Overspending hurts youth

Dear Editor:

I am a 13-year-old scout in Boy Scouts of America Troop 8. As part of a requirement for a merit badge I am working on, I would like to share my thoughts about the country’s national debt.

Today the U.S. national debt exceeds $31 trillion. It rises more than $1 million every 40 seconds.

The level at which the national debt is growing is clearly unsustainable. In personal or family finances, small businesses or corporations, it is expected that citizens pay back their debts. Citizens are held accountable by law and should not borrow money which they have no intention or ability to pay back or there will be consequences. For example, if my family stops making payments for our car loan, the bank will come and confiscate our car. We are always held responsible for the money we borrow. It is understandable that the issue of national debt is complicated, but the solution, or at least a large part of the solution, is actually really simple: stop spending unnecessary amounts of money, money we do not have.

I will use foreign aid and grant money as examples to illustrate the point. Foreign aid is a nice humanitarian gesture, but not when our Social Security system is financially broke. We need to put our country first before we help other countries around the world. The financial responsibilities of all 195 countries of the world should not fall on the citizens of the United States.

Our home needs to be taken care of first. Regarding grant money, the dispersal of this money needs to be brought into check. It seems to me that if communities across the country continue to use grant money for unnecessary projects, we are only making national debt worse. A project which benefits only a single business should be paid for by the business, not funded with federal or state grant money. In the end, grant money becomes the burden of every taxpayer. It is not free money as many people seem to think.

Local, state, and national government officials need to find a solution to this overspending problem. Printing money is not the solution, it only devalues the dollar. The fact that I, as a teenager, feel the need to write about this issue is proof that this has gotten too far out of hand. The future of the United States is not particularly bright for the next generation when the national debt is projected to be approaching $50 trillion by the time I am old enough to vote.

Mara Dussia,

Warren

Derelict decisions

Dear Editor,

So again the council and all the glorious powers that be in this little city of Warren go against what the citizens want and/or need. Just the same as the roundabout that I guess we are now taking orders from PennDOT about! If karma is a thing I hope that all of you who are in the developers, feasibility studyist pockets get your payback tenfold.

This area needs businesses that make money, that put people to work for a decent wage. Not a downtown place that seniors don’t want or need. How about setting your sights on a business. Manufacturing? Production? Amazon? Or at least something that would bring in revenue instead of taxing us out of house and home!

Never fails the people we vote in go against us every time!

Vickie Surdyk,

Warren