Short-term fix to long-term problem

Yes, the president and the Congress averted default this time, but next time they will not and next time will arrive sooner than you think.

The reason for this calamitous situation is that the long-term debt problem has not been addressed. The problem addressed was the short-term deficit. It was addressed by providing more money that we don't have to get us to early 2013 and shortly thereafter. The real problems of lack of resources and excessive entitlements were not confronted.

It is clear to this reader that we will default at the next debt-limit crisis. At that time the public debt will be greater than it is now as we continue annual deficits and increased public debt.

This all propels us to our ultimate destruction, the next Great Depression. In the 80 years since the 1930s, our society and culture in this country and around the world have undergone enormous change. Our next depression will provide us with more serious consequences than the long bread lines of the '30s.

This reader is mystified that the media, the economists and politicians do not grasp the basics.

A decade ago, our vice president exclaimed that "the public debt doesn't matter." That is one reason that the debt matters so much today and into the foreseeable future.

BILL D. BURLISON, Wardell, Mo.