3 of 62

Write now Article Tools

President Obama is open to suggestions as to how to solve the American economic crisis. It has taken many decades of inept congresses and presidents to create the current crisis and no quick fix is possible.

Our government is making the main problem more complicated than it is. No business can spend more money than it takes in for a long period of time and remain a viable operation. The U.S. government is the biggest business in the world and it has been spending more than it takes in for years and years. It won't work.

President Obama and the Democratic Congress want to give away about $800 billion dollars in an attempt to jump-start the economy. The government doesn't have the money, they're broke. They are going to print the money; that's the only way they can spend it. This is going to create horrible inflation, which is going to damage every citizen.

Very few of us, myself included, can fully grasp how much money $800 billion is and that's part of the problem. The solution is simple: forget this madness.

Our capitalistic system will work if the government will just get out of the way. But it won't happen fast.

One of best improvements possible would be term limits for members of Congress. That would be a long-term solution to most of our economic problems; for the last 60-100 years, the great majority of our congressmen and congresswomen have focused mainly on how to be reelected. That makes for poor government.

If all members of Congress were limited to one or two terms, there would be an influx of capable men and women willing to serve America for short terms. And they would be dedicated to good government, not reelection.

We have to quit spending money we don't have. The war in Iraq was a horrible mistake, right from the start. It's cost us a fortune. Vietnam was the same. President Obama needs to get us out of Iraq as quickly as possible.

Another self-inflicted dilemma that could be easily solved is to stop implementing ill-advised ideas that make foreign governments angry with us.

President Bush and his advisers came up with a brilliant plan to put missiles on Poland's border. It made the Russians mad. Is that so hard to understand? Would it make us mad if the Russians declared they were going to put a missile system in Cuba, just for Cuba's protection? And these stupid, stupid projects cost a lot of money that we don't have.

There's no simple solution to the fix we're in. No matter how we blunder through it, the citizens of the U.S. and many other countries are going to suffer many hardships. But, first and foremost, Obama and his new Congress have to stop this insane spending spree that isn't going to do a lot of good. It could shove us into something much worse than we're going through right now.

The federal government has to settle on a budget that the country can afford and pay for, or we'll just go further in debt. If we continue on the present path, the day of reckoning is going to be horrible beyond belief. It's not too late to avoid this catastrophe, but the clock is ticking. It won't be easy, too many past administrations and congresses have made too many irrevocable mistakes.

Every person in Congress should have to hang a framed declaration on his office wall that makes this simple statement: We are in charge of the biggest business in the world and we can't spend more money than we take in.

Learn more about this author, Mac Stevenson.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Ideas to solve the American economic crisis?
We want to hear your view. Write now!