ArticleIP_2028.txt

   
   
      
         
            Kwitcherbellyachin'

            Do you worry that the
national debt will impoverish your children? Are you incensed about paying
thousands in taxes just to cover the government's interest costs? And do you
long for a political hero who will dare to close the budget gap, even if it
means raising taxes? If so, I have one word for you. I learned it from Ann
Landers. The word is: kwitcherbellyachin'. Your share of the debt is an
entirely voluntary burden. If you don't want it, you can dispose of it this
afternoon. You can do the same with your children's share. All you have to do
is pay off what you (or your children) owe.

            Be
careful, though: There's a wrong way and a right way to handle this. The wrong
way is to send the U.S. Treasury a contribution earmarked for debt reduction.
They'll accept your gift all right, but they won't credit your personal
account. Instead, your share of the burden--like everyone else's--will fall by
a tiny fraction of a cent.

            Here's the right way to retire your share of the
debt. First, calculate how much you owe. Suppose, for example, that you're the
average American. Your share would be about$15,000. All you have to do is lend $15,000 to the government.
The easiest way to do this is to buy a $15,000 Treasury bond. From that moment
on, you will owe $15,000 to yourself , which is as good as owing it to
nobody at all. Each year, you'll pay taxes to cover your share of the interest
on the debt, and each year, that money will come right back to you as interest
on your bond. For all practical purposes, you'll have opted out of thedebt burden entirely.

            If it's your children
you're worried about, give them the bond. Let them collect interest
until the day of reckoning when that political hero finally arrives to raise
taxes and retire the debt. Then they can sell the bond and use the
proceedsto pay their
taxes.

            The
only possible objection to this scheme is that you have to come up with $15,000
to buy a bond. But on the other hand, if the politicians take your advice and
raise taxes in order to pay off the national debt, you'll have to come up with
that same $15,000 to pay your share of those taxes. So buying bonds is no
more attractive than being taxed for debt reduction, but it's no
less attractive either. If your mantra is, "Go ahead and tax me but
spare me this debt burden," it's time to stop chanting and essentially,tax yourself.

            Ageneration ago, economics textbooks used to dismiss the
debt burden by asserting that we "owe it to ourselves," meaning that some of us
(the taxpayers) owe it to others of us (the bondholders). That was scant
comfort to those who paid taxes but didn't hold bonds. But the old semi-wisdom
becomes genuine wisdom when embellished with the observation that anybody who
wants to can become a bondholder--and that buying bonds is no more painful than
paying taxes to alleviate the debt.

            Whenever I hear somebody
griping that the national debt is too high, I nod in apparent agreement and
point out that the problem is more general than that. "Not only is the debt out
of control," I say, "but so is my front lawn. The grass is ridiculously high.
When will the politicians finally face reality and force me to mow it?"

            This
usually has one of two desirable effects. Either the griper moves to the far
end of the room, or he asks, "Why not just mow the lawn? Why would you need the
government to force you?" In that case, I reply: "Well, why not just buy a bond
and eliminate your share of the national debt? Why would you need the
government to raise your taxes?" I don't mean to say that everyone should buy
Treasury bonds. I'm saying only that everyone who complains about the
debt should buy Treasury bonds--and then stop complaining.

            In dismissing bogus concerns about the national debt, I do
not mean to dismiss legitimate concerns about government spending. Your share
of government spending is something you can't opt out of, short of
emigrating or resorting to felonious tax evasion. That makes government
spending a fair target for your indignation.

            Suppose a reckless
Congress decides to appropriate $10,000 of your money to finance a worthless
aircraft carrier or a worthless social program. Then one of two things must
happen: Your taxes will rise by $10,000, or else, your share of the debt will
rise by $10,000. Either way, you've got a legitimate gripe.

            But if Congress opts for
debt over taxation, you can count on thoughtless commentators to denounce the
interest payments on that debt as a second, and separate, outrage. That's
wrong, because you can (if you wish) buy a $10,000 Treasury bill that will
bring all your interest payments right back to you--thereby, in effect, taxing
yourself to pay off the debt right away, and limiting your damage to the
initial $10,000.

            The great burden of
government is that it spends your money. Those politicians who have devoted
their lives to exacerbating that burden--like Bob Dole and Bill Clinton--would
prefer to divert your attention to relative nonissues like the deficit. Don't
fall for it.