Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Debt, Collateral & Accountability

Anyone who has gone through a home purchase knows that the process to apply for and secure a home loan is surprisingly tedious and ridiculously complicated.

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The amount of paperwork, verification and signatures needed to secure a home loan is outrageous.

It can be quite intimidating.

By the last signature, a buyer certainly feels the weight of their purchase and the responsibility in assuming a debt that will take 30 years to repay.

Banks certainly take a risk, but aside from the interest they earn, the single biggest incentive for the bank is that the house is the collateral.  They know that people feel an obligation to pay their mortgages or they will lose their homes.

The collateral keeps the borrower accountable for the debt.

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Just think for a second how different borrowing is for our political leaders in this country?

Politicians draft up legislation with unthinkable price tags---literally trillions and trillions of dollars for expensive, inefficient, unproven and mostly, broken programs.

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How are they paying for it?  After tax payer revenue has dried up, borrowed money from China covers the rest.

This lovely borrowing system has been going on for decades.  Today, America's debt  / deficit stands at a staggering $15.7 trillion and counting. (www.treasurydirect.gov).

According to the usdebtclock.org, the total debt per US citizen is $183, 378.  That puts the debt per US family to $692,810.

I don't know about the average person, but the fact that our government leaders have passed this debt onto each of us seems totally unfair, completely uncalled for and quite frankly, immoral.

Who is holding these leaders accountable?

Furthermore, what is the collateral on their debt?

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This cycle continues year after year.  Decade after decade. Trillions upon trillions.  No politician has been able to adequately address the amount of overspending by our government or effectively come up with a significant plan to eliminate it.

Where is the outrage?

When Candidate Obama ran in 2008, he hinted that he was different.  He portrayed himself as being unlike his predecessors.  He boasted that he could be trusted to be fiscally responsible.



He heavily criticized President George W. Bush.  Obama said, "The problem is the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 24 presidents. #43 added 4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back---$30,000 for every man, woman and child.  That's irresponsible.  It's unpatriotic." (Fargo, ND 7/3/08)

As the Romney campaign has highlighted, Candidate Obama once promised to go through the budget, "line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making new ones we do need work better and cost less." (Denver, CO 8/28/08)

Has he done any of it?

Absolutely not.  Instead, his record reflects that his claims of fiscal responsibility were nothing but empty rhetoric used in a stump speech to pander to voters.

In just 3 1/2 years, this president has spent way more than he was allotted.  He has increased our debt by $5 trillion.  He once called President Bush "unpatriotic" for the debt he created.  What does he have to say about his $5 trillion contribution?

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Will Mitt Romney be any different?



There is one blaring reason why Mitt Romney will be different: He has been trained to be accountable.

Mitt Romney has made a career out of being accountable with other people's money.  For years, he managed millions and millions of investors' money.  These years gave him hands-on training to never spend more than he takes in.

Romney has been trained to use discretion.  Unlike President Obama, Romney never had access to an unlimited amount of borrowed money.  Instead, he had to learn how to budget and account for every dollar and every expense.  His career reflects an individual who knows how a budget works.  He has always had to spend within limits.

Why?

For 25+ years, Mitt Romney knew that if he wasn't accountable and fiscally responsible, he would get fired.  This is how he has been trained.  This is how he made a living and he was exceptionally good at what he did.  This training led to tremendous growth under his watch.

This is what makes him different.

America deserves more.   It is time for a leader who not only knows what to say, but more importantly knows how to act.

We must remember that something is terribly wrong in this country when it is harder for a homeowner to secure a $200,000 loan on a home than it is for a politician to rack up trillions in debt.

It is time for some accountability---because the only collateral that voters have for this reckless debt is to remove the reckless politicians.

It is time to collect.

America needs Mitt.





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