During the presidential election, the Republican Party gained a lot of ground by suggesting that John Kerry would hand the reins of American sovereignty over to a foreign power. Only President Bush, they argued, had the guts to maintain our independence from international influence. Ironically, the president’s fiscal policies may be in the process of accomplishing what 51 percent of Americans were afraid Kerry would do.

To keep the government going, our country borrows $2.6 billion every day. That money comes from foreign countries, banks and private investors. That staggering amount of cash has added up to the biggest debt in our nation’s history. Like a customer who never pays off his Visa, the United States essentially pays the minimum balance on the nation’s credit card every year while borrowing more and more. This situation is unsustainable and it may be about to collapse altogether.

Last week, the Boston Herald reported that Stephen Roach, the chief economist at investment banking firm Morgan Stanley, is predicting imminent “economic Armageddon.” There are troubling indicators that lend credence to his Chicken Little prognosis: For the eighth straight week, the U.S. dollar continued to fall to a new low. Our trade deficit stands at a record high. The job market remains anemic at best and Iraq has become an insatiable money pit.

Consumer spending is keeping the economy afloat, but as the record number of home foreclosures and personal bankruptcies over the past 10 years has indicated, people cannot spend indefinitely. Even people in good standing with their creditors are adversely affected by the bad economic news. A Nov. 21 New York Times article stated credit card companies are doubling or tripling interest rates with little warning or explanation.

In Washington, there soon will be tough talk about cutting the budget to try to improve the situation. Unfortunately, if the budget cuts of the past four years are any indication, those cuts will be in social services to the nation’s poor and middle class, while the rich are rewarded with more tax cuts. Of course, many middle-class families could see hundreds of dollars a year from those tax cuts, but those gains will be offset by rising interest rates and inflation. Brad Delong, an economist and former deputy assistant secretary for economic policy, calculates that in a decade, Bush’s fiscal policies will have amounted to a $4,000 per year pay cut for every family in the United States.

Our economy shouldn’t depend on the nation’s middle class burying itself in debt. The economy is supposed to work for us, not the other way around. What we need is a national discussion on how we’re going to avoid a potential crisis and restructure our financial system with more stability in mind. While we’re at it, let’s discuss if we really have sovereignty when we’re borrowing 80 percent of the world’s net savings; if it’s a good thing that China owns a big chunk of our debt; and what we’re going to do when we’ve made the world angry enough that they stop giving us $2.6 billion a day.

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.