I don’t know about you. But when I watch these Congressmen on TV argue back and forth about the budget, I’m reminded of those old Keystone Kops episodes. The 1910s-era silent films featured a rotating bunch of incompetent, uncoordinated officials chasing their tails and otherwise bumbling about … while the bandits made off with the loot!
Here in the present day, both Democrats and Republicans have been haggling for months on federal budget cuts — while getting essentially nowhere! They’ve had to pass not one … not two … but SIX continuing resolutions to keep the government operating so far this fiscal year — a year that began more than six months ago!
The key point of contention?
Just how much federal fat to cut.
Tea Partiers who helped get several conservative members elected to Congress last year want cuts on the order of $100 billion. Other Republicans are content with $61 billion. But some Democrats want no more than $10 billion, while others are only willing to consider a figure around $33 billion.
Regardless of how the negotiations play out, however, several things are abundantly clear to me …
First, the “leaders” we’ve elected aren’t leading. They’re bungling.
Second, even the figures being discussed by the most aggressive budget cutters are too timid!
And third, a future debt crisis is virtually guaranteed as a result! Let me tell you why …
It Doesn’t Matter Whose Cuts We’re Talking
about … They’re All just Spit in the Wind!
The White House recently projected cumulative budget deficits of $7.2 trillion over the next decade. But the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said those figures didn’t hold water. It says the deficit tally will be even higher — $9.5 trillion.
Folks, that’s an average of nearly $1 trillion EVERY SINGLE YEAR through at least 2021! It took more than two centuries to rack up TOTAL deficits that large, and now we’re going to be doing it every single year for as far as the eye can see!
Let’s say for the sake of argument that mainstream Republicans get every last penny of the $61 billion in cuts they want. Even if by some miracle that happened, it would amount to just 3.7 percent of the $1.65 trillion deficit the Obama administration is predicting for fiscal 2011. Meanwhile, our nation’s debt load rose by $61 billion in the first 22 days of March alone. That proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that we’re just spitting into the wind.
If Congress really wanted to make a difference, it would make major, long-term changes to the biggest budget-busting programs out there — Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. They account for roughly 44 percent of federal spending right now. And those percentages are only going to rise as America ages.
Yet despite years of talk, successive administrations and Congress have failed to make meaningful progress on reforms.
Our official government debt load is hovering around $14.2 trillion. But in a recent and widely-read commentary, PIMCO guru Bill Gross noted that our unfunded Social Security liabilities total $7.9 trillion, while our unfunded Medicare liabilities total $22.8 trillion. Throw in Medicaid and you get another $35.3 trillion. That’s roughly $80 trillion in official debt and future liabilities.
Yet our “leaders” are haggling over a couple tens of billions of dollars in cuts as if they’ll turn the tide. Unbelievable!
Think I’m just blowing smoke about the magnitude of this looming debt crisis? Think again! No less an authority than the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agrees with me!
In a just-released report titled An Analysis of US Fiscal and Generational Imbalances: Who Will Pay and How? the IMF concluded we would have to “immediately and permanently” slash all transfer payments and jack up taxes by a whopping 35 percent to eliminate our current and long-term deficits!
Its stark warning?
“The United States is facing an untenable fiscal situation due to the combination of high fiscal deficits, and aging population, and rapid growth in government-provided healthcare benefits.”
How to Protect Your Portfolio
from Washington’s Bumbling
Bottom line: Regardless of how and whether the 2011 budget debate settles out, our fiscal outlook will get worse and worse each and every year thereafter. The only way to get us off this path to peril is for Washington policymakers to take these threats seriously, and tackle them head on. But that just isn’t happening, not by a long shot.
If there’s a bright side to all this, it’s that you don’t have to sit idly by and take the abuse from Washington. You can insulate your portfolio in a number of ways.
Martin Weiss goes into much more detail on how in the extremely timely online presentation “American Apocalypse.” If you haven’t already viewed it, I urge you to do so right away.
Other actions to consider?
