The Sins of the Parents

The Biblical malediction that the 'sins of the parents shall be visited upon the children' is being re-enacted in modern dress. Our generation children will be paying major portions of their tax dollars, not for goods and services of their own choosing and for their benefit, but to pay for interest on the debts of their forebears.

Is this the bequest of loving parents to their children and grandchildren?

It distresses me that I have not seen any specific reference by any columnist or commentator to this vexatious matter. How can it be that this egregious inequity has not pricked the conscience of us all?

What if our descendants realize the full import of the past indebtedness which their fathers and mothers have consigned to them. The thought of perpetually servicing such debt out of their tax dollars, plus the precariousness of relying on a questionable social security system in their old age, might well engender a bitterness (or worse) in our young.

If we do not arrest this trend toward deficit spending, it could well spark a revolutionary refusal in future generations to acknowledge the legitimacy of such past indebtedness. This may be idle doom-saying; but then, again, such demagoguery may find receptive ears among those who have to foot the bills not of their own making.

While not a topic with public sex appeal, it can have catastrophic effects

Admittedly, this is not a topic with a great deal of public sex appeal. It's not as ominously lethal as a nuclear holocaust or as foreboding to physical health as polluted rivers and streams. Yet, it can have catastrophic effects on the fiscal wellbeing of our children and grandchildren.

Servicing this ever-escalating indebtedness can only mean higher taxes, higher interest rates and continuing inflation for future generations. Our children will be paying major portions of their tax dollars, not for goods and services of their own choosing and for their benefit, but to pay for interest on the debts of their forebears.

I am referring to the current and projected astronomical budget deficits of $200 billion or more over each of the next several years. This cannot be deferred (like the debt itself) will then be approximately $200 billion per year.

It's mind boggling how seemingly apathetic and indifferent our citizenry is to this sorry state of affairs. Ordinarily reasonable men who oversee their own financial affairs with prudence and circumspection are seemingly inured to such inordinate government prodigality.

What happens to our leaders when they take over the reins of government? Is the political process so insidious that gargantuan deficits are inevitable?

The Reagan administration prided itself on old-fashioned conservatism, and the President ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility and a balanced budget. Yet, its first actual fiscal year deficit was over $107 billion, easily breaking the previous record deficit of $65 billion.

Who's he kidding? He's not a candidate on the campaign trail; it's his budget prepared under his aegis, and he must accept responsibility for it.

After a lifetime of condemning deficit spending, Ronald Reagan has painted himself into the anomalous position of defending the largest deficits in our history.

When will his actions match his rhetoric? The electorate should not permit him to point elsewhere like those kids in Mrs. Ornstein's class.

To put these figures in proper context, you should know that the previous pre-Reagan record deficit was less than $66 billion. Is the public so inured to chicanery and double-talk from our leaders that it can serenely accept a tripling of the annual deficits, without sending messages thunderous enough to shake up Washington?

A boring abstraction evokes finger pointing, mortgages our future, and tests our mettle.

Granted deficits are a boring abstraction; but if neglected they will come back to haunt us. Make no mistake about it — it is to be hoped that the Blacks, the Jews and the poor all voted for Mondale, as expected. Thus, there must have been a substantial Middle America vote which swung the election. This large group of fluctuating voters, consisting of labor and the middle class, must have given its mandate to Reagan.

While some would say there is no simple solution, perhaps there really is and we deliberately blind ourselves to it. We must live within our means!

No Presidential administration should be permitted to incur a deficit over its four-year term. Elemental fairness dictates that we either spend less or tax more, and not continue saddling future generations with our deficits.

Think about it. It's much less radical or earth-shaking than it appears.