The Deficits Republicans Don't Want to Talk About

Fortunately, there's a pretty easy fix for the United States' retirement deficit: expand Social Security.

Instead of focusing on cuts to it, our lawmakers need to be talking about how to expand this vital lifeline for millions of Americans.

Next, we need to address our nation's education deficit, which is keeping us so far behind much of the developed world.

Right now, there's over $1.2 trillion in outstanding student loan debt in the US.

That's because college has become so expensive that getting a degree also means taking on mountains of student loan debt.

And those mountains of student loan debt are also hurting our nation's economic recovery. It's a lose-lose situation.

We need to make to be making it easier to get a college degree in the US, not harder.

Finally, we need to tackle the United States' ballooning trade deficit and out-of-whack trade policies.

Last year, our trade deficit stood at $493 billion.

Meanwhile, years of so-called "free trade" deals have exported millions of good-paying US jobs overseas.

We need to rework our trade policy, and stop signing on to so-called "free trade" deals that export jobs and screw over working-class Americans.

So, when Republicans whine about the US having a deficit problem, they're right. We do have a deficit problem.

BUT, it's not our federal deficit that's the problem.

Instead, it's the deficit in our spending on infrastructure, on education and on job creation that's really keeping our country down.

As Sen. Sanders writes, "While we must continue to focus on the federal deficit, we must also be aware that there are other deficits in our society that have been causing horrendous pain for the vast majority of the American people."

It's time to stop that pain, and start making the United States great again.