I owe my grandkids an apology, and an explanation:
* The apology is for breaking into their piggy banks (before a couple of them even have piggy banks) — to the tune of damnnear 40 grand apiece.
* The explanation is to clue them in as to why they might see a TV commercial that features U.S. kids pledging allegiance to China, of all places on Earth.
Before I offer up either, five lads and a lassie, I’ll note that, as Sonny and Cher used to sing, “You’d better sit down, kids … ” because this is staggering news.
Now, the apology: I’m sorry that our government’s financial fog obscured the borrowing quagmire it would plunge into in a vain attempt to remain afloat. That’s why, at this writing, when you are 3 months, 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 8 years, and 16 years old, each of you owes the tidy sum of $38,519.22 (and rising) in taxes to cover our national deficit of at least $9 trillion. (Some estimates suggest it's closing in on $12 trillion.)
Don’t even think about trying to tap your parents for a loan to bail you out of your taxation for our government’s bailout. They also are on the hook for $38,519.22 apiece, as am I.
At your young ages, you justifiably might want to wail, “We’re victims of taxation without representation,” and our Founding Fathers would come back from the dead to argue your case.
The Obama administration is taking the brunt of criticism because its unbridled spending plans have escalated the borrowing, but I must confess that we all — Democrats, Republicans, Independents, No-Parties, Reds, Blues, and Purples — share the blame.
We also share the shame for the commercial in which children are pledging allegiance to China. Oh, we didn’t create the commercial, which I regard as a rather novel illustration of the ramifications of our government’s escalating borrowing.
The schoolchildren, you see, are pledging allegiance not only to acknowledge our towering debt to China but also to lament the volcanic ramifications to their own financial futures:
"I pledge allegiance to America's debt . . . and to the Chinese government that lends us money . . . And to the interest . . . for which we pay . . . Compoundable . . . with higher taxes . . . and lower pay . . . until the day we die."
Check out the commercial:
Credit (as in accolades, not a credit card, although it IS a priceless piece of work) for the commercial goes to the Employment Policies Institute, which recently launched a multimillion-dollar ad blitz to decry the peril of unsustainable borrowing and spending. The nonprofit research institution's campaign aims to marshal sentiment to reverse the government's multitrillion-dollar deficit spending.
Ironically, China was a joke when granddad was a lad, because it seemed as if everything cheap was labeled “Made in China.” Although Chinese products continue to wreak havoc because of health hazards to us in recent years, the Asian country is getting the last laugh — because it’s cheap no longer.
Indeed, it’s so wealthy that we’re groveling to borrow money "Made in China," and it has become one of our major creditors. Less ironically, the Employment Policies Institute’s ad effort kicked off even as the Office of Management and Budget issued its own estimate of more than $9 trillion in deficit spending.
"This campaign is all about getting people to understand the frightening reality of the massive federal deficit," says Richard Berman, the institute’s executive director. "People do not realize just how much $9 trillion is and what it will take for our country to get out from under that level of debt.”
The ad campaign aims to provide perspective on how mammoth the mountain of debt is, according to the institute.
“Americans also don't realize how much money we now owe to foreign governments and just how unsustainable our current level of spending is,” Berman says. “We have to do something to defeat the debt NOW, or we will live to regret it."
Uh-OH, grandkids, I hate to admit it, but our shameless pickpocketing from the future obviously has reached a shameful point. We have done something that not only we will live to regret, but you will, too.
What an embarrassing legacy to leave you.
As Liza and Joel sang in “Cabaret,” money makes the world go round.
These days, the world's economy is on a slow boat to China.
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