My father-in-law was a smart man. He died two years ago at the age of 94. I didn’t always agree with him, because in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, he voted Democratic and, of course, I’ve always been a Republican. I wasn’t the reason he switched to the Republican Party; it was just that he became more conservative as he grew older.

He always bought General Motors cars and he used to say, “How well General Motors does, so does the country.”

In other words, if General Motors was selling cars and making money, our country would be doing well financially. Isn’t it ironic? GM’s stock has gone from the $40s in value to less than $2. They are near bankruptcy and trying to borrow more money from the good-old U.S. of A. If they do go bankrupt, what will happen to the thousands and possibly millions of retirees who receive their pension and health insurance benefits from GM? The current employees will find work somewhere, but I am sure their benefits will be much less.

Of course, if GM gets enough money from Uncle Sam, it may survive, but it will be at a terrible disadvantage because it is going to have to pay back all the principle and interest it borrowed while trying to compete with companies that didn’t have to borrow as much. My father-in-law was sure smart when he said, “How GM does, so does our country.”

Now let’s look at the good old U.S. of A. During the last eight years of the Bush administration, we doubled the national debt from about $5 to 10 trillion. Not a good story, however, there were a few catastrophes’ during that time. The 9/11 attacks really hurt our economy and then you add to it Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq War and then the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mac debacle and you can see why we created a big national debt. Is it impossible to dig out from that much debt? I hope so, but have we stopped digging?

In the first 100 days of the Obama administration, we have added another trillion dollars of debt and if his $3.5 trillion budget is passed, it will add another trillion. It also will commit us to a $500 billion deficit per year, for the next 10 years. That doesn’t sound very good, but you have to look at some other figures to really see how bad it is. Social Security is under-funded by about $17 trillion and Medicare by more than $60 trillion. (These figures were taken from a speech given by Steve Leuthold at the Albert Lea Chamber of Commerce dinner).

These entitlements probably compare to GM’s retiree health and pension benefits. We also know that we have turned to China to borrow over a $1 trillion. I am sure that my father-in-law is turning over in his grave when he sees us borrowing from China, and they are becoming fearful about loaning us any money.

The question is, should we be borrowing more money from China and what if they do cut us off from borrowing more money? Also, will China gradually have more influence on the decisions we make?

I guess there is another answer to our excessive spending problem and it is called inflation. It is where the Federal Reserve raises interest rates and they begin printing more money. It means your dollar tomorrow will only buy 60 or 70 cents worth of goods as valued today and that most of us will have to lower our standard of living. Inflation does hit everyone, but especially the retired people.

I also believe we should quit digging. We need to let companies fail and then re-organize and, if possible, start over with less debt and new employment contracts.

It is also possible that we as voters have to make better decisions. Do you realize that we have had a balanced budget only four years in the last 50? That happened during the ’90s when we had a Republican Congress and a Democrat for president.

Yes, my father-in-law was a smart man, but I hope he was wrong when he said, “How GM goes, so goes the country!”

Alan Arends is the chairman of the Freeborn County Republicans.