Fuzzy math won’t save our nation from bankruptcy

Kevin Alexander, Logandale

Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2011 | 2 a.m.

Regarding Phil Ventura’s Sunday letter to the editor, headlined “Bush brought bad math to the budget”:

I think anybody who cares about this country can figure out that bad math got us to this crisis.

President Bill Clinton took office with a national debt of $4.1 trillion. When he left office, the national debt was $5.7 trillion. President George W. Bush left office with a national debt of $10.7 trillion. Did he spend like crazy? You bet.

America voted in President Barack Obama, who told us all the wonderful things he was going to do for the country — lower spending, get America back to work and balance the budget. Well, 2 1/2 years later the national debt is $14.5 trillion, and if President Obama is re-elected, under his own math, he will leave us more than $20 trillion in debt.

I can do math, and any way you want to figure it, President Obama will do more than his share in leading us to bankruptcy.

In 2010 the United States paid $413 billion in interest payments alone. Since 1988 we have paid over $8 trillion on interest payments on the national debt. Under President Obama’s fuzzy math, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that by 2021 (just 10 years from now) we will be paying $1.1 trillion just on interest on our national debt.

I don’t have a pop quiz for the Democrats. All I have is a reality check for all Americans. If we don’t cut the size of this government, and that includes military spending and all the entitlement programs, we are going bankrupt, and no kind of fuzzy math will save us.