Mike Tully | Spending away our generation's future

The youth of America are looking to the 2008 presidential candidates for a change in policy and fiscal responsibility.

We will no longer support the culture of deficit spending and pork-barrel legislation, as we will have to bear that burden, crippling our future and America's economic might.

Concerned Youth of America, a nonpartisan, grassroots organization devoted to educating the American populace on the dangers of our rising national debt, consists of members of our nation's maturing generation.

The national debt angers us. We have a plea for the candidates: please do not neglect the livelihood of future generations, as has been done for years.

Why should we, as students, worry about arcane federal budget policy? Because the evidence shows that this crisis will hurt our generation more than any other, even though we did nothing to make it.

U.S. Comptroller General David Walker recently said, "I would argue that the most serious threat to the United States is not someone hiding in a cave in Afghanistan or Pakistan, but our own fiscal irresponsibility."

Our fiscal irresponsibility? The blame for fiscal irresponsibility falls on the generation in power. So that generation must rectify this looming crisis.

Over two-and-a-half centuries after colonists fought for their rights against an oppressive British Empire, American youth are facing the scourge of "taxation without representation" once more.

As a result of irresponsible fiscal policy at the highest levels of our government, debts have accumulated to pay for bloated and inefficient entitlement programs and the War in Iraq, debts that will have to be paid for not by the current leadership, but by us, the youth of America.

These irresponsible spending policies will weaken the American economy if not stopped. According to the Concord Coalition, a nationwide, non-partisan organization advocating fiscal responsibility, the total national debt was $8.408 trillion as of 2006, which was equal to 68.4 percent of the U.S. GDP. This translates into a cost of $28,026 per American, including children and the elderly.

In January 2006, the Congressional Budget Office projected that with current fiscal policy, the national debt will exceed $10 trillion by early 2009, and approach $13 trillion by 2016.

Unfortunately, the enormity of the figures involved often prevents the American public from fully understanding the problem at hand. Since the average Penn student, let alone the average American, never thinks in terms as large as $13 trillion, we are unable to relate.

However, heavier taxation should have a sobering effect on the senior class as they venture off into the job market after graduation.

Indeed, it is their future payment for the current fiscal myopia in Washington that will limit their choices and hamper their quality of life in the future.

Moreover, the elimination of certain benefits programs reflects poorly on what we care about as a nation. The budget reflects our country's values as a whole, and leaving a legacy of fiscal impotency and limited choices should not be a priority.

Nevertheless, the problem still seems too far down the road to care about. Despite the burgeoning resources at hand for the average Penn student to tackle these problems we have become, in the words of Thomas L. Friedman, "generation Q" for our lack of political engagement. It's time to take off our headphones, turn off our iPods, and take action immediately.

Why should we care? Because giving away half of our income in the future is not something we want to experience. Awareness and interest now will prevent the need for Draconian measures in the future.

However, hope does exist.

The severity of this issue is not lost on our nation's youth. It should not be lost on anyone.

We want to know from the candidates: What will you do as president of the United States to stop this culture of fiscal irresponsibility? Spend less? Raise taxes? Will you protect the future of America's children? Will you free us from crushing national debt?

This is not an issue of large government or small government, conservatism or liberalism, Democrat or Republican. This is an issue of America's future.

Our position is simple: the generation with power, especially the next president, must maintain fiscal responsibility at all times. Not only is this a fair position. For America's youth, it is a necessary one.

Mike Tully is a College freshman and the director of development for Concerned Youth of America, a nonpartisan group dedicated to promoting fiscal responsibility.

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