Buy foreign bonds and stocks to profit from the dollar plunge that’s resulting from lousy policymaking in D.C. Avoid long-term U.S. Treasuries like the plague. And invest in the shares of companies whose balance sheets are in much better shape than our own government’s, while dodging the multitude of dogs out there!
Until next time,
Mike
Mike Larson graduated from Boston University with a B.S. degree in Journalism and a B.A. degree in English in 1998, and went to work for Bankrate.com. There, he learned the mortgage and interest rates markets inside and out. Mike then joined Weiss Research in 2001. He is the editor of Safe Money Report. He is often quoted by the Washington Post, Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires, Orlando Sentinel, Palm Beach Post and Sun-Sentinel, and he has appeared on CNN, Bloomberg Television and CNBC.
{ 41 comments }
Congress… in too many cases a bunch of rich lawyers who don’t know how to manage anything ON time and ON Budget. Too many of them got elected (even to HIGH Office) simply because they were good Public Speakers rather than having the experience or skills.
Why not run the US government like a BUSINESS with US Taxpayers as Shareholders? Several Major City Mayors/State Governors have done that successfully. For example:
1) A US Budget WILL be agreed by the legal deadline, with NO extensions, or pay to Congressmen stops that date IRRETRIEVABLY. Erh.. no work no pay is a fact we all live with in the US system
2) Agree to amend the Constitution so that Congress will pass NO Law which does not apply to Congress as it does to al other US taxpayers. Erh.. we ALL are equal in this US system.
3) Agree to Term Limits of 2 Terms served as now defined.
4) Any existing member of Congress NOT willing to agree to above, can Resign immediately and forfeit any/all Retirement benefits. Erh… these were never directly approved by US Taxpayers anyway
I agree completely. There have been too many Senators and Representatives who have made their congressional careers their priority rather than the public good.
All of these suggestions need to be placed into a Constitutional amendment together with a requirement for a balanced budget except in times of crisis.
Dear J Molitor, Running it like a business sounds great, however, there is one major issue to overcome before that could possibly happen. And that is, the political philosophy of the Democrats. They seem to feel that the Federal government must solve society’s problems for them. That political philosophy created the EPA, the DEA, the State Department, the Department of Education, and the list goes on and on. It is a socialistic form of government. The seriousness of our national debt, and interest obligations on U.S. Treasury notes and bills, along with social entitlements is so horrible that what really needs to happen is for that socialistic view of government to cease, for all of those Federal departments to be abolished, and a realism to be adopted and espoused with regard to fiscal responsibility in government. That is not likely to happen. It needs to happen, but it is not likely until hyperinflation hits our country. I believe it will within two years. It will be terrible for U.S. Citizens, terrible for the poor, the elderly, and most Americans. So, as Mike says, it is good to be prepared financially.
Who can I believe? One source reports that 60% of the US Budget supports the Defense Dept. Budget. Your source says 44% of the Budget pays for the Social Security Admin. – including SSI, MediCare and MedicAid. Which budget includes the VA? VA Hospitals, which add to the medical bill of everyone who uses mainstream medicine?! While the Te3a Party moaned about the cost of Bamacare, no one dealt factually or honestly with the costs of the countrty. Who and how are we paying for our Military escapdes?!
What we have is both gutless politicians and those that want to destroy our capitalist system. All I can say is shame on the entire Democratic party, and gutless Republicans that obviously have been in office much too long.
Right on Klaus , We need to hope that the millions of good Republicans think this way at voting time ..
Talking about SPIT….they make me so angry I just want to spit. What a bunch of idiots! How did we the American people allow this to happen. While we were all watching TV and doing what people do, our government has turned into a bunch of over paid fat cats with absolutely NO COMMON SENSE, fighting over pennies (in the big picture) It is beyond me how they can be so self serving while the future of this country is falling apart. As far as I am concerned the whole government is already shut down and I am convinced that there are NO ESSENTIAL people in Washington…….NOT EVEN OUR PRESIDENT
Get out of the groove you’re stuck in. The retirement portion of Social Security is self funding! Nearly all of the benefits paid out go directly back into the economy. Talk about stimulus — those moneys are immediatly put back into circulation! Stop all SS checks and you will notice an abrupt decline in local economies.
