $16,000 over the next 30 years if debt rises as projected. That's $300 less a week to spend on food, clothes, gas and entertainment.

At its current trajectory, the debt will be almost one and a half times the size of the entire U.S. economy in 2049. Social Security and Medicare are on track to be at least partially insolvent within 15 years.

It's easy to blame the swamp creatures in Washington, D.C., but everybody should look in the mirror.

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We keep electing these people. We revolt when anyone dares mention cutting entitlements like Social Security or Medicare.

If a politician actually told us what is needed to avoid the looming disaster, we wouldn't want to hear it.

So the burning question for debaters shouldn't be, "What are you going to do about the national debt?" We should all start preparing for a question our children and grandchildren will be asking in 30 years.

"How could you have done this to us?"

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