As president of the Barry County Genealogical and Historical Society, I realize my editorials should probably be mostly about the history and genealogy of present and past residents of Barry County. This editorial is about what I would consider the “future history” of the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Barry County residents and of the whole United States. I will endeavor to keep this as apolitical as possible.

I’m greatly concerned that our present Congress and President are putting a very large tax burden on our future generations without having sufficient revenue to pay these taxes. Every President since 2001 has added over $3 trillion to the US’s deficit, to our deficit, to our grandchildren’s deficit. To be truthful, it is Congress, from both sides of the aisle, who have put us in this hole, with a lot of not so gentle pushing by the sitting President.

In 2000, the average debt per American citizen from the deficit was a little less than $8,000. Today, that debt per citizen is over $95,000. Think of it, every child, every grandchild, born in the United States today will soon owe over $100,000 as soon as they take their first breath. Congress, and that includes both sides, refuse to pass a balanced budget (a balanced budget, particularly that of a government is a budget in which revenues are equal to expenditures).

That’s something that we as average citizens have to deal with every day, because we can’t spend more than we have.

The last time the United States had a balanced budget was in 2001. From what I’ve been able to determine, we haven’t really had any budget since 2008.

Well, the government can’t, even the U.S. government can’t, spend air, so this money has to come from somewhere. I have a “left-leaning” acquaintance who thinks, “Well, it’s the U.S. government, they can just print more money.”

But, it doesn’t quite work that way. You have to have real money to spend, and since the U. S. Government is spending more than they’re taking in, they have to borrow it. They are borrowing from other countries, especially China, and someday the United States is going to have to pay this money back.

What gives me great concern is that our grandchildren are somehow going to have to come up with the money to pay back all these countries. If the United States can’t live within their budget or existing revenue situation today, how are they going to pay this exorbitant amount of money back, especially to a country that has very little respect for us (the U.S.). What scares me is that someday China may own all of our national parks and maybe even 20 percent of our farmland, if our Congress and our Presidents don’t become a little more fiscally responsible.

Instead, they come up with programs to give money to people who are willing to lay on their backsides and not work, programs for people who come up with fake “green” programs, programs for 11 million plus immigrants who’ve crossed our borders illegally, programs that say we should all have electric cars by 2035 and we don’t even have an electricity to keep from having brownouts and blackouts now, programs that potentially will “buy” them more votes, programs that…etc.

Don’t get me wrong, all of us, except for 100 percent Native Americans can trace our ancestry back to some immigrant. I really feel sorry for some of the beleaguered Central American and South American people, and I am a big fan of the work ethic of the Hispanic immigrants.

However, we just cannot afford taking on another 100,000 plus immigrants every month to take care of here in the United States, especially when we can’t even provide adequate care for our own poor and starving kids.

Also, it has been reported that there are dozens of potential terrorists crossing the borders from countries other than South or Central America. We need a closed, or controlled, border.

This brings me to why I kind of strayed from the historical and genealogical element of my editorial column. I was sitting waiting to get my haircut when I read a story/ letter in a magazine about foster care kids, and how this one set of three children were very happy to be in southwest Missouri and happy to have found a very caring, responsible CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) representative to look after them.

Apparently, both parents were hooked on drugs, were constantly in and out of jail and would spend more money on drugs than they would on food for the family. Upon doing a little research, you will find that this story plays out all over America, not only in big cities, but also in small towns and counties. There are over 1,000 kids that need foster care in southwest Missouri at any time, and only approximately one in five get placed in a home.

The thought goes through my head, if the government has money to take care of millions of illegal aliens and can give millions to fake “green” companies, why do they not have money to take care of our kids needing foster care, and why do approximately 20 percent of America’s children go to bed hungry every night.

After this, I started worrying about, where does the money come from to pay for these programs? Then I got to worrying about the extremely large budget deficit we have. Then I got to worrying about our grandkids having to pay back all this money if China and other countries start requiring repayment of all this borrowed money.

This took me to the possibility of my (and your) grandkids and great-grandkids, instead of paying 15-20 percent in taxes, are they going to be paying 30-40 percent in taxes? A historical reminder: when over 50 percent of the population is being taken care of by the under 49 percent, there’s usually is anarchy and an overthrow of the government (The Roman Empire for example).

Also, when the average family keeps having their taxes raised without seemingly having their voices heard, i.e., taxation without representation, a Revolution may break out.

It appears to me that if we don’t get our Congress and President (Presidents) to start exercising some control over what they spend and to produce a balanced budget that our “future history” may be that of requiring our grandkids, our “working” grandkids to be spending 40-50 percent of their paychecks paying for their present day (future) government, required expenditures, but also for all of the stupidity that is occurring today.

This is not the legacy that I would like to leave with my grandkids. For our future history, please join me in asking for, praying for, a Congress that actually makes the laws and rules in favor of the average working family, not in favor of trying to get more votes or to line their pockets.

Further, please join me in contacting our federal congressman and our present and future executive office holders that we want closed/controlled borders, that we want national energy independence, that we want rich people to pay their fair share, that we want term limits for Congress, that we want laws and rules that are reasonable for the average working American and that we want a Balanced Budget.

Also, please help a foster kid or any needy child when you can so that we can improve their chances of having a happy, productive “future” history.

Lynn Hilburn is an officer in the Barry County Genealogical and Historical Society, and invites all to come and join meetings, to provide information about their families or to look up information about their families. Hilburn may be reached at hlhilburn@hotmail. com.