Growing deficits dig nation into deeper hole

President Obama released his last federal budget proposal on Tuesday. It would spend $4.1 trillion in fiscal 2017.

We have known spending on Social Security would be a problem since the Greenspan Commission, created under President Reagan in 1981. And yet, all the Baby Boomers have done since then is kick the can down the road. Now that more Baby Boomers are entering retirement, and after running deep deficits, they want to leave the younger generations to pay for their disgusting spending habits.

Blake Anthony

You can’t blame this situation on one generation, the Baby Boomers. I don’t see younger people yelling for spending cuts or saying they want to pay more taxes either. Many of them like kicking the can down the road also and don’t realize they will in time need to pay. The politicians have never been honest about this.

Peter Stein

As a nation, we have to stop looking for groups of people to blame for our budget issues. We are all in this together, or at least we should have that attitude. Some of us can afford or should be willing to make changes, and step up to help make a difference.

I agree that most presidential candidates and politicians want to kick the problem down the road. It took us decades to get into this mess. We should be patient, but we need to come up with a reasonable and sustainable plan to reduce the deficit.

Bob Wehrle

Letting the somebodies of the future pay has always been a popular, unspoken position in modern political campaigns.

Government shutdowns, and feckless votes to defund Obamacare and Planned Parenthood, and default sequestration cuts have become the norm.

When you have crisis-driven politics, it reveals even less appetite for shared responsibility for doing what the math tells us should be done.

Dan Porath

The national debt should be the No. 1 topic on every single candidates’ lips, but it’s not.

Deficit spending is unsustainable and more of a threat to the country than climate change, but the politicians are mostly mum. Much of the electorate nowadays would not understand the math anyway.

Wayne Eden We asked what our followers thought about budget deficits projected to reach $1 trillion in several years. Politicians playing accountants never worked, still doesn’t work and never will.

@RafaAlcalde1 If we figure out solid job creation bills and trade policies, we may be able to correct the deficits, then work to reduce debt.

@JorgetheBull We should reduce the deficits slowly. Don’t go to war; increase taxes on highly paid individuals; increase minimum wages.

@putting33 U.S. needs to get its financial house in order to continue being a superpower.

@MitchMoore1945 Our elected politicians who ran on a platform to reduce budget deficits are now tone-deaf on this topic.

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