President Obama Is Forgetting Us

From Sbstatesman.com:

President Obama has worked hard to get the $900 billion stimulus passed; he's given speech after speech touting the state of the economy, the necessity of stimulus, the efficacy of the bill. But in all the radio addresses and public speeches, I fail to hear the single concern that's most important to our generation: How are we going to repay it?

The answer deceives us by its simplicity -- deficit spending, borrow from China or Japan. But that doesn't answer the question: How are we going to refund this money? Thousands of us are getting our degrees on college loans. And it's painfully clear to us that someday, after graduation, we will have to find work and begin the grueling job of repaying our loans. It's a hard reality, but it's worth it in order to finance our education.

A little-discussed burden of our generation is the debt our parents' generation is leaving to us. The national debt is coming due, and it's nearly $11 trillion that will need to be repaid in 15 or 20 years, on our watch. We are the workforce that must compensate for the recent excesses of our government.

So while we applaud President Obama's good-faith efforts to jump start our economy, we're understandably skeptical about the cost of this stimulus. We realize that something has to be done about our economy. And sure, some of those 3 million jobs will come to us. But 3 million jobs at the price of $900 billion? That's…$300,000 per job? Can it be done more cheaply, Mr. President? How long will we be able to defer paying this debt? How much will taxes be raised to cover this expense? Give us some answers, President Obama.

During the campaign, President Obama often declaimed the failed policies of the last eight years. He needs to remember that among those failures were a deficit-financed war in Iraq and an ineffective $700 billion bank bailout. Not to mention the sizable federal debt that Bush inherited and passed on undiminished. So, for change, what about a government that takes practical steps to get us out of debt? And for hope, what about a plan, a real plan for reducing our deficit and helping the economy without expensive loans?
But no, according to the latest reports, President Obama is satisfied with just passing the bailout and leaving it to our generation to pick up the tab. He's already onto Economic Solution No. 2, a bank to buy the worst of the assets in the economy, the ones that no one else wants. All of course, at a multi-billion dollar cost. And has President Obama explained to us what the price of this will be? How many more millions must we pay in taxes? How is this going to affect our economy in 2015? And 2020? And 2025?

All we get is silence from the Oval Office. President Obama is so busy fixing our parents' problems that he's forgotten to address our vital concerns.

We need more from President Obama than silence. We need answers, solid answers on how long we'll be able to defer paying this loan, and how the interest on this $900 billion will affect our budget, and how, exactly how, he plans to repay it.

Please, President Obama, be frank with our generation. Spend if you need to on the economy, but give us the hard, clear details about the cost. We deserve to know. That's change we can believe in.