This article was featured on Philly.com and in the Northeast Times.

Does $700 billion sound like a lot of money to you? How about $9 trillion, which is the current sum of America’s national debt?  With the recent collapse of major Wall Street institutions and a $700 billion bailout, it is apparent that America is facing serious financial problems. However, what you may not know is that there is another economic crisis looming in the near future that will affect every Philadelphian, and if we act now we may be able to prevent it.

Philadelphia’s first baby boomers start retiring in 2012. Over the course of their retirement, the next twenty-five to thirty years, spending on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security is projected to absorb every other discretionary dollar the government spends, which means no more federal funding for city programs and no more mortgage tax breaks for Philadelphians. It is undeniable that the United States will be unable to provide entitlements promised by these programs to all who are eligible if we do not begin to address the problems with the structure of the federal budget and federal spending. It is not easy to recognize how the federal government’s depleted resources will personally affect us, but we can manipulate these intangible numbers to illustrate the financial realities for each Philadelphian in our communities.

You already owe $32,000 to the Federal government – every American does. If you are the average Philadelphian, it would take almost the entirety of your income to pay off your share of the national debt before taxes. Philadelphia’s share of the federal debt is over $48 billion, which is before baby boomers start to retire and congress writes a $700 billion check to attempt to fix Wall Street.

We must transcend the short sightedness that is ingrained in our culture and insist that our government promotes bipartisanship collaboration and cuts spending growth.