The Super Crisis No One Dare Speak - I.O.U.S.A.
Bonnie Alba
August 28, 2008
It´s too bad that most Americans will not view I.O.U.S.A. (Watch Trailer: www.iousathemovie.com/) before they vote the next big spenders into office. They might understand the near-future Super Crisis looming over our heads threatening to drown our nation. It will affect our children, grandchildren and future generations.
The self-explanatory documentary is a hard and fast roller-coaster ride without pause to catch one´s breath. The ride was so intense, we left the theater numb and shaky.
It is the Super Crisis no one in Washington wants to address. The present campaigning bunch are not even close to it. Though always present, it is the Mammoth in the Capitol -- the National Debt. All other crises, past and present, are connected to the National Debt through Congress, presidential administrations and the Federal Reserve.
You might ask what about all those crises and reforms: Health Care and Medicare, Social Security, Education, Welfare, Taxes, Illegal Immigration, Wars, Foreign Aid and the latest, Global Warming and Energy? They´re all interconnected and add up to unfunded near-future liabilities of $53 trillion-plus.
"We the People" are the introductory words to the U.S. Constitution. Former U.S. Comptroller David Walker emphasized these three little words in his remarks to the audience during the live I.O.U.S.A. panel discussion broadcast from Omaha, Nebraska to 400 theaters nationwide.
Peter Peterson (Peter G. Peterson Foundation) and CEO David Walker think that it is time to tell "we the people" what the future will be. If we don´t educate ourselves and discern the discrepancies and lack of spending prudence in our Congress, we will not understand when the roller coaster track is pulled out from under us.
Our federal government´s past monetary, economic and budgetary policies have been disastrous and caused the United States´ fall from Number One to the bottom on the list of nations. The strength and greatness of our nation has taken the path of the Roman Empire -- we all know what happened to that empire.
Peterson and Walker´s "Wake Up America" message is like Cicero´s warning to Rome in 65 BC:
"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."
I ponder that while Americans struggle and cut their budgets to the minimum to make it --- what shows of faith and prudence are federal government agencies and departments exhibiting in cutbacks and lowering their expenditures?
Facts do not lie. Yet our politicians and we the people are for the most part ignoring this mammoth in the Capitol.
Walker also emphasized that just as the federal government has failed, we the people also have failed. To hold no spending-budget standards for our representatives in Washington has led to a debauched unconstitutional governance making a mockery of the founding fathers and America´s once upheld U.S. Constitution.
The message is sobering. Citizens have been lured into believing that the federal government can provide everything and fix anything. Neither one has proven to be the case. We have lost not only our self reliance, but we no longer hold to any high moral standards.
As Walker pointed out, "the government has no money of its own." It has to collect it from you and me. If they overspend, those unpaid expenditures are added to the National Debt and it is "we the people" who will pay the Debt.
Americans are also the lowest saving people in the world. With so much plenty, we save less than one percent, if that, of income. We have forgotten how to sacrifice for our future. This also drives up our nation´s debt.
It´s called "overspending" and living with no thought about tomorrow. What we have all forgotten is Saving, Saving, Saving.
There is no doubt that every American should see I.O.U.S.A. which should wake us up from our consumer-materialistic stupor. The solutions are not so obvious -- except on our end of the power spectrum. A few suggestions:
Set your computers up to send e-mails monthly to your representatives in Washington.
Write letters to local papers.
Get out of Debt and Save!
It remains to be seen if "we the people" have the guts, not only to enter this fight to retain our freedom and liberty, but to change and seek to live up to those higher standards of morality and values that once made America Great.
2008 Bonnie Alba
tttalba@hotmail.com
The self-explanatory documentary is a hard and fast roller-coaster ride without pause to catch one´s breath. The ride was so intense, we left the theater numb and shaky.
It is the Super Crisis no one in Washington wants to address. The present campaigning bunch are not even close to it. Though always present, it is the Mammoth in the Capitol -- the National Debt. All other crises, past and present, are connected to the National Debt through Congress, presidential administrations and the Federal Reserve.
You might ask what about all those crises and reforms: Health Care and Medicare, Social Security, Education, Welfare, Taxes, Illegal Immigration, Wars, Foreign Aid and the latest, Global Warming and Energy? They´re all interconnected and add up to unfunded near-future liabilities of $53 trillion-plus.
"We the People" are the introductory words to the U.S. Constitution. Former U.S. Comptroller David Walker emphasized these three little words in his remarks to the audience during the live I.O.U.S.A. panel discussion broadcast from Omaha, Nebraska to 400 theaters nationwide.
Peter Peterson (Peter G. Peterson Foundation) and CEO David Walker think that it is time to tell "we the people" what the future will be. If we don´t educate ourselves and discern the discrepancies and lack of spending prudence in our Congress, we will not understand when the roller coaster track is pulled out from under us.
Our federal government´s past monetary, economic and budgetary policies have been disastrous and caused the United States´ fall from Number One to the bottom on the list of nations. The strength and greatness of our nation has taken the path of the Roman Empire -- we all know what happened to that empire.
Peterson and Walker´s "Wake Up America" message is like Cicero´s warning to Rome in 65 BC:
"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."
I ponder that while Americans struggle and cut their budgets to the minimum to make it --- what shows of faith and prudence are federal government agencies and departments exhibiting in cutbacks and lowering their expenditures?
Facts do not lie. Yet our politicians and we the people are for the most part ignoring this mammoth in the Capitol.
Walker also emphasized that just as the federal government has failed, we the people also have failed. To hold no spending-budget standards for our representatives in Washington has led to a debauched unconstitutional governance making a mockery of the founding fathers and America´s once upheld U.S. Constitution.
The message is sobering. Citizens have been lured into believing that the federal government can provide everything and fix anything. Neither one has proven to be the case. We have lost not only our self reliance, but we no longer hold to any high moral standards.
As Walker pointed out, "the government has no money of its own." It has to collect it from you and me. If they overspend, those unpaid expenditures are added to the National Debt and it is "we the people" who will pay the Debt.
Americans are also the lowest saving people in the world. With so much plenty, we save less than one percent, if that, of income. We have forgotten how to sacrifice for our future. This also drives up our nation´s debt.
It´s called "overspending" and living with no thought about tomorrow. What we have all forgotten is Saving, Saving, Saving.
There is no doubt that every American should see I.O.U.S.A. which should wake us up from our consumer-materialistic stupor. The solutions are not so obvious -- except on our end of the power spectrum. A few suggestions:
Set your computers up to send e-mails monthly to your representatives in Washington.
Write letters to local papers.
Get out of Debt and Save!
It remains to be seen if "we the people" have the guts, not only to enter this fight to retain our freedom and liberty, but to change and seek to live up to those higher standards of morality and values that once made America Great.
2008 Bonnie Alba
tttalba@hotmail.com
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