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because they have to be honest with citizens that they are taking their money. Borrowing achieves the same end without asking.

The last thing Congress did before shutting down in the last session was pass another $1.7 trillion in spending. There were no taxes to pay for this. It gets layered onto the huge debt, which is on you and on me.

As economist Milton Friedman once said, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” We pay for everything. Instead of paying our bills honestly through taxes, we bear the burden of debt through inflation and slow growth.

We must appreciate that the discussion about debt and spending is not about accounting. It is about principles.

Our national crisis stems from straying from the basic principles upon which a free nation under God was founded.

Dishonesty, irresponsibility and big government do not define a free nation under God.

Let’s consider the issue of socalled entitlements — Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. About two-thirds of our annual spending consist of mandatory spending — entitlements. The rest is discretionary spending and interest paid on the debt.

Whenever I write that Social Security is an entitlement, I get letters saying, “Don’t call this an entitlement! I paid for it!”

But the label “entitlement” is a government label for payments that are mandatory for the government to make, as opposed to discretionary spending, like, for instance, defense spending.

Those who think this a personal right should ask if they are entitled to get it from the system. And the answer is, of course, no. The government remains entitled to make you pay payroll taxes and then make payments to you when you retire. Government decides what those taxes and payments will be. And here we have more dishonesty.

Social Security is broke.

According to the system’s trustees, there are insufficient funds to meet obligations beginning 2034, 11 years from now. Every young American entering the workforce now must pay taxes into a system that does not have the resources to pay promised benefits. There is a lot of rhetoric whether entitlements should be part of the debt ceiling negotiations. And I agree, no. Not because these programs aren’t broken. But it is too complicated to fix in overnight negotiations.

Fixing Social Security should not be about cuts but about reform and changing the whole system.

The system is broken because it is not based on American principles of ownership and personal