We in the United States are in a debate for our fiscal soul. But it is also a moral question whether we squander our wealth and leave our grandchildren with great debt and a country in shambles. With this in mind, I have been reading (as I have posted a couple of times) Peter Lillback’s Sacred Fire which proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that George Washington was a genuine Christian and not a deist. In the recorded Farewell Address by Washington, our first president made some comments that our current government leaders need to hear about debt:
“As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible: avoiding occasions of expence by cultivating peace, but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel it; avoiding likewise the accumultion of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expence, but by vigorous exertions in time of Peace to discharge the Debts which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen which we ourselves ought to bear. The execution of these maxims belongs to your Representatives, but it is necessary that public opinion should cooperate.” (p. 878)
Looking at this statement, I think it is quite easy to see how Washington would vote and lead if he were alive today. It appears to be a direction different than our current President and many government leaders. It may also be unfortunate that public opinion is not strongly in the direction Washington lays out.
