Financial and Moral Deficits

Our nation's record budget deficits are in the news lately. President Obama has projected an unheard-of $1.56 trillion deficit for fiscal year 2010, and the United States of America is now dragging with it a total national debt in excess of $12 trillion dollars. It is amazing to think that just thirty years ago, in 1981 when President Ronald Reagan took office, the entire national debt stood at "only" $900 billion. The whole debt amount currently projected for this year alone, $1.56 trillion, is equivalent to our nation's total debt figure in 1984.

But while we should be concerned about these financial deficits, we may tend to forget that our country is also experiencing a more serious kind of deficit--a moral deficit in its leadership. Moreover, these two kinds of deficits are closely related. The moral deficit in our nation's leadership will have to be remedied before the financial deficits can be brought under control.