If the IOUs are honored, the Trust Fund will not be depleted for several more years. Instead of the stupidity of reduceing the input from deductions from employees, we need some increase or adjustment to keep the program sound.
We’ve been paying into that system for about 75 years (nearly 60 for myself) and ‘we need it now’. Keep your grubby mitts off of it and levy income tax on all tax paying entities (including retirees) to fund the general operations of the government.
Dear Ken, sorry to have to inform you that our current obligations for entitlements comes to more than 113 trillion dollars. Source: usdebtclock.org. Our total over-all national debt is over 55 trillion dollars. The amount of interest we owe on U.S. Treasury bills and bonds comes to more than 3.5 trillion dollars, while the amount of revenue the IRS collects is only about 2.2 trillion dollars. Our country is in debt over our heads. There is no way we could ever pay it all back. Now, what if our creditors, like China, Japan, and countries in Europe, demand payment from our government–all of a sudden? We would not have enough to pay them, and all of a sudden the U.S. Dollar would drop in value overnight. I believe this will happen within two years. I have been tracking the specific value of our dollar over time. It has been on a downward trend for some time now. It now holds a value of only about 75 cents. It just broke through a negative resistance point, and is on its way down from there. I believe it will continue its downward trend a little faster now. That may cause our foreign creditors to seriously think about dumping much more of our debt, even more quickly.
What do you expect when you have an illegal alien in the whitehouse, and 80 year old meglomaniacs in congress. Look at the records, and we will see that the democrats are against anything capitalistic, and the repubs are afraid of being the party that wants to kill grandma and grandpa. Let the younger guys run things for a while. Get rid of the all the cabinets that are not necessary. The dept. of ed., the dept. of energy, funding for NPR, NEA, Planned Parenthood, and Amtrak. We don’t need the EPA anymore either. In closing, the earth is not warming because of what mankind is doing. Having grown up in the 40’s and 50’s, we use to call it spring, summer, fall and winter. This rush to build solar systems for the world, is insane. Get congress to pass a term limits law, and quit attacking the folks that want to provide a better life style for their families.
In which fantasy world do you live?
Social Security is not the issue. Social Security is a trust fund that is entirely paid for by payroll taxes. The government borrowed the money and gave the trust fund treasury bonds that pay interest. The trust fund is the largest holder of US debt in the world.They borrowed the money to hide the fact they were running bigger deficits than they were telling people. A simple adjustment to the amount that is subject to social security tax will correct any long tern problem with social security. The issue is medicare and medicaid. Administratively effective programs but costs far exceed inflation. Costs are projected to continue to rise. Negotiate drug prices, single payer insurance are options rejected by Washington because they would take profits from Big Business. Big Business pays to keep the politicians they like in office. Stop talking about cutting the deficits and start talking about raising revenue. Treat capitals gains as ordinary income. a financial transaction tax, and create another tax bracket for people making over a million dollars a year. Simple solutions that would have minimal effect on low and middle class people and shift the burden to the wealthy. Trickle down economics doesn’t work. I don’t expect any of the millionaires in Washington to even consider these possible solutions. That is not what they are paid for.
Read Terry’s post above to see just how hopeless the situation is.I suspect he represents what a lot of Americans think.I too,thought this way when I was 20.
Terry, we are way over our heads in debt! Check out this website: http://www.usdebtclock.org. And I don’t believe there is a fund for Social Security. It goes into the general fund. Our current Federal Debt stands at more than 14.2 trillion dollars. The sum of what we now owe in Social Security, Prescription Drugs and Medicare is over 113.3 trillion dollars. The interest on our debt to foreign creditors and those at home currently stands at over 3.5 trillion dollars. All that the IRS collects in taxes is about 2.2 trillion. Now, even if we raised taxes by an unreasonable amount, there is no way we could pay all of that debt! No way! It comes to more than 131 trillion dollars. When we look at the facts, we are in serious trouble. With all of the money printing going on by the Fed, it is causing our buck to decrease in purchasing power. I have been studying that decrease over time now, and it has been in a downward slump for some time. Its current value is only 75 cents, and falling. This can lead to foreign creditors dumping our debt, and then watch it fall. Our citizens are in for very hard times ahead.
