How to Solve the National Debt - In the Eyes of a Tenth Grader

How to Solve the National Debt Ever since the Revolutionary War, the United States has been a debtor. At first, it started out as a few million dollars but exploded to $211 billion during World War II; it has rapidly increased since then (“The New”). As of September of 2013, the national debt is in excess of $16.9 trillion (“US”). To most people, this is an impossible sum of money to pay off. However, if one simply examines the causes of the debt, they could find solutions to solve it. The majority of debt can be blamed on poor decisions by Congress. Many of their choices are meant to help the American people and to keep them safe, but in reality they often do the opposite. For example, welfare programs were initially created to help citizens going through financial troubles. Instead, they have became a crutch for people who simply don’t want to work. The total amount of money spent on these eighty-three welfare programs accounts for an expenditure of over $1 trillion annually (“CRS”). Some states give more money to welfare-receiving citizens than a $12 per hour job. Some people are able to live off of this money and, therefore, have no reason to look for a job and pay taxes. Another major factor in the national debt are the overseas affairs, mainly the war in the Middle East. The cost of training one soldier is expensive and keeping them in combat can cost anywhere from $850,000 to $1,400,000 per year (“One”). With 2.5 million U.S. Soldiers having served in Iraq and Afghanistan, this has added up to trillions spent on soldiers. These costs don’t account for how much money it takes to transport items. Even the most elementary items like fuel for air-conditioning can cost more than $20 billion per year to reach some isolated areas (“Among”). A third major cause of the debt are Obama’s stimulus packages. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 cost $825 billion, yet nearly 2.5 million jobs were lost within the next two and a half years (“Doubling”). In