One percent of $20 trillion is $200 billion interest on our national debt. It baffles me how people with no grasp of third-grade math are charged with managing our national finances.

It should be painfully obvious, even to the folks in D.C., that the massive overspending cannot continue. It’s wonderful that they want to support everybody from cradle to grave. And I understand their reasoning:

• D.C. is injecting massive amounts of money into our economy.

• D.C. is masking the actual unemployment rate, giving the illusion of prosperity.

• With as many Americans on the dole as there are working full time, re-electability – thanks to the takers – is pretty much assured.

There are also massive negatives:

• They are bankrupting our country and destroying the future for our grandkids.

• Today’s interest rates will definitely rise, and that will substantially accelerate the growth of our debt.

• Their rejection of consequences for unbelievably ridiculous choices, in favor of the ludicrous policy of individuals having no responsibility for anything, has resulted in a predictable outcome – a generation of dependents that the folks in D.C. have created but have no idea how to pay for.

• They, more than any other factor, have annihilated the work ethic in our country.

• They are robbing people of the satisfaction of self-sufficiency.

They should show some courage and do the job they were sent to D.C. to accomplish: Manage our finances.

Peter Bernier

Raymond