Today most of what politicians argue and clamor about devolves down to the distribution of “stuff”—money and materialism—in the furtherance of some relative sense of social justice. As a Latter-day Saint serving as a United States Senator, I never had the sense that the Spirit of the Lord was much a part of these debates, those involving the grubby details of government or of contentious partisanship. Yet, always, I keenly sensed that Providence cared about America and was alarmed by policies that fostered improvident living, dependence and indolence in its people, and all on borrowed money. Another election season soon will be upon us, one with two Latter-day Saints contending for the presidential chair. The central issue for debate that will and should attract our earnest attention is the deplorable condition of the nation’s finances. The nation’s debt clock is rapidly becoming a time-bomb. America cannot long remain simultaneously the world’s super power and the world’s super debtor. All great nations in history have presaged their declines with massive, unsustainable debt, the Roman and British Empires being two obvious examples. Of one thing I am certain: the world will be a poorer and a much more dangerous place if a debt-laden, lethargic America no longer has the strength to lead and foster around the world the values of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
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