NWA Letters to the Editor

Nation's collapse will be rooted in its deficit

Not that long ago I might have been heard to moan and groan about the fact that the U.S. federal government was spending money at an annual rate of some $650 billion in excess of its revenue, thus causing a deficit of that amount. I might have added that if the Congress had just capped spending at the fiscal 2010 level, when our government posted the record-high deficit, rather than increase it every year since then, the deficit would be "only" $150 billion.

More recently the most authoritative source I know, the Survey of Current Business, revealed the government is now thought to have posted a deficit of $803 billion (annual rate) for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2017.

As July ended the Democrat-Gazette reprinted an article from the New York Times, reporting "the U.S. annual budget deficit is expected to top $1 trillion as early as fiscal 2019, with the Congressional Budget Office forecasts showing the federal deficit rising to $1.5 trillion over the next ten years."

In a follow-up article later, the Democrat-

Gazette noted that the federal government borrowing amount for the current September quarter of this year was set at $328 billion.

Consider the following quotation: "There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose."

So said John Maynard Keynes. I believe him. I also believe that only you, fellow citizens, can stop this lunacy. Write to your representatives in Congress and tell them to bring sanity to the financial management of our national government ... and do it now!

John Cornwell

Bella Vista

Want to build the wall? Stop all Mexican imports

For Mexico to pay for the border wall, our government would only have to stop all imports from that country. After a very short time, thousands of Mexican workers would be out of work, Mexican factories would close, and the entire Mexican economy would be in turmoil. It would probably only take a few weeks or perhaps even just the threat and the wall would be paid for and perhaps even built by Mexico.

Jim Stowe

Fayetteville