Guest Column | Taking on the debt

It does not take an economics major to understand how bad things are right now. If you need an indicator for the health of the economy, talk to any senior about their plans for next year, and you will see everything from desperation to exasperation. For those of us who grew up during the boom years of the post-Cold War era and have never seen a rainy day, the harsh reality of this economic downturn (and its direct effect on us) has come as a great shock.

But believe me, we ain't seen nothing yet. If you are under the age of 35, strap yourselves in, because the worst is yet to come. As we expose the debts of consumers and homeowners and the leveraged balance sheets of corporations that caused this crisis, we need to turn our attention to the massive holes in the federal budget that will cause the next one.

The national debt has just moved above $11 trillion, and this year alone the federal government is expected to add an unprecedented $1.4 trillion to that figure. But that's not where the real problems exist.

The picture moving forward is ugly. As of last September, the federal government has over $56 trillion in unfunded liabilities, $36 trillion of which come from Medicare alone. As Baby Boomers start retiring, they will set off a tsunami of automatic spending that the government cannot uphold. Spending on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and interest payments (on our rising debt) will overwhelm the federal budget, until in the year 2040 we will not have anything left for basic necessities like education and national defense. We are not calling for a small government or large government, just one that is not bankrupt.

It is easy to roll your eyes at a number like 56 trillion; it is too big for any of us to fathom and seems more arbitrary than Monopoly money. Concerned Youth of America has dedicated itself to such an obscure issue because we genuinely believe that the fiscal insolvency of our nation will define the quality of life we inherit. When your parents go out to dinner, they rarely slip the bill to you. When a whole generation of Americans accepts guns, butter and tax cuts, their children are certain to be paying off the nation's live-for-today irresponsibility.

Let's not make this whole thing more complicated than it ought to be: We are getting screwed! There is a longstanding myth that the federal debt is not important because it is simply money we owe to ourselves. This is nonsense. For the first time in the history of the republic, over half of our debt is owned by foreigners, and trust me that each and every one of them will demand to get paid.

Where will that money come from? Your pockets. If the government does not move to solve this problem quickly, we can count on tax rates to double across the board in order to keep the nation afloat. If you think your parents have any right complaining about their 35 percent marginal tax rates, just wait until 70 percent of your hard-earned paycheck goes towards paying off their debts.

This issue is our calling, and we need to pursue it with the vigor and strength that it will require. President Barack Obama won his election thanks in part to the swell of support he had on college campuses. We need to make sure that he does not forget about our long-term interests. In order to avoid a far greater economic catastrophe than the one we have, we need to demand real solutions from our leaders.

The work that needs to be done (close holes in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and restructure the tax code) is daunting, and not easy to do. No politician has ever won an election by promising spending cuts and tax increases, but we need to start living in reality. Young Americans must pursue a selfish fight to ensure ourselves a secure future with the opportunities normally associated with America. Today's youth needs to take responsibility for this issue and demand real answers and real solutions from lawmakers. If we don't, then who will?

Yoni Gruskin is a College sophomore from Andover, MA. He is the founder and executive director of Concerned Youth of America.

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