Regardless of political party, two numbers should concern every American: the federal budget and the national debt. The last time our nation saw a balanced budget was under President Bill Clinton, who delivered four consecutive years of surpluses, ending his term in 2001 with the debt at $5.73 trillion.

Since then, we have not had a single balanced budget. The result has been an explosive, bipartisan expansion of our national debt:

End of Bush (2009): $10.63 trillion

End of Obama (2017): $19.95 trillion

End of Trump (2021): $27.75 trillion

End of Biden (2025): $35.85 trillion

End of Trump (2029 est): $42 trillion

To be clear, this isn't the fault of any single president. Congress controls the nation's purse strings, and unforeseen crises like the 9/11 attacks or the COVID-19 pandemic have driven spending.

But the cause is less important than the consequence. This spiraling debt is a silent threat to our future. In 2023 alone, the U.S. government paid a staggering $659 billion just in interest—money that could have built roads, funded research, or lowered taxes.

To put it in personal terms: if we decided to pay off the national debt today, every single American taxpayer would owe $273,082.00 (projected to the end of President Trump’s term). This is not a partisan issue; it's a mathematical reality that our political leaders must confront.

On this website, we often discuss the merits of voting for moderate candidates and, just as importantly, the necessity of voting in the first place. We believe a moderate approach not only aligns more closely with the views of most Americans but is also the surest way to achieve progress and avoid the partisan gridlock that paralyzes our government. While the political theater of the far-left and far-right can be an entertaining spectacle, their cycle of mutual animosity and government shutdowns serves no one.

However, there is a far more serious and less-discussed rationale for demanding calm, clear-thinking leaders: the awesome and terrifying power bequeathed to the world by Dr. Oppenheimer in 1945.

The United States possesses an arsenal of over 5,000 nuclear warheads. A common misconception is that a president must consult with a stadium full of advisors before deciding to unleash them. This is not true. While a president will be well-advised, the ultimate decision to launch is the President’s alone. No one, from the Secretary of Defense to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, has veto authority.

To be clear, the execution of a launch order is subject to the "two-person rule," and military officers can, in theory, refuse an order they deem unconstitutional or in violation of the laws of war. But to rely on that final, precarious safeguard in a moment of global crisis is a terrifying gamble.

This brings us to the central point. Given this immense power, the single most important qualification for a president is a sound mind and steady temperament. Yet recently, our political system has presented us with troubling choices. We elected one elderly gentleman whose cognitive decline was glaringly apparent (did you watch the debate?), raising legitimate questions about whether the 25th Amendment should have been invoked. We now have another whose supporters are drawn to his angry, retaliatory demeanor—a temperament ill-suited for a leader who holds the fate of the world in his hands.

Bottom Line: When you step into the voting booth (and you are going to step into that booth, right?), you are doing more than just picking a leader; you are entrusting one individual with the keys to Armageddon. Get involved. Vote. And vote for reasonable, rational, and calm moderates. Our survival may depend on it.