Are you interested in hanging with Tom Jefferson's party?

The Congressional Budget Office projected in 2014 that interest on the National Debt would be $233 billion, or 1.3 percent as a share of the economy but rising to $880 billion, or 3.3 percent of GDP by 2024. These figures are so huge that I have a hard time comprehending them. Much like when TV talking faces say “19 trillion in debt.” What’s the problem? It’s not like we’re talking quadrillions. Like many people I am so numb to these figures that they don’t seem to relate to my reality. My life is going on, they don’t affect me...yaddity, yaddity.

But they do affect me. Very much so. For 2016, the U.S. military budget is $763.9 billion. Military spending is surpassed only by Social Security ($938 billion), Medicare ($583 billion) and Medicaid ($351 billion). The 2016 interest payment on the National Debt will be $283 billion. So, one can easily see that we are going from $283 billion to $880 billion in national debt payments in just eight years. You millenials and GenXers better start saving because you’re going to be taxed through the nose.

Instead of spending a lot of time pointing out in detail the dismal future for infrastructure and educational spending, I would propose that the two party system is completely to blame. One only has to search Sen. Ben Sasse’s explanation of Executive Unilateralism on YouTube to get a clear explanation of the pathetic situation we’re in now.

As I recently watched the talking faces casually and quickly talk about how new Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R.) authorized another 3/4 of a billion to the debt, I wished that there was an alternative to the two party system other than the small minor parties (Constitution, Communist, Libertarian, etc). Checking American history, I discovered that Thomas Jefferson and James Madison started America’s first political Party, The Democratic Republican Party, in the 1790s to fight centralized control. One can Internet search Democratic-Republican Party to get the details. While searching for info about this I discovered a rebirth of the Democratic-Republican Party in New Jersey. These are folks from all parties who can’t see much difference between the Republic and Democrat Parties because once they get to Washington, D.C., they join the professional political class in an orgy of lobbyists, influence peddling and family dynasties that have no real regard for the citizens that elected them. They exempt themselves from laws regulating the masses while showering themselves with rich pensions, health care and perks unimaginable by we working stiffs.

As for the executive branch, the Democratic-Republicans were extremely opposed to a president assuming monarchial powers. This is what we now face. The presidents in the last 100 years have become more and more liberal in their use of “Executive Orders.” They have effectively bypassed a weak and bickering Congress to create a powerful class of unelected bureaucrats with withering authority. All of this to feed the debt. The question is if there are enough fed up people in Idaho for a Democratic-Republican Party Renaissance.

If you are interested in hanging with Tom Jefferson’s party, contact: Democratic Republicanpartyidaho@yahoo.com

Richard Le Francis is a 40-year-resident of Coeur d’Alene.