Letter: Debt must be addressed

Dear Editor:
What has happened to our country? We owe other people and other countries more money than most of us can comprehend. One thousand billion dollars equals a trillion dollars. Our debt is 14 times one thousand billion dollars! And that doesn’t count the many trillions in unfunded liabilities our grandchildren and their grandchildren will have to come up with in future years.
For a history of the growing of this debt read Glenn Beck’s book “Broke.” Beck is an excellent historian. He documents how the debt grew from almost nothing before the Great Depression to the astounding current amount. Surprisingly, it grew even during periods of prosperity, during the Reagan years, and the years of “surpluses” credited to President Clinton. That was due to the insatiable appetite for spending by Congress. Read it. It’s interesting.
The last part of “Broke” is sobering. The solution is going to make a lot of people mad.
We may see rioting in our bigger cities (not Meeker) because sacrifices must be made and some things, like the lowering of pensions, will anger a lot of people. Among Beck’s recommendations are a balanced budget amendment, term limits for congressmen and the approval of a line item veto.
It may already be too late, but it behooves all of us to lean on our representatives in Congress to reduce the size and cost of the federal government.
Dick Prosence
Meeker, Colo.