Good Neighbors, Bad Ancestors

Let me confess what my generation of politicians has done to your generation. I graduated from high school in 1953 and I inherited from my parents a small federal debt and the world's largest creditor nation. I am leaving you a staggering federal debt and the world's largest debtor nation.

I inherited an exporting nation with a high savings rate and I'm leaving you an importing nation with the industrial world's lowest saving rate. I inherited a nation that produced more than it consumed and I'm leaving you a nation that consumes more than it produces.

There was every reason for my parents to borrow money--they were fighting a depression and Hitler. There was no reason for my generation to borrow money (i.e. to pre-spend your money) yet we have left an albatross of debt on your generation the magnitude of which few understand.

My generation of politicians has been the most fiscally irresponsible generation in the nation's history. Let me count the ways.

1. My generation of politicians has relentlessly and quietly encumbered your future earnings. Compare the federal debt to our Gross Domestic Product (GDP):

In times of great prosperity we have quietly increased the debt as a percentage of the GDP. And every year we dramatically understate the yearly deficit by offsetting the real deficit with money borrowed from some 150 federal trust funds (such as the Social Security Trust Fund). The total of the published annual deficits for the last 10 years is approximately $ 1 trillion, but the actual federal debt has increased over $4 trillion. In other words, the yearly deficit is not the real amount we add to the debt for that year--it is considerably understated. My generation has been lying to you.

2. We have dramatically understated the total debt. The total amount of federal debt which we say we are leaving your generation is $5.4 trillion, but that in no way represents the costs of government services which my generation enjoyed but leave to your generation to pay off.

There is a whole category of "costs of the future" called "Unfunded Liabilities" which I argue make the real federal debt that you will have to pay off for services enjoyed by my generation far closer to $14-$17 trillion. Military retirement, federal civil service retirement and Social Security payments are all owed for which no (or inadequate) money has been set aside. There is a whole category of governmental services which we enjoyed but left you the bill to pay. Cheating as well as lying.

3. We have also told you that the Social Security Trust Fund was an asset, but it is not; there is nothing there which will help you pay off future social security payments. The "Trust Fund" owns nothing but U.S. government bonds which you will have to raise the money to pay off. You will thus inherit a large amount of federal government bonds that you will have to pay off yourselves. We don't even pay the interest on those bonds but instead pay the interest by additional federal bonds that you will also have to repay.

If we would have bought German Bonds or stocks there would be value in the fund, but we bought U.S. government bonds so we could add it to your credit card. Like the man who knew seven languages but had nothing to say in any of them, it is all show. The Economist magazine equated this action to leaving your generation a whole bunch of I.O.U.'s to pay off. So there you have it: cheating, lying and fraud.

The reason I am pleading for mercy is that our hearts have been in the right place. We did it for the best of causes. We have been "credit card liberals"; there has been no program that we didn't consider worthy of funding and then putting on your credit card. We knew what we wanted, but not what we could afford.

We have enriched our own political careers by voting for a myriad of programs that we didn't pay for. We get the political benefit, you get the bill. Great deal for me, terrible deal for you. Sure the deficit is down this year, but watch it grow dramatically as the baby boomers retire.

I have no idea what cause or issue will ignite your generation. Every generation surprises the previous generation, and you will decide what you will decide. But please consider the question of intergenerational equity.

My generation lived in the afterglow of the New Deal. We misread Keynes and thought that borrowing, because it worked in the thirties and forties, could continue forever. Debt is economic cocaine; it is very hard to stop borrowing once you started. Please understand, I would have been voted out of office if I would have raised taxes or cut spending, so I borrowed your future earnings. It was the perfect fraud.

Now I have confessed. I am contrite. Every generation should pay for the government services it uses. Robert Louis Stevenson said: "Sooner or later, we all sit down to a banquet of consequences." True, except you will be sitting there, paying my bills.

My generation as been very "liberal" with your money. We have been good neighbors but bad ancestors.

Richard Lamm, the former Governor of Colorado, is a fellow this semester at the Institute of Politics. Year  Debt  GDP 1981  $1 Trillion  $3 Trillion 1986  $2 Trillion  $4 Trillion 1992  $4 Trillion  $6 Trillion 1997  $5.4 Trillion  $7 Trillion