Letter to the editor: We need to stop ignoring runaway U.S. spending

If the political reporting by the mainstream press is breathless, and thus useless, the same is absolutely true for reporting on financial issues we are experiencing or facing. If we get our news from these sources, we will inevitably buy and sell more often and with less conviction than if we follow a more measured approach. Our economy is by far the strongest the world has ever seen, but as time goes by, that strength is being drained and since 2000 at a rate that not only is not sustainable, but in fact will plunge the world into crises from which the world community cannot fully recover.

The debt we are building is stark, and it is rapidly approaching a place that no amount of growth can solve. Our federal government from all sources takes in $5 trillion per year, yet we are spending $7 trillion. In terms we can easily grasp, that means a person making $100K is spending almost $130K year after year after year. At that rate, bankruptcy comes sooner rather than later.

The breathless reporting of tariff negotiations and worries over various cuts to spending or whatever misses the boat intentionally. Anyone with a brain in financial matters knows that the only fiscal problem we face which we seem unable to address or solve is spending vastly more than we make! The breathless and brainless reporting is designed as it is for two reasons: to make money by selling soap or whatever, with the other reason for such reporting being misinformation or propaganda aimed at denigrating American capitalism which has moved the world from stark poverty to immense wealth in merely one generation.

Such breathless and brainless reporting is actually aimed at the destruction of Western values in exchange for values that have contributed absolutely nothing but misery across the continents.

From electricity to the internal combustion engine to computers to cellphones, American capitalism has given the world untold blessings. All of that is in jeopardy if we do not get our spending under control. It is beyond reason that the talking heads do not understand this. What motivates people is always an unknown, but clearly it is time for all elected officials to see clearly the peril we face if we choose to ignore the runaway spending train barreling down on us.

But all is not lost by any means. We are still the financial leaders of the world. If we can begin to be and remain committed to fiscal responsibility, we can usher in an age of prosperity that would trump even that we have experienced to this point. Invest wisely. Know the facts of compounding. Understand that markets ebb and flow all the time as a natural response to change which is inevitable. And avoid the preening, screaming press like the plague. Read more than you presently read and read well. Think about your own situation and seek advice. Who among us knows all? A person not learning has very little to offer. Be positive even in the moments when it seems like everyone around you is negative.

I would still rather be here than anywhere else in the world, and living at this time is breath-takingly exciting because rapid change forces us every day to look at our lives and look at ourselves with fresh eyes. For me this means also taking intentionality into my faith sphere by asking for and expecting answers from the One Who made me. It is, after all, the final cure for all the breathless words being flung in our direction.

JAMES R. CHANDLER JR.

Sumter