It is time to make some bold moves. Introduce a VAT (or sales tax) like in Europe. Within each country the rate is the same. No local extras. The tax should be levied on services and to a smaller extend on food. No tax free mail order. Then the real estate tax can be lowered so that retirees are not forced to downsize their homes because of awful tax levels. All parties who fulfill public duties get a share that will be negotiated every few years. The rich spend a lot and they pay taxes accordingly. The humble little guy spends little. Forget all these gimmicks like taxes on used items. That costs to much in administration.
Cut the school budgets 50% so that the schools can focus on academics and not entertainment. Let professionals teach the young people how to drive and take that out of the school system, That would lower taxes and give tens of thousands of professionals a decent job.
Most of all: take Medicare and Social Security away from government and don’t call the collected money “taxes”. The money collected is like a membership fee for a club. Both programs should be run like not-for-profit insurances. That would get the premiums down! Workman’s comp should be part of that insurance system, though limited for working people. No taxes! But they should change the rules so that everyone can buy insurance. I am uninsured because I am not “eligible”. That means in case of a catastrophic illness the tax payer would have to chip in or I have to die. Or I move to a better country.
What remains would be real taxes and the debate could focus on the waste in the military and other government organsations and leave Social Security and Medicare alone.
Yes, Washington is corrupt to the bone but nobody is willing to sue the politicians for treason. This lack of interest in politics enables the politicians to get away with everything.
Hallelujah!
Why is the US Military involved in 5 countries: Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen….did I leave any other countries out? No one ever talks of all the billions of dollars this is costing us….plus our military personnel come home as mere shadows of themselves, which costs ever more in health care and loss of productivity.
May Mother Nature put us out of our misery…..the sooner, the better.
And to those who think Government is the problem…..move to Somalia……they have no government whatsoever. Hell, I’ll buy you a one-way ticket. You could become a pirate!!!
@PKF: Egypt — the US Military is also in Egypt.
Did anyone forget about all the other foreign Military bases such as Japan, Korea etc..how much does it cost to run these set-ups?
And cumulatively over the decades, since the numerous wars that the US has engaged in, the numbers do add up..
In recent economic history in the USA, affecting the whole world, there was the Internet stock market bubble and subsequent crash nearly 10 years ago (the money went to the stock market in the pursuit of higher returns according to the ROI, liquidity and greater fool theory in finance); then came the real estate bubble and crash three years ago (ROI, illiquidity and greater fool theory in finance); then came fears of a derivative bubble (apparently contained); and now the USA is apparently in the beginning of a Government bubble. For sure it is BAD BUSINESS to invest in an entity (US Government) that is experiencing rapid exponential growth in debt, unsustaining revenue growth policies, betting on its future ability to pay back its creditors when it cannot even implement today efficient financial and budgetary management practices. The US is further guaranteeing its own demise and bankruptcy. Is there a Chapter 11 or Chapter 7 for the US government? Government is by the people and for the people — it is time to revolt.
What we have is unlimited govt with no competence requirements to vote.If we had a limited govt.One with a low, fixed % tax,balanced budget(no govt borrowing) and an honest currency then it wouldn’t matter as much that most voters don’t know enough or are honest enough to be voting.As it is,there is no limit to what govt can do or how large a part of the economy it becomes.Voters don’t know enough to be voting or vote for whatever benefits themselves in the short term,with no regard to what harm is caused long term.This seems to be the same in all countries with unlimited govt Democracies.From my observations govt is very inefficient, so that if they take in a Dollar they likely produce less than .50 output.So,they are a huge waster of wealth.Not to mention that all the transfers from productive to nonproductive reduce incentives to get ahead.I don’t see any viable solutions.It took decades to get into this mess and would take decades to get out.With everyone into instant gratification there is no way they would accept a decades long solution.Faster change would cause major problems.
