The country has to address massive debt

Greetings. Week one of the 101st legislative session is in the books. The first week starts off slowly with the Governor’s address on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday is the judiciary address followed by the state of the tribes address. In the state of South Dakota we have nine reservations and one of the tribal presidents addresses the joint legislature regarding the state of their reservations.

All reservations are federal property. Actually it is their property, as each of the nine reservations are a separate nation. I wonder when we as a people are going to realize the courage to admit this reservation experiment just isn’t working. But that is a story for another day.

This is what I think we need to talk about. South Dakota is receiving upwards of $500 million for rural health programs. Yep, we are underway planning for the first installment of $189 million!

I sat in on Appropriation hearings in this regard. Appropriations chairman Rep. Mike Derby and Sen. Ernie Otten scheduled the meeting after session last Thursday. Our cabinet secretaries, pertaining to this windfall,were on top of this initiative. They had detailed plans for the first $189 million. At first just Appropriations members could ask questions but eventually chairman Derby opened it up to all who were in the cheap seats listening.

I got up and thanked all the Appropriations Committee members for the hard work and long hours required to be on that committee. Right before I became the first from the crowd to speak, they were hearing testimony about the anticipated monies coming in the next five years. I was sick to my stomach listening to this, so I told all that in five years we won’t have to worry about how to expand the funds because our country will be bankrupt and speaking Chinese. 

Seriously, we are going bankrupt with $38 trillion in debt and rising, and little old South Dakota is receiving $500 million from the federal government in borrowed money.

The other 49 states all received equally huge amounts depending on their rural needs. I wish someone would address this albatross we all have around our necks as a country. This is insane. So, President Trump, Senator Thune, and Senator Rounds, and Congressman Johnson, what is our plan to get out of debt? The American people have a right to know!

If we don’t spend the $500 million, it simply will go to another state, and not to draw down the national debt. When we received over $600 million during Covid, we put it in a prison trust fund and had it earning interest to the tune of over $60 million. 

Consequently we are building the new men’s penitentiary with these funds. However, that also was borrowed money plunging us further and further into debt.

Until next week.