Walter Patterson Herald ColumnistThis country is $17 trillion dollars in debt, and yet, our elected representatives in Washington seem to ignore this fact.  
We have now reached the point where our debt exceeds our gross national product.  Yet, Harry Reid and the Democratic Party continue to pile up more debt.  Barack Obama is just weeks away from demanding that the “debt limit” be raised again so that the country can “pay its bills.”  If our elected representatives cared, really cared about the future of this country, they would demand that spending be reduced.  If this happened, and if the cuts were large enough, then there would be no reason to borrow more money, money that every rational citizen knows cannot be repaid.
What is going to happen to our economic system?  Frankly, I don’t know, but I know what history is telling us, and the word is not good.  Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor, has been credited with writing, “A democracy is always temporary in nature, it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.  A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.  From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, and this is always followed by a dictatorship.”  These insightful words were written in 1770.
So where are we as a nation?
Our elected representatives in Washington have discovered that they can vote themselves enormous rewards from the national treasury.  Senators and Representatives collect huge salaries, have the best healthcare known to man, and enjoy massive, almost unlimited expense accounts – all at taxpayer’s expense.
Nancy Pelosi even flew her family around in a military jet.  It is a matter of public record that this jet was stocked with the finest wines and whiskeys produced in this country, and the cost of operating the jet was near $3,000 per hour.  Every time this plane lifted off, the party began, all at taxpayer’s expense.
The political class, for some unknown reason, see themselves in a different light than most of us. They think that because of their position, they are entitled to perks and privileges that the common man can only dream of.
In the United States today, 47.6 million people are on food stamps.  The richest, most free nation in the history of the world has a seventh of its population unable to feed itself.
If you pay attention to what is happening in the commodity market, you know that some experts are predicting a coming food shortage.  As a matter of fact, there are a growing number of businesses that teach “survival skills during a food shortage.”  I never would have believed that the United States of America would be unable to produce enough food to feed its citizens, yet that is where we may find ourselves in short order.  
Some experts say that the food shortage will become evident in 2012, and that the conventional way of supplying food to your family will no longer exist.  If this happens, and I am not saying it will, but if it happens, well, you can see the implications for having no food in the pantry.  Things will be much worse if there is no food in the grocery stores.
Governments over the years tend to become corrupt.  Unfortunately, we have elected officials who put their personal self-interest over the interest of this country and its citizens. Congress has exempted its members from “insider trader laws,” laws if you and I violated would result in a long jail term. This is corruption in government at its highest levels.
To add insult to injury, the Democrat Congress has also mandated that  “…companies that supply motor fuel pay a steep penalty to the Treasury because they failed to mix a special type of biofuel into their gasoline and diesel as required by law.”  The problem is that this special mix of cellulosic biofuel does not exist.  Charles Drevna, the president of the National Petrochemicals and Refiners Association was quoted as saying, “It belies logic.”
Belies logic?  No, if you are a liberal environmentalist, a socialist, and hate private enterprise and capitalism, it makes perfect sense.
Alexander Tyler also wrote, “The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years.  Let’s see.
The United States is how old?