The NATIONAL COMMISSION ON FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY AND REFORM generated a report last fall that addressed both spending and revenue generation. There were no sacred cows and everyone would be touched by their suggestions – rich and poor alike. Because the average American wants ‘them’ to take the hit, this report was DOA. Politicians don’t have the courage to even consider the changes that are really needed because some voters might disagree. We will never get out of this hole until we elect leaders with the courage to lead. As is, we elect professional politicians whose sole interest is re-election.
Much of the deficit is due to off-budget supplemental appropriations to fund involvement in foreign interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan,and now Libya as well as the “war in terror ( combined 2-4 trillion by some estimates). We need to more actively support and rely more on the United Nations to solve international problems rather than co-opt the UN as we did in Iraq. This, combined with uncollected taxes due to off-shore “tax shelters”, under the counter payment for services, drug and smuggling activities, and contract over-runs (combined 4-6 trillion by some estimates) have made our fiscal mess. Congress -in all parties- must first “straighten up and fly right” rather than continue their programs of obfuscation,determine and achieve our true revenue, and only then address new legislative changes.
There are two problems in Washington that outweigh all the others.
1) Most members of congress act on their own beliefs instead of those of the people whom they represent.
2) By relentlessly devaluing the dollar, Mr. Bernake has taken steps that are putting the whole world in a severe economic situation in which food is becoming too expensive for people to buy.
To solve the first, impose a limit the number of years any member of congress can hold office.
To solve the second, suspend the Fed’s mandate and send Bernake back to his ivory tower.
Hi Mike,
It is a very good diagnosiss. How ever I am very surprised that you do not mention the bigest one of all.
I am referring to the Sacred Defense Budget/Pentagon. We are talking about 700 military bases in 120 countries around the world and three simultaneous wars now.
Best regards, and keep up the good work !
Thanks for having the balls to mention that, seems as if all the talking heads and puppets won’t touch that reality.
Good Afternoon,
Government shutdown is inevitable because of congress inability to do the job we the people elected them to do. I am ashamed to see this once great country go down the drain because of congressional greed and our citizens failure to grasp these economic an fiscal spending problems. On top of that we had the housing bubble problem which could have been avoided if the Banks had did the right thing and builders would build houses on supply and demand. Also their was the government stimulus packages to big business, which did absolutely nothing. In the 1930’s depression this was tried and it didn’t work then so why did our government think it would work now. They should had let all big business that was folding, pack up and something else would have taken there place. Now we come to the GDP/Deficit problem, which everyone is blaming on Social Security, Medicad and Medicare. Well people when President Clinton left and George Bush jr. took over Social Security was in the black and that money was diverted to some other programs and made to look like social security had a problem. Yes we should reform Social Security, Medicad and Medicare. Start by delinking congressional retirement from Social Security since they don’t even pay into the system. Congress needs to reform a lot of entities starting with themselves and their retirement system. Where can you work for two years and get a retirement. That’s preposterous! Then there pay raise system should be changed and linked to cost of living/ oil. Once that is done they can start with the American people and this time get it right and keep self and greed out of the equation. Do right by the American people and the people will do right by you. God Bless America
I really coldun’t ask for more from this article.
Mike , I am a subscriber to safe money,so if you say buy FOREGIN BONDS why aren`t you sending us an E- mail to do so ???
There is no democrat or replublican. Those are two sides of thedsame party. The game is soak the working class and give to the corporate class, until the system collapses./ Then take the loot and run to the French Riviera or some such place
It’s almost funny. If it was not so depressing. An aunt of mine told me the same thing in 1962
Why are you suggesting that we all go un-American, Michael ?
Which country would you recommend that we remove our bodies to in order to avoid the welfare surge involved in our present, ever growing, National Debt ? Companies and people eating out of the same trough. One not consider a bet and know who would win in this contest.
The job market is still very dismal and the hourly rates of pay in this area of America are terrible and we just have experienced a raise of the price of that soothing ” shot glass “.
We are retired and have been for almost six years, and not to dim anyones lights, was warned by my dad that what is happening now would become a major catastrophe after around five years of my retirement.
