M. National Debt

The national debt is approaching 7 trillion dollars, and the diversion to interest payments is nearly 20 percent of tax revenues. The Green Party calls for immediate debate and action to stop this transfer of wealth from the taxpayers to the wealthy.

For many years the federal government borrowed hundreds of billions of dollars. Money that should have been going into a better “safety net” for the poor, homes for the homeless, environmental and public lands conservation, sustainable jobs, research and development, roads and bridges, schools and the technologies of tomorrow, has been lost to servicing the national debt. We cannot ignore the consequences of our nation’s past deficits and the related costs of debt service.

Working people and the small business community are shouldering a disproportionate amount of the debt burden. Yet the incurrence of the federal debt was, to a large degree, the end product of those who were on watch during the Cold War and military-defense industry buildup. Also, hundreds of billions were lost in the savings and loan bailout, and to loopholes, tax breaks, and multinational corporate tax avoidance. Hundreds of billions were lost due to a failed tax code that has been held prisoner to special interests and has produced historic gross inequities between corporate America and working Americans.

During the 1980s, our national debt grew from approximately $1 trillion to over $5 trillion and we refused to fund Social Security, food stamps, public housing, higher education, public transportation, and other services.

1. We must continue to move toward reduction of the national debt and compensate for the neglect that the deficits caused.
2. We believe a comprehensive approach that forms a basis for a debt reduction plan would include debt payback, increased revenues, and decreased expenditures in some areas.
3. We support increases in domestic and discretionary spending, which is our nation’s essential “safety net” to protect those most in need. We support increases in the portion of entitlement benefits (one-fifth) that go to children, the lowest income, elderly, and disabled. These include food stamps, family assistance, Medicaid, and supplemental security income.
4. We oppose privatization of Social Security. We support increased funding for Social Security, public housing, higher education, public transportation, environmental protection, renewable energy, and energy conservation.
5. To help compensate for our nation’s neglect, we support tax increases on mega-corporate and wealthy interests, defense budget reductions, and entitlement reductions for those who can most afford reductions. Entitlement spending is over one-half of the federal budget. One way to reduce entitlement costs substantially is by means testing, which is scaling back payments to the six million citizens in families with incomes over $50,000 annually.
6. We must revitalize the public sector. As taxes on working people have been unfairly increased, many important public services have been sharply reduced. Corporate-backed politicians are using the anti-government sentiment they have so carefully engineered to kill vital programs that many employers have always despised. If corporations continue to get their way, OSHA will be gutted, our environmental and labor laws will be worthless, our public health system will be dismantled, and the safety net and public universities will be only a dim memory.

M. National Debt

Since 1980, our national debt has grown from approximately $5 trillion to over $9 trillion. An unmentioned portion of that debt comes from US Treasury “borrowing” from other branches of government, such as the Social Security Trust Fund. A Trust fund (or entitlement) means the Congress has assigned certain tax revenue for a specific purpose, not to be siphoned off for other uses. Although national debt itself is not detrimental, the current level of debt is way out of proportion to government revenue and made worse by the 20% (plus) of revenue that goes to pay interest on the debt. Servicing the debt subtracts more funds from social needs and has no public benefit. In effect, the government’s expenditure has undermined the safety net and dangerously delayed the restoration of domestic infrastructure- which becomes more imperative and expensive the longer it is delayed.

Recent administrations’ policy has blindly borrowed money to sustain our global “policeman of the world” posture and the military intrusions and wars that policy entails. Thus the debt which the public must eventually pay, gets deeper with no benefit to the American people.

1. The Green Party supports:
   1. A comprehensive approach to debt reduction while simultaneously heeding the imperative to invest in our society’s prosperity. The administration and the Congress must put the obligation to fund domestic needs first. It must admit that the free-wheeling Free Market has resulted in stagnating domestic productive work, widening the gap between the wealthy and the average citizen and shifting the import/export ratio in our balance of payments to a very damaging negative side.
   2. Cutting the Defense budget in half, ending no-bid contracts, ending support of a mercenary army, ending investment in new nuclear weapons, ending support of manned space exploration.
   3. Increasing all parts of discretionary spending, especially protection of benefits for children, low-income, elderly, disabled, mentally ill and veterans benefits.
   4. Rebuilding infrastructure must include funds for public housing, public transportation, public water supply, environmental protection, energy conservation and renewable energy.

2. We must re-write the tax code to regain balance in wealth distribution; to create a level playing field; and to reverse corporate control of the government and the economy. Political democracy cannot work without the reality of economic democracy to sustain it.

3. Finally, investment in public education and in free universities is essential to prepare our youth to take control of the scientific and technological advances that characterizes the workplace in contemporary society. Democracy cannot survive without an informed and educated citizenry, capable of handling questions about the direction of our society and solving the inevitable imbalances that technology creates and the oligarchical tendencies that follow it.