National Debt Close To Official Limit

Insight on the News, March 15, 2004

Byline: John M. Powers, INSIGHT

National Debt Close To Official Limit

The national debt rose to more than $7 trillion in the second week of February, according to a weekly report released by the Department of Treasury. As of Feb. 17 the debt was $7.015 trillion. Only days before, on Feb. 13, it was reported as $6.983 trillion. With the government closed over the weekend and for Presidents Day it is a wonder that so much money suddenly could have been borrowed. Of course this sort of legerdemain is the business of the economists and financial wizards who keep and manipulate the federal books so as to be incomprehensible to all except their fellow wizards.

Although a Reuters story quotes a Treasury spokeswoman as saying the number of $7 trillion isn't significant, the important aspect is that the government is coming dangerously close to the formal "temporary" limit for debt set by Congress at $7.384 trillion. Treasury officials say the limit will be hit between June and October.

Pete Sepp, vice president for communications at the National Taxpayers Union, disagrees with the claim of the Treasury wizards that $7 trillion is not significant, noting that the size of the debt will always be a taxpayer issue. "We'll all be footing the bill, not only for the interest payments but presumably retiring the principal at some point," says Sepp.

He goes on to point out that interest on the national debt is the third-largest item on the federal budget and that it results from profligate spending that Congress should get under control. "It is also an indicator that ought to guide present policies but doesn't seem to do so," Sepp warns. The national debt increases when the government does not have enough money to fund federal expenditures and borrows to pay the bills. In 2003 the on-budget shortfall was $374.25 billion, meaning essentially that Americans will be paying interest on that debt (rolled over and over) forever. Or until the national debt is paid, whichever comes first.

Maryland Could Set Dangerous Precedent

The Maryland Legislature is considering a bill that some say could set a dangerous precedent for seizure of intellectual property.

House Bill 38, sponsored by Republican Delegate Rick Impallaria, is an attempt on the part of the state government to take ownership of architectural designs used for constructing schools. Typically an architectural firm is hired by a school board to design and build a school. The firms are hired for one job, one design. By law and custom, after the project is completed, the architect retains copyright protection on the designs, rewarding success and experience.

The Maryland bill would by decree take the rights of the building designs away from the architects and put them in the hands of the bureaucracy. The bill states that henceforth: "e certain plans and specifications for a school construction project e are the exclusive property of the county board." It then allows the county board to "use, sell or otherwise convey" these school plans.

Julie D. Wilson, president of the Maryland Society of the American Institute of Architects, pointed out in testimony to the Maryland House Appropriations Committee that the bill not only would break copyright laws but would undermine laws and regulations pertaining to building codes that are site specific. She said that such "wholesale" seizure and reuse of building designs would ignore the specific needs of individual school communities and result in mass production of inferior school buildings. Indeed some critics compared it to what they called "soulless" communist housing.

If the bill becomes law, opponents say, it will set a dangerous precedent for governments at all levels to own not only building plans but work product and other intellectual property associated with government contracting.

Giving Financial Aid To Ethiopian Attacks

In a developing story, uniformed soldiers of the Ethiopian government attacked a remote town in the western part of the country on Dec. 13, 2003, and killed more than 400 members of the Anuak tribe. Detailed accounts of the government-supported massacre were collected by journalist Douglas McGill in his column "The McGill Report" from refugees who have sought asylum in the United States more than 2,000 since the killings began. McGill says Ethiopian soldiers attacked Gambella, burning homes and businesses, and opened fire on civilians.

The city, populated mostly by members of the Anuak tribe, reportedly was attacked in response to the killing of eight people in a U.N. vehicle, murders eventually blamed on the Anuak. The Ethiopian Internet news site ethiomedia.com reports that attacks on Anuaks have continued in at least five other towns in the region.

Despite these government-sponsored killings, say critics, U.S. tax dollars continue to flow into Ethiopia. The country received $32 million of aid in 2002, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) requested $77.335 million for fiscal 2003 to support programs and initiatives in Ethiopia that, in addition to humanitarian aid, "promote good governance and the rule of law."