… how right he was…. with his farm background, his need to quit school to help the family survive back in the 1930s being a laborer all of his life in buildings, which are presently costing taxpayers to remove this blight, tied on to strikes where with each strike the family had to tighten up their belts and hope for the future.
That future is past and everyone, without a crystal ball to peer into, is looking to tap their neighbors windfall……. before nightfall !
Combine this with the breakdown and plight of the families of yesteryear in America and those non-taxed offshore sites become many of our dreams of tomorrow. Move over, I’m on my way.
Just take a look at how our medical care is being robbed from those planned for the future through social obligations for the needy, who blew all their funds away (inflation?) by drinking the fountain dry.
Today, those with a dollar see what truly has occurred… Someone’s concept of ” one large human family ” has me a wondering if the left movement may have mapped out an individual’s future as the holder of the wallet which has to open up for all who are standing and waiting to get on the Rainbow train.
Just a few comments from someone engulfed by a mass of the needy, in a system which is ‘ not ‘running on all eight cylinders.
As I was saying …………….. we all belong to that needy family ……
Why does Mike keep saying Social Security has something to do with the budget?
…..how about we tax our imports…those things we can make here…
produce here….tax them high…. it would solve a number of problems…
employment,manufacturing, trade deficits, the national economy, the
budget shortfall…the national debt..There would be some screaming
across the pond but it will soon fade when they know we are for real
What does a company when an old building has cracks and leaks and becomes unsafe? They gut it and build a new one. That’s what the USofA needs.
Firstly, move Social Security and Medicare out of Washington. Don’t call the money collected for these programs “taxes” but call them membership fees and treat them that way. Then all tax discussions can focus on real taxes and cannot be spun into some tea party ideological bogeyman.
Secondly, create a health care system that works more like that in Germany. Germans are good at organising things and there is much less fraud and waste.
Thirdly, ban all subsidies. They are poison in a capitalistic system and distort the markets. Besides, usually the tax payer is letting blood for those subsidies. Ironically, subsidies have lots of unintended consequences that overcompensate the intended consequences.
Fourthly, rich people complain they pay almost all the income taxes. They may be right and there are two remedies and the rich people will not like either. To start with, people should be payed a living wage and then they would not need subsidies and could pay taxes. Then there should be a national system of sales tax. The sales tax should be something like 10% and should be levied on everything but food. No tax haven in the neighboring state or mail order without taxes. Services should also pay sales tax. That would allow the insidious real estate tax to be lowered. It is disgusting how counties wasted the windfall profit from the real estate bubble and now refuse to go back to what taxes were before the bubble. What I pay amounts to a 200% tax increase over 10 years. Pure theft!
As a byproduct they should burn all existing laws and create a new and just system without ballast and fitting the 21st century. Naturally that includes the tax code. That should be done with a new order of things so that for instance judges cannot be appointed by politicians.
Last but not least, they should build a fence around Washington and declare everyone in there a persona non grata.
Mike, I’m surprised at you, you are confusing projected off budget deficits with the current year budget deficit. The situation is bad enough without you mangling the figures to make the message even more sensational. It seems pretty clear to me that the US has gone into debt to avoid even more pain. It’s a choice of bad and worse. I don’t think the government intends these loans to go on forever, but to be a bridge to kick start the economy and get us moving once again. If that happens, interest rates will rise as will taxes and the gov. will getting more revenues and the debt will shrink. Surely, I don’t have to tell you this. How about some analysis of how they might pull it off, the hazards, and how the debt could be paid. Also, why don’t you mention defense spending or Iraq spending. the money that is being spent in Iraq every year, would go a long way to close the budget deficit. I’d also like to see some analysis of who is profiting from the debt — where is the money going. Who is getting richer, who is getting poorer.
I’m curious as to why you (and practically) every other politician and talking head out there never mention the extremely bloated and wasteful military budget?
The fact is our country still hasn’t paid off the debts incurred from our (mis) adventures in SE Asia 40 yrs. ago. Remember when Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard? That was so the fed could start printing money to pay off the debts of this failed war.
