“Politics, in the negative sense, is the game of gaining power at the expense of truth.”
Minister Louis Farrakhan, “A Torchlight for America”

Study the words and policy solutions presented by the candidates running for office. Do any of them represent true solutions to the most serious problems and the root of what really brings about the most important and necessary kind of change?

On January 7, 2008, United States Senator George Voinovich (R-Ohio) sent and published a letter written to President George W. Bush regarding the Bush administration’s fiscal year 2009 budget. The press release announcing the letter is entitled, “SEN. VOINOVICH LETTER TO PRESIDENT ON TRUTH IN BUDGETING ...”

Of late I have kept my eye on Senator Voinovich, largely due to his controversial comments made on the floor of the United States Senate on October 24, 2007 (Web Link):

“Fifteen years ago, when Ross Perot was sounding the alarm, the national debt was about $4 trillion. He showed a chart projecting that by 2007, the debt would increase to $8 trillion. Well, guess what? As of 2007, the national debt stands at almost $9 trillion. Ross Perot’s doomsday predictions turned out to be too rosy! In the more than 200 years that passed between the Declaration of Independence and Ross Perot’s 1992 campaign, the U.S. government accumulated $4 trillion in debt. We’ve now added even more than that in just the last 15 years!

And this Congress has just acknowledged that it will pass right by $9 trillion. A few weeks ago, this Congress voted to allow the national debt to increase by $800 billion, from about $9 trillion to $9.8 trillion.

What does that mean $9 trillion? How do we even fathom that kind of number? Well, for one thing it represents two-thirds of our entire national economy—the worst number in 50 years. For another thing, it means that each man, woman, and child in the United States owes $30,000 of the federal government’s debt. Think about that.

But that $30,000 only represents the debt racked up by the government in the past. Because we continue borrowing more than we bring in, that number is increasing every single day. And these numbers pale in comparison with the budget problems looming in our future as the Baby Boom generation begins to retire just 69 days from now, on January 1, 2008. In fact, just last week, the first Baby Boomer applied for Social Security retirement benefits. Reality is setting in that this is not just a far-off prediction. It’s a growing storm that threatens to overwhelm our economy if we do not act now.

And perhaps even more concerning is that 55 percent of the privately owned national debt is held by foreign creditor –mostly foreign central banks. That’s up from 35 percent just six years ago. Foreign creditors provided more than 80 percent of the funds the United States has borrowed since 2001, according to the Wall Street Journal.

And who are these foreign creditors? According to the Treasury Department, the three largest foreign holders of U.S. debt are Japan, China, and the oil-exporting countries, or OPEC. Borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars from China and OPEC puts not only our future economy, but also our national security, at risk. It is critical that we ensure that countries that control our debt do not control our future.

And if, after hearing all of this, you still think that this is a problem that exists only in the distant future, consider recent projections by the major credit-rating agency, Standard & Poor’s. For decades, U.S. Treasuries have been considered the risk-free investment against which the risks of all other investments are judged. In fact, the global financial system is largely based on the notion of U.S. Treasuries as the only risk-free investment out there.

But in just five years that will cease to be true. According to S&P, U.S. Treasuries will lose their triple-A credit rating in 2012 because of the government’s deteriorating long-term fiscal position. What kind of global economic turmoil awaits us five years from now when the U.S. government is considered just as risky as a typical corporation?

And what economic catastrophe awaits our children and grandchildren in 2025, when Standard & Poor’s projects that U.S. Treasuries will be classified as junk bonds? Junk bonds regularly pay an interest rate about three or four percentage points higher than investment-grade bonds. Does anybody have a clue what would happen if the government’s borrowing costs jumped four percent? Interest on the national debt already soaks up almost nine percent of the federal budget. With much higher interest rates that number would skyrocket and interest payments would crowd out even more spending on federal priorities.”

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The name of this speech is, “Update on Our Nation’s Fiscal Health.”

The section that most closely caught my attention was this portion of what Senator Voinovich said, “According to S&P, U.S. Treasuries will lose their triple-A credit rating in 2012 because of the government’s deteriorating long-term fiscal position. What kind of global economic turmoil awaits us five years from now when the U.S. government is considered just as risky as a typical corporation?”

To learn the truth of this statement I contacted both the office of Senator Voinovich and the ratings agency Standard & Poor’s.

Consider all of the above in light of a quote from a recent article in The Wall Street Journal and an excerpt from the book A Torchlight for America by Minister Louis Farrakhan.

In a January 2, 2008 article published in The Wall Street Journal, titled, “Presidential Candidates Shrink From Budget Issue” and written by Jackie Clames we read, “Even as Democrats and Republicans on the campaign trail are vaguely promising ‘change’—and making it sound easy—back in Washington the director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Peter Orszag, testified on Capitol Hill in mid-December about the nation’s long-term budget outlook, and he wasn’t optimistic. ‘Under any plausible scenario, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path—that is, federal debt will grow much faster than the economy over the long run,’ he said. And that, he added, means more borrowing from abroad, and less investment and income growth at home.’

From “A Torchlight for America,” written in 1993, we read, “Most politicians are afraid to tell the full extent of the truth that America has seriously mortgaged her future and that to reduce the deficit will require a great sacrifice. This is why Mr. Ross Perot seemed radical during the ‘92 presidential election, because he spoke very frankly about the problem and what it will take to reduce the debt and deficit. President Clinton must be careful not to say on the one hand that he desires real change and on the other hand propose moderate moves. Since this generation is already hurting, shouldn’t major moves be made to solve the problem so that the future of our children can be saved?”

Think deeply about the current emphasis in the 2008 presidential campaign around the theme of change. Study the words and policy solutions presented by the candidates running for office. Do any of them represent true solutions to the most serious problems and the root of what really brings about the most important and necessary kind of change?

In essence, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and his representative, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan teach that change is brought about by four factors: 1) God 2) the longing of previous generations for change 3) the level of dissatisfaction in the current generation 4) the emergence of individuals carrying the most timely idea for change, working effectively to establish it.

The question for us all, as members of this generation, is at what level we will participate in the process of change, and what kind of men and women do we have to be in order to represent the solutions and change that are good, universal, permanent and enforced.

Allah Willing, Next Week: What the Office Of United States Senator George Voinovich and Standard and Poor’s told me.

(Cedric Muhammad is a business and political economist who advises entrepreneurs and small businesses through his company, CM Cap (http://www.cmcap.com/). He can be reached via e-mail at cedric@cmcap.com. His weekly “Cedric Muhammad and Black Coffee Program” can be viewed every Wednesday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. EST at The Black Coffee Channel by visiting http://www.blackcoffeechannel.com/.)