Can’t wait for the return of Mad Men in July? Well, there’s a video that will drive you crazier than Don Draper in a office full of secretaries. It’s from Bankrupting America, an online project exploring “the policies hindering economic opportunity and growth in America.”
Done in a slick, minimalist style reminiscent of the popular AMC show – and with similar music to boot! – “Is Washington bankrupting America ?” lays out exactly how much American spending has skyrocketed, as well as how much that spaceflight will continue to soar. The numbers, by the way, are astronomical.
Spending per household has risen over 40 percent in the last 10 years – and is set to do so again in the next 10 – pushing debt (and interest on the debt) to unprecedented levels. But that’s just a result of past spending.
Add in our government’s $106 trillion in future spending commitments – that cannot be paid for – and it becomes clear that our government’s spending is setting the country down a path toward bankruptcy.
It’s enough to drive anyone mad, but Bankrupting America, despite it’s pessimistic name, does offer some solutions:
Increasing taxes can’t do the trick ($106 trillion is equivalent to taking all of the taxable income from every American nine times over), nor is it fair to saddle taxpayers with a problem created by government irresponsibility.
We need real spending reform. Merely returning to the spending per household levels of the 1990s would balance the budget in three years.
That means going back in time won’t be as difficult as it sounds when people actively get involved.