The most heinous case of intergenerational theft in American history is underway, and few people seem to care.

The culprits include Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, the political and the apolitical, all of a certain age. An entitled generation is bankrupting the country and ruining the planet for future generations.

The U.S. federal debt totals $22.5 trillion, or $66,000 per person. This huge debt, as a percentage of gross domestic product, is a relatively recent development, coinciding with baby boomers reaching political maturity.

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Admittedly, the record for federal debt was set by President Franklin Roosevelt, who was trying to overcome the Great Depression and fight World War II. But the World War II generation steadily paid it down from 1946 to 1980.

President Ronald Reagan reversed the trend and increased the federal debt by 186 percent with supply-side economics. He said his tax cuts would pay for themselves through increased economic activity. But instead, he ran up $1.86 trillion in new debt.

President George H.W. Bush, who had called Reagan’s plan voodoo economics, raised taxes. But he still grew the debt by 36 percent, running up $1.03 trillion in budget deficits to bail out savings and loans, fight the Gulf War and cope with a recession.

Democratic President Bill Clinton generated surpluses for the last half of his presidency and increased the national debt by only 1 percent. But he was helped by tax hikes, spending cuts, a fast-growing economy and a Republican-controlled Congress.

President George W. Bush thought it was wise to slash taxes while fighting two wars. His budget deficits totaled $3.3 trillion, and the federal debt rose 57 percent.

President Barack Obama fought the Great Recession with huge budget deficits. He raised the national debt another 57 percent by adding $6.8 trillion to it.

President Donald Trump and his Republican allies again cut taxes without cutting spending. Trump has added $1.2 trillion in debt in fiscal year 2018 alone, double the amount added in 2017.

Fiscal year 2019, which began on Oct. 1, will be no different. Even with rosy forecasts of economic growth, the White House admits the budget deficit will add another $1 trillion to the national debt.

Blaming politicians is easy, but voters are ultimately to blame. And not just any voter, but baby boomers who believed Reagan and still believe politicians who lie and say they can deliver a high level of government service while levying low taxes.

Baby boomers, who are retiring and expecting Social Security and Medicare, routinely punish politicians who acknowledge that the only way to get the nation’s fiscal house in order is to raise taxes and cut services. In the 1970s, baby boomers were not nicknamed the “Me Generation” for nothing.

In addition to digging a financial hole, baby boomers are also creating an environmental deficit for millennials, the largest generation in American history. A U.N. report last week laid out the catastrophic economic and ecological damage that climate change will take on future generations if governments do not act quickly to cut carbon emissions by 2030.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded the best course is to tax carbon emissions at a level that will encourage innovation, such as carbon capture technologies, while discouraging consumption.

The Nobel Committee this year recognized the underlying theory by awarding its economics prize to Yale University’s William Nordhaus. His work proves “the most efficient remedy for the problems caused by greenhouse gas emissions would be a global scheme of carbon taxes that are uniformly imposed on all countries,” the committee said.

Many oil companies agree and have called for a global carbon tax instead of a patchwork of national, state and local regulations. Exxon Mobil took the considerable step last week of committing $1 million to lobby Congress for a carbon tax.

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This is how responsible leaders, and thoughtful voters, can help with both crises. The U.N. climate report estimates a tax of between $135 and $5,500 a ton is needed to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change. Voters should ask Congress to start with a $200-a-ton tax.

U.S. energy-related emissions totaled more than 5.1 billion tons last year, which means the tax would generate more than $1 trillion a year and balance the budget.

I know this won’t happen, though. Because unlike the World War II generation that paid down its debt, provided quality schools and built interstate highways, today’s elders don’t care what kind of mess they create for their grandchildren. They’re only interested in low taxes, cheap gasoline and letting their offspring pick up the bill.

Chris Tomlinson writes commentary about business and economics.

chris.tomlinson@chron.com

twitter.com/cltomlinson