1. The most pressing issue for debates is terrorism response. [1]

2. Lawmakers and the Executive are elected on this mandate and spend significant resources (estimated $100Bn per year). [2]

3. The NSA performs all of its functions based off of requirements generated by ODNI, DoD, the Chief Executive, and congress. [3]

4. Most individuals care deeply about privacy and think there should be greater limits to what the government collects. However, less than 10% have changed their habits to improve their privacy posture. I conjecture that this suggests that privacy is not a priority compared to physical and financial security to most citizens. [4]

In this case I think it is fair to say that the best interests of American society and its economy are being thwarted by security concerns of a plurality of citizens. The right course of action is for privacy debates to be publicized. The Pew report referenced in #4 shows a far greater skew toward privacy action after being informed of government and commercial surveillance.

[1] http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/08/15/in-debates-v...

[2] http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/16/news/economy/cost-of-fightin...

[3] http://fas.org/irp/offdocs/int023.html

[4] http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/05/20/americans-attitudes-ab...