Chris Smith: “I recently received this in the mail, and I do not know if the cameras can really pick it up. It is a front page that is…”

“I recently received this in the mail, and I do not know if the cameras can really pick it up. It is a front page that is sort of startling. It says the budget, bloated with pork. The national debt, soaring past $7 trillion. Is it not time to fight back, is the main headline. Interest rates rising. Entitlement program, $73 trillion in unfunded liabilities. Sort of makes one realize the tremendous burden that we are passing on to our kids and our grandkids. It speaks of $7 trillion dollar national debt, and of course, you have to pay interest on that national debt because you are borrowing the money. Interest on that national debt now represents about 14 percent of the total budget. This pie chart represents how we are spending the $2.4 trillion of expenditures this year. Interest at 14 percent, that represents $800 billion that we are paying in interest, and interest rates now are relatively low. So that means, as interest rates go up, the portion of the total income coming into the Federal Government is going to be used up paying interest. So two things: interest rates are going up, and the debt is going up faster than it ever has. We are now increasing the debt by over $500 billion a year, and that is because we have a propensity to spend. Politicians have found out that they are more likely to be re-elected if they bring home the pork barrel projects.”