The War on Debt

If the housing crisis has taught us anything, it's that debt, if not properly managed, is destructive. Excessive debt is like acid: If you're exposed to it, it will eat away at your ability to build wealth. That is why this blog is not called "in debt we trust."

Sadly, that has become the motto of the U.S. government, which wants to increase its debt limit to more than $12 trillion.

As a U.S. congressman said in 2006, “Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.” Unfortunately, the person who said that was Barack Obama, and his inability to live up to his own words in 2009 indicates his own failure of leadership.

Obama's willingness to push America closer to bankruptcy, at much greater speed and volume than any of his predecessors, is one of the most alarming things I have ever witnessed. It is a recipe for financial disaster, and by spending all his political capital on health insurance reform, I fear he will prove impotent at solving what I believe is America's most severe crisis since the Civil War.