Dear Next President,

The government as you may know the government budget is $3.8 trillion according to the National Priorities Project. The reason I bring this up is because the United States are in debt by $19.3 trillion according to the www.usgovernmentdebt.us. The government is only putting about $229 billion towards the debt and that I think is a problem if we what to be free from debt of other countries. My thought about this is that the government has been in debt to long and needs to fixes this problem.

The reason that this topic came to my attention was because I will be paying taxes in a couple of years. The problem that with the spending of the government I believe it is where they spend it. The government spends 48.56% according to National Priorities Project of their budget on mandatory spend which includes food stamps. The food stamps are good for people but it is what they can buy with them that is not need like chips and other junk food according to United States Department of Agricultural. The Social Security is for the people that have worked and have retired and are getting money back from the government that they have given to the government in taxes but it also gives it to 2.3 million spouses and children of the retired worker according to National Priorities Project. In the end there is money that is going down the drain that we could be using for other things like putting it toward the debt or research or other public services.

There will be people that say that people have food assistance should be allowed to have what they want. But if that is that case then that is fine but they should get a job to get what they want because there are people that are not on food assistance that have a job and can not get it but they are working to get the things they need so if people that are not working to get that junk food then should the stores give it out because there are people that are working to get it. So other people might say that we need to support the families that have workers that are not working and bring in some kind of income. Which I think that is fine if we support the people that have worked and are now retired but why do we have to give money to someone that might be still working but they are married to someone that is retired and there kids and what do the kids need the money for if they still live at home or if they have a job. There are some people that say that we should spend more money on the people that are getting help from the government. If we do that then they will become reliable on that government and then they will not try to get a job and work for it.

That the end of the day we can make this work if we cut back on somethings. The solution that I bring to the table is that we should cut out the kids of the retirement plan if they are healthy. We should also but better rules on what people can buy with food stamps. Thank you for listening to me and if you need any more help on the new plan then I will be willing to help.

Sincerely,

Payton W.

Grade 10,

Minnesota