Guest opinion: What do you do when your party is wrong?

What do you do when your political party is wrong? When both parties are wrong? Serious questions. How you answer will impact generations to come. Take a few minutes. Put some thought into this. Our answer; We are supporting Seth Bodnar for the U.S. Senate.  

Our national debt exceeds $40 trillion. Evidence that our political parties are failing us. Both of them. The national debt isn’t a Republican problem or a Democratic problem. They both are at fault.   

$40 trillion in debt. Let’s put that into perspective. That is more than $230,000 of debt for every taxpayer. Interest is more than $1 trillion a year. $6,000 per taxpayer. More than we spend on our national defense.   

We spend $900 billion on our defense. About $5,300 per taxpayer. By comparison, our investment in education – about $500 per taxpayer.   

It is a moral failure. Our spending and tax cutting will burden our children, grandchildren, and future generations.   

Our debt first exceeded: $1 trillion during the Reagan administration, $10 trillion during the George W. Bush administration, $20 trillion during the first Trump administration, $30 trillion during the Biden administration, $40 trillion during the second Trump administration, $40 trillion and growing. 

Every President since Jimmy Carter has increased the national debt by more than $1 trillion. Every one of them. Republicans and Democrats. Republicans - $14.37 trillion. Democrats - $18.4 trillion. An increase of $32.77 trillion since Jimmy Carter. 

Both parties have failed us.  

Our debt has been increasing at an unsustainable rate since 1981. Tribalism and confirmation bias have precluded any serious debate about our debt. Both political parties acknowledge the problem. Each has its unique “solution.” We have gone back and forth between the Republican solution and the Democratic solution for more than three decades. And, guess what? Neither of them has worked.   

Republicans cut taxes to supercharge economic growth, believing that tax cuts will grow the economy out of deficit spending. It hasn’t worked. Democrats invested in infrastructure, technology. That hasn’t worked either. We go from one extreme to the other. The only constant. The debt continues to increase. And, our politicians continue to divert attention away from this critical issue.  Anyone for an expensive war in Iran? 

We need a national conversation. Let’s talk about what kind of country we want to give our children and grandchildren. What services are essential? How can government be more efficient? Where can we raise additional revenue (taxes) to fund our government without unduly burdening people, businesses, and the economy? We need to build a coalition. No one will get everything they want. We need leaders who will compromise to move America forward. The status quo is not acceptable. We are mortgaging the future of our country.      

Remember how Steve Daines was going to take Montana values to Washington to reign in the debt. Daines increased it from $16.2 trillion to $40 trillion. We can’t expect anything different from Kurt Alme, Daines handpicked successor. Alme sold his soul for Trump’s endorsement. Trump owns him. He will be a rubber stamp for Trump and for more debt.   

“Compromise.” Remember that social skill our parents taught us. It’s a virtue. Our elected officials act like compromising is akin to treason. It isn’t.  

Bodnar has committed himself to working with both parties, to compromising, and to doing whatever is in the best interests of Montana and America. We can’t continue doing what hasn’t worked in the past.     

Alme offers nothing new. A Daines repeat. A vote for Seth Bodnar is a vote to change course and address our debt.  

Dave Lewis was the State Budget Director under three Governors, both Republican and Democratic. He served in the Montana House from 2001-2003 where he was the Chair of the Appropriations Committee. He served in the Montana Senate from 2005-2013. In 2004, he ran for Lt. Governor with Republican Bob Brown.   

Doug James is a Montana attorney and advocate for smart public policy.