We have some enormous problems facing our nation. Solving them will require wise political leaders willing to make difficult and painful decisions. The question is whether we are capable of choosing those leaders and then giving them the political support necessary to execute those decisions – and stick with them.
Consider our national debt. When Donald Trump first took office in 2017, the federal debt was roughly $20 trillion. Today it is vastly higher, and the Congressional Budget Office projects that debt held by the public will rise from about 101 percent of GDP in 2026 to 120 percent by 2036 if current policies continue. Gross federal debt is projected to reach roughly $64 trillion by 2036.
And those numbers don’t tell the whole story. Social Security and Medicare face serious long-term financing problems. The 2026 Trustees Reports project that Social Security’s combined trust funds will be depleted in 2034, at which point incoming revenues would cover only about 83 percent of scheduled benefits. Medicare’s Hospital Insurance trust fund is projected to be depleted in 2033, after which current revenues would cover about 89 percent of scheduled benefits.
So, what happens then? If we cut benefits, millions of people barely making it now will be destitute. Do we raise taxes? Reduce other government services to make room for these programs? Borrow even more? It is going to take a huge amount of political capital over the long term to address this. Is that possible? Is there an alternative?
Then there is national defense. The United States already spends roughly a trillion dollars a year on defense. Yet we are confronting shortages in important munitions and weapons systems. The administration has proposed increasing annual defense spending to $1.5 trillion. Whatever one’s view of that proposal, there is an unavoidable question: How do we pay for it while also dealing with our enormous debt?
And while we struggle with these problems, China is rapidly expanding its position in industries that will shape the economy of the future. China controls over 75% of the world’s rare earth mineral supply and has a 90% share of global rare earth refining. In 2025, China accounted for about 70 percent of global electric-car production and more than 80 percent of battery-cell production. Also, because of the punitive tariffs and the unreliability of the U.S. on the international stage, China is increasing trade alliances with our key trading partners at our expense.
These problems are not Republican problems or Democratic problems. They are American problems.
And there is no simple solution to any of them. We will need leaders willing to think beyond the next election, tell us uncomfortable truths, make difficult choices and stick with those choices over the long term for them to work.
Our political system is geared to exactly the opposite. We empower one party to govern our country, and it moves it in one direction. Then we elect the other party, and it immediately moves us back in the opposite direction. Meanwhile, politicians and social-media influencers keep us angry at one another over an endless succession of cultural and political battles. And rather than focusing on addressing these critically important problems facing us, they use fear of “the other” to fleece us for tens of billions of dollars in campaign contributions.
Who is responsible for breaking this cycle?
We are.
You and I and the rest of the American people. None of us have the power to affect what happens at a national or even state political level. The few hundred of us participating in the Facebook forum have only our tiny sphere of influence to work with. We do represent a cross-section of the political spectrum in America. And all of us deeply care about the future of our nation. Can we not figure out how to respectfully talk to one another, listen to one another and find areas of genuine agreement? To do so, we must open our minds, think objectively and find enough common ground to jointly agree on what needs to be done and identify leaders capable of confronting the problems that really matter.
If we do that, and do it well, can we not be an example to others? Can we not be a beacon of hope? Is there an alternative?
If not us, who? If not now, when?