The National Debt

I was born and raised in New Hampshire. My dad was a Republican, and I can remember having discussions with him about the national debt. The GOP reasoning back then was that the US government should have to balance their budget โ€” just like every family has to do, sitting around the kitchen table and finding a way to make ends meet.

Our national debt has exploded, starting with Reaganโ€™s tax cuts. All our presidents since then have added to the total. Today, our total national debt is over $38 trillion โ€” and we are adding $5โ€“6 billion every day.

What happened to those citizens, both Republicans and Democrats, who abhorred the national debt? Elon Muskโ€™s DOGE experiment in saving federal dollars has been a complete waste of time, and if anything, has just added chaos, inefficiency, further expense to the governmentโ€™s budget.

Suddenly, we have a war in Iran with no exit plan. Congress has not authorized those military operations, but the costs are quickly rising. The war is costing us over $59 million every day โ€” a figure that could cover the daily costs of Medicaid for more than four million Americans.

We should not be in the war for a number of reasons โ€” moral, constitutional, and financial.

Joyce Weston, Plymouth