The Forest For The Trees

July 11, 2014

Ms. Kirsten Powers

c/o Fox News Corporation

1211 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY  10036

Dear Ms. Powers:

I am a conservative; however, I have come to admire and respect your thoughtful articulation and defense of liberal values and policies.  I would welcome you as a neighbor.

There have been a few occasions when I felt you were unable to see beyond the current circumstances and that your deep compassion for the disadvantaged blurred your view of the larger picture – you know, the forest for the trees.  The crisis on our southern border is one of those occasions.

I share your concern and compassion – first for the children and then for those fleeing terror and corruption.  My heart breaks as well when I see the images of those children who know nothing of the childhoods you and I experienced.  Every child deserves to be loved, nurtured, protected, and taught to become a responsible member of the community.

However, we are faced with the age-old story of the over-laden ship sinking at sea – a few souls must be thrown overboard to save the ship and the others.  It’s the story of the greater good, told often in many other ways.  Like the flight attendant’s pre-flight briefing, "In case of emergency, put on your oxygen mask first, then assist others as needed.”

I’m not an economist but I do have a graduate degree – I know something about economics and finance.  I’m convinced our nearly $18 trillion national debt has put our economic stability and security in serious jeopardy.  Something as innocuous as another downgrade of our nation’s credit rating could set off ripples around the world.  Our nation would be paying much higher interest rates on the money we have already borrowed, and the nation, whose currency was once the financial foundation for many other nations, would see her creditworthiness openly questioned.  This would cause these and other nations to dispose of their U.S. dollars in favor of a stronger currency, and coupled with the Fed’s policy of quantitative easing, the financial markets would be flooded with dollars.  And you know what happens when supply exceeds demand.

The government would soon run out of money unless we significantly increased our tax rates, which would produce all kinds of other negative consequences and further exacerbate the problem at hand.  Unemployment would skyrocket, retirement plans would be significantly devalued if not depleted, Social Security would be bankrupt, and all the social programs enacted to help needy Americans would run out of money.  Strife and chaos would ensue and now you have 75 million children who have no more than the children illegally crossing our borders today.  Will you be as morally outraged at the conservative voices then as you are now?

Please tell me you know more about economics and finance than I do.  Please tell me that this nation can continue to borrow indefinitely against the prosperity of future generations without any adverse consequences.  Please tell me I am worrying needlessly about the quality of life for the posterity of this once vibrant nation.

I’m reminded of the Reagan administration’s strategy of bankrupting the Soviet Union.  The good news is, it worked!  The bad news is, at the very moment the new Russia needed economic assistance to transition from communism to capitalism, we were financially incapable of lending a helping hand.  The rest is history you know all too well.

What am I trying to say?  The best way to follow your heart, to be the conscience of the world, is to be financially prudent and responsible.  We are no good to anybody if we are not reliable and dependable, stable and secure, predictable and trustworthy.  I want us to be the kind of people you imagine us to be, but not at the risk of financial collapse.

Sincerely,

Bill Monroe