If We would Open our Eyes to why We have a National Debt

   If we don't realize why we have a national debt, we won't stand much chance of reining it in.
  And, we don't -- We don't realize what is causing us to be $21 trillion in debt.
   Too many entitlement programs? Too many wars being fought, and the expense of fighting a war is too much? Too many undocumented people coming across the border and taking advantage of our largeness?
   Yes, many will tell you that the way to reduce the national debt is to reduce the size of government. And, that is not altogether inaccurate.
   I will tell you this, though. We are always going to need to put warplanes in the sky. We need to have as large of a military as is required to meet any threat. So, it might not be wise to cut the size of our military too much.
  Entitlement programs? Are we giving too much to the poor? I think of the words of the Savior, "The poor will always be with you." So it is that there is always going to be a need to take care of them. And, even if we were to decide to cut most of our social service programs, we would run into deep opposition. If nothing else, as I argue that cutting social programs is not the most practical way of cutting the deficit, I ask that you realize this much: There are times when people die for lack of medical coverage. Yes, we should fit the bill to keep them alive. Cutting such spending is not the right way to cut the national debt.
  What I'm saying is, if we are going to reduce the national debt, we are going to have to figure out a way to do it without just cutting programs. Oh, don't get me wrong, cutting programs should be done, and will save us money, but, the same, it is possible that it is not the most possible way of cutting the national deficit.
   There is a surer way to go about it. Why is the debt so high? Look and see, for it should be obvious.
   To a large degree, it is because government pays too much for what it does buy. It pays inflated prices.
  There is a rule in economics: You charge as much as you can; You charge as deep as a man's pockets will go. If his wallet has only $50 in it, that's all you can get; But, if it has $2,500 in it, collect all of it, if you can get it. Go as deep as his pockets will go.
   Government has deep pockets. Why so? For one thing, it can borrow, with no limit on how much it can borrow.
   This is money we don't need to be spending. We do not need to be paying $15 million for a single fighter jet. And, since government is paying for a fair chunk of our medical bills these days, consider that we, as a nation, do not need to be paying as much for medicine as we are. Fifty thousand for a hospital stay? Like government's, our pockets have been made too deep. The medical industry is sucking money from us it never had access to 200 years ago. It is sucking not only from what we currently have in our pockets, but from what we will (through credit) and from not just what we have, but from what those richer than us have (through insurance), and from not just what we have in the bank, but what we have in assets (through liens).
   Shallow pockets have been made into deep ones. You may not be rich, but it has been arranged for you to pay beyond what you can afford.
  And, for the purpose of what we are discussing here, you reduce the price of medicine, period, and you will reduce the national debt.
   The things government buys are, in large measure, things we pay too much for. And, these prices can be reduced. All we need to do, is to look on the hill, and see all the executives living high up there, and tell them, "No, I'm afraid you cannot live quite so high on that hill. We're not blind. We can see where our money is going. And, we can see we can't afford it. We know you tell us that if we don't we don't pay you executives so much, we will not get the same quality of jets and MRI machines, but we are here to tell you your living in million-dollar mansions isn't making our F-15s any more battle-worthy. We are here to tell you that your living in these million-dollar homes isn't translating into more lives being saved when people go to the hospital."