Seeking candidates who will end generational theft

Editor’s note: Sam T. Sicard is president and CEO of First National Bank of Fort Smith. Opinions, commentary and other essays posted in this space are wholly the view of the author(s). They may not represent the opinion of the owners of Talk Business & Politics.
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On Friday the White House predicted the federal budget deficit for this fiscal year will hit $600 billion, an increase of $162 billion over last year’s deficit.  This is of course being added on top of the more than $19 trillion we already owe, which equates to just under $60,000 per person and $240,000 for a household of 4.

This isn’t the worst news on the debt this month.

Last week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) put out a report projecting the federal debt to grow exponentially in the future as more Baby Boomers enter retirement and when interest rates on the debt eventually go back up from their record lows.

In addition, the CBO reported the Medicare Trust Fund will be insolvent by 2026 and the Social Security Trust Fund will be insolvent by 2030. They reported that for Social Security only, to keep the current program solvent over the next 75 years would require a 4.8% increase in the payroll tax or a 26% cut in Social Security benefits. When the Medicare Trust Fund is projected to go insolvent in 10 years, it will immediately face a $62 billion deficit requiring a 12% across the board cut in payments.

In addition, if no changes are made to Social Security or Medicare programs, the annual spending on these two programs alone will grow exponentially. Social Security spending, which has rapidly grown to 4.9% of our country’s total annual economic output (GDP), will grow to 6.3% in 25 years. Medicare, which has already rapidly grown to 3.8% of our country’s total annual GDP, will explode to 6.6% in 25 years. The combination of these increases, increases in Medicaid spending, and the compounding interest costs from future $1-plus trillion annual deficits will result in federal spending growing from 21.1% of our country’s total annual GDP to 28.2% in 2046.

What have the Republican and Democrat Presidential nominees proposed to do to ensure the future solvency of Social Security and Medicare are protected, without burying our country’s children and future generations in incomprehensible levels of federal debt? To date, they have proposed to do absolutely nothing!

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) has actively promoted ways to save these programs and lower our future federal deficits. They even have an interactive tool you can use called “The Reformer” to make Social Security solvent over the next 75 years, which you can access at this link on their website.

I was able to get to 75 year solvency of the Social Security program by gradually raising the retirement age over time to age 70, using a lower inflation index to slow down benefit increases, and by significantly reducing benefits for future retirees who have high levels of retirement income from other sources. I’d be more than willing to substantially reduce or even eliminate my future Social Security benefits in order to preserve the program for those who will need it in the future.

What I hope more than anything is Americans and our political leaders will demand that our country quit stealing from our children and future generations. What has made our country great is an intrinsic value system since our founding to leave the country in a better condition that what Americans received. It is why President Eisenhower issued a national apology to Americans for running a $13 billion deficit one year, when we now run $13 billion deficits in a week and are on track to borrow that in a day if we stay on the current course.

I hope and pray we may someday restore this same passion we once had to leave behind to our children something far better than what we received.