Fast forward to to day where our military is fighting 3 wars simultaneously, occupying two countries that don’t want us there, and stuck in a quagmire in Afghanistan that bankrupted the USSR.
Our country spends more on the military than every other country combined! If you add up the military expenditures of every country on the face of this planet, they still don’t add up to what our country spends to kill, torture, invade, occupy, bully and otherwise act as the de-facto world police.
Why don’t you have the cojones to mention this? Are you a war monger, or just ignorant?
as a pacifist I mentioned my idea about the military spending on other web sites but I feel it needs reiteration.
When you first learn about New York you learn about the Statue of Liberty and the “Empire” State building. First question: What Empire? The US is now running an undeclared empire by having military presence in many, many countries that are “independent” like Germany, Japan, South Korea, Afghanistan, and so on. Was that the intention of the “founding fathers”? I think, not.
The US has become a militaristic country and everyone is on a mission to teach the rest of the world the “American way of life”. That is not welcomed everywhere, not even in friendly countries. No wonder the US as country are treated with suspicion and even enmity though the regular US citizens are usually quite welcome.
Now my, admittedly radical, proposal. Reduce the US forces to a kind of Coast Guard and a Local Defense Force. Clean the rest of the globe from US troops. The US military cannot even keep the pirates in Somalia at bay. As far as I can see the Canadians do not want to invade the US. The Mexicans invade quietly with the support of US citizens. The Cubans just want reunification with Miami. The other countries around are so small that they would not know what to do with all the prisoners of war. Problem solved. The additional unemployed people could be hired to rebuild the US infrastructure.
China is the only dangerous force but they are to smart. They rather conquer the US economically and so far they have done a great job. To be sure: Many US lobbyists and lawyers and business men and even government members helped them. Imagine they would conquer the US: To whom would they sell their rare earth metals? Besides: The Asians are the fastest growing minority. So one day they have to cooperate with the Mexicans.
THE GOVERNMENT SUCKS THEY TOOK OVER THE MUSTANG RANCH A HOUSE OF ILREPUTE AND GOULDNT EVEN RUN THAT.THAT SHOULD TELL U SOMETHING
The talk about cutting Medicare, Medicaid and SS to get out of debt is nonsense. SS is broke. They already stole that money. Why is noone talking about cutting welfare and free med to illegals. That is what is bankrupting America. We put out billions of dollars a yr on welfare and free meds. The illegals aren’t coming here for jobs. 57% of them are on some type of welfare. They are bankrupting our hospitals. They buy junker cars that aren’t registered and when involved in an accident they jump out of the car and disappear. Leaving the person they crashed into in the lurch. That doesn’t include their free schooling, lawyers when they are arrested and translators. We are the world’s HMO and ATM. The people who hire them pay them under the table and don’t pay for workmens comp. If they are hurt on the job, we pay for it. There are pregnant women coming across the border so they can have an anchor baby and get welfare. Then lets talk about all the graft and corruption in govt. How do these men become millionaires on say…a Senator’s pay. The crooks at Fanny, Freddy and Countrywide walked away with millions of dollars after making our homes worthless.
All of this is a plan that has been going on since 1941. The plan to turn us into a third world communist country. Read what they are teaching your kids in school and college. Read the list of books the kids are required to read. It is clear indoctrination.
And until every American knows that we are doomed.
Three Words:
Campaign Finance Reform
Until we get an election system that is not bought by special interests, we will continue to have our single party political system, The Special Interests Party, with its 2 wings, the Dims and the Repugs.
This are why The DC dolts along with the Money and Market guys like Mike, never mentioning our “Defense” spending. History could teach us a great lesson on why empires fall. Global expansionism brought down The British Empire, The Roman Empire, The Russian Empire, and now The American Empire.
BRING OUR TROOPS HOME!
I think everybody is going about this wrong. We should be figuring out in priority order what our government should be funding. Defense, what?, what? AND THEN figuring out how much in each case to fund AND THEN stopping the rest. For instance, why are we paying farmers to not grow certain crops or paying them anything if the price is over a certain threshhold, or paying anything for growing tobacco?