Sunday's front-page story "Experts: US debt 'crisis' not dire" was a perfect case study in straw man arguments.

The story implies that there are politicians who are worried we will fall into a Greek-like debt crisis in the immediate future. That is, of course, not true. The political debate over the debt crisis is more long-term than that. Many of us, and by extension, our congressional representatives, are concerned about the fiscal state of the country we're leaving for our children and grandchildren.

The story suggests that we have more immediate worries. This is like telling someone not to worry about saving for retirement because they have more immediate things to spend their money on. Or like telling your kids not to worry about their schoolwork because it's still another 10 years before they enter the job market.

As your sidebar story notes, the national debt is at historic highs right now. And yes, we can tweak it, as the story suggests, but we really need to do more than tweak it if we want to continue to grow as an economy and provide our children and grandchildren with the fiscal means to meet their future challenges.

Your readers deserve better analysis (or was this supposed to be news?) than that story served up. By the way, my arguments are backed up by experts, too. But like the story, I'm not naming my experts here either.

Jim Smith

Sun City Hilton Head