Burlington High School
Burlington, Kansas
Teacher: Devra Parker
The Time Is Now
By: Tivoli Myers
12th grade
Time is an integral part of everyday life. Our success in this day and age is dictated by time. We all know the popular phrase “There is a time and a place for everything.” We all have a time to wake up, a time to get to school, a time to eat, a time to work, a time for extracurricular activities, a time to brush our teeth, and a time to go to bed so the process can repeat itself tomorrow and forever more. As the clock of our lives continues to tick, we need to stop and recognize the benefits of life-changing legislation. It is time for sunset legislation.
Thomas Jefferson came up with a concept that is still used all over the world. “One is responsible for one’s actions, not anyone else’s.” This is the whole idea and basis for sunset legislation. If one person contracts a debt then it should be his responsibility to pay off that debt, but it is not logical for a second person to have to pay off a debt that he had nothing to do with. The same goes for each generation; in Jefferson’s mind, every 19 years is about one generation. The government should not allow a generation to spend more money than they can pay off at the end of the 19 years. It is not fair for one generation to spend a million dollars and leave it for the next generation to pay off. This is what our government has been doing since it came into existence, which has led to our eight trillion dollars in debt.
Another way to look at this is to imagine your parents. Say they had a credit card and accumulated over 50,000 dollars in debt. Then, years later after interest has been growing on that amount, somehow your parents die in a freak accident. Who is supposed to pay for the money they owe the credit card companies? Is it fair to have the creditors come after you, and force you to pay that debt off? No! It is not fair, because you didn’t create the debt; you shouldn’t have to pay it.
In today’s society if that scenario actually happened, the debt would disappear and no one would have to pay it. That is not acceptable either because now the credit card company has to suffer. Companies lend a person money to pay back later and, if that person dies and doesn’t get the chance to pay it back or they do not possess the means to pay it back, then the credit card company just gave that person free money. Yes, it is true that credit card companies have a lot of money and also have insurance for these situations. What would happen if everyone spent way too much money and then died or just never paid it back until they died? Hopefully, we wouldn’t have another Depression, but that seems a likely situation.
Solutions are hard to come by in many circumstances. We are very lucky that Mr. Jefferson proposed a plan long ago. Sunset legislation is the answer. A person should not be allowed to spend more money than can be paid back in about 19 years. That way, the relatives do not have to assume whatever debt their ancestors amass and the credit card companies do not have to take the blame on themselves either. Jefferson’s idea should also be applied to our government. At this very moment the United States of America is over eight trillion dollars in debt. How are we ever going to be able to pay off such a colossal amount? We can’t. Had we taken Jefferson’s advice long ago, we could have saved ourselves from this frustrating position.
Government is supposed to find the bugs in the system and do everything in their power to fix them. Well, our national debt is a large bug. Congress should not have the power to use a credit card that has no spending limit. Our Founding Fathers did not want our government to spend more money than we have. Sunset legislation is what our country needs. My idea is to put a time limit on it, try it in our government for a while and, if it isn’t successful, then we can take it out and try something else. What harm is there to try it for a while?
Sunset has been swept under the rug for too long. The time has come to shake out the rug and let sunset do what it was created to do. No longer will our government run away from our economical problems. Each generation decides they do not want to deal with it so they keep leaving it for the next generation to take care of, and this has got to stop! Now is the time to enact sunset legislation.
Answers To Questions Prompted By The Required Reading
Q1- What was the average life span in Jefferson’s age according to his letter?
A1- 55 years
Q2- Do some research and find out the size of the national debt you are about to inherit as taxpayers. Don’t forget the benefits promised in your name to the older generations under the guise of Social Security and Medicare.
A2- $ 8,540,241,268,847.15 is the total national debt in the United States. Therefore, my share of the nation’s debt at this time is approximately $28,466.60. That sum does not include all the money that is garnished out of my wages every year.
Q3-What do you think of Jefferson’s assertion that “…no generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of its own existence.”
A3- I agree, the debt accumulated by a generation should be paid off before the successor generation takes over. It would not be fair for Generation 1 to rack up a large debt and leave it for Generation 2 to pay off.
Is it feasible to undue the social contracts in your children or grandchildren’s life times? Would you want to even if you could? Why or why not.
A3
(part
2)
-
Yes,
it
is
feasible.
If
I
could
change
it
I
would
because
Social
Security
is
going
to
fall
apart,
and
it
needs
to
be
changed.
However,
there
will
be
a
group
of
people
that
will
be
left
out
of
the
equation
and
will
be
worse
off
than
where
we
are
now,
but
in
order
to
save
the
later
generations
it
needs
to
be
changed
even
if
there
are
some
that
will
suffer.
Q4- Do you agree, as Jefferson maintained, that “[debt] between society and society, or generation and generation, there is no municipal obligation, no umpire but the law of nature. We seem not to have perceived that, by the law of nature, one generation is to another as one independent nation to another.”
A4- Yes I agree, each generation is almost entirely different just as each nation is almost entirely different. What one generation does with their money should not be forced onto the next generation.
Q5-
In
view
of
Jefferson’s
words
that
follow,
why
do
you
think
a
sunset
provision
on
generational
debt
wasn’t
included
in
the
U.S.
Constitution?
“But with respect to future debts, would it not be wise and just for that nation to declare, in the constitution they are forming, that neither the legislature, nor the nation itself, can validly contract more debt than they may pay within their own age, or within the term of 19 years? And that all future contracts will be deemed void as to what shall remain unpaid at the end of 19 years from their date? This would put the lenders and the borrowers also, on their guard.”
A5- I do not think the founding fathers wanted the burden of paying back their debt: in light of the fact that starting a nation is costly and our fathers would not have the recourses to repay whatever debt they contracted. If sunset was added to the constitution then the process by which to raise a government in the new world would be delayed due to lack of money.
Q6- What do you say to Jefferson’s assertion that “a law of limited duration is much more manageable than one which needs a repeal.” ?
A6- It makes sense. If we create a law about a situation that is intended to last forever, and then the situation changes, then we must repeal the law, which takes much more time and effort than creating a law that is only intended to last a limited amount of time, then if the situation changes we can just make a new law that fits the new situation better than the old one.
Q7- “We have already given in example one effectual check to the Dog of war by transferring the power of letting him loose from the Executive to the Legislative body, from those who are to spend to those who are to pay.”
A7- Technically, the above is not a question. However, I will attempt to answer to the best of my ability. A person should not be allowed to transfer from a position in the executive branch into a position in the legislative branch. If this were to happen, there could be a loophole in the checks and balances system.
Q8- In light of the excerpt from his letter above, what do you think Thomas Jefferson would make of our nation’s recent history of fighting undeclared wars?
A8- In my mind, Thomas was an honest, law abiding citizen. If our country had agreed to declare war before fighting and having the consent of our allies then he would have made sure we did so. Our country now, is more of a rebel and likes to make its own way in the world, without following procedure. This, without a doubt would have upset Jefferson immensely.
Q9- Name ten of the twenty-six states that have enacted sunset legislation.
A9- Texas, California, Delaware, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, and Hawaii
Q10- What state abolished all state government? What do you think the voters got for their trouble?
A10- West Virginia attempted to abolish sunset legislation in their state government, but their governor vetoed the bill. They also failed to do the same in every state government. I do not believe the voters received anything for their trouble.
Q11- What good do attempts at enacting Sunset legislation achieve even when the laws are not enacted?
A11- Attempting to enact a legislative act gets the word out to the people. Just because the act did not pass this time, does not mean the outcome will be the same in the future. Once the people are introduced to the idea of sunset legislation then they can recruit and publicize it so that next time it may pass.