Posted on 08/24/2019 5:19:31 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
This year's National Defense Strategy heralded the return of peer competitors and the re-emergence of long-term great power competition. The debate among national security experts that followed its publication mostly focused on whether China or Russia is the bigger long-term threat to the U.S.
China is a rising power with national ambitions whose goal is to supplant U.S. atop the global hierarchy. Russia? It's a vodka-addled demographic basket case that runs a few troll farms, whose closest economic peers are Italy and Brazil.
But, an increasingly dangerous China is at best the number two national security threat, dwarfed by the much clearer danger of America's spending addiction.
If the U.S. is supplanted in the global order, it will have done to itself what no foreign power could ever hope to accomplish. While the national debt stands at well over $22 trillion, the better measure of the impact is in the interest that must be paid each year.
The U.S. is running a trillion-plus-dollar deficit and is on pace to pay about $400B in interest on the national debt this year. In ten years, the interest on the national debt is projected to be around a cool trillion dollars, and that's assuming that the U.S. doesn't elect a socialist in the interim, which is becoming an increasingly bad bet. That's the equivalent of pulling a trillion dollar bill out of the national wallet each year and lighting it on fire.
The $400B we pay now in interest is well over twice what China spends on its military. Once we get to a trillion dollars, the interest that we will have to pay on the national debt will dwarf U.S. military spending.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Half a trillion of our debt is to China due to trade imbalance
Trump is trying to address this
It is obvious how this is going to end (most likely in a post Trump era, whenever that may be).
We are going to default on our debt to foreign nations, including China.
China knows it, too.
Everybody is carefully arranging their chairs on the financial Titanic—the voyage is underway!
Total BS by a person that is terminally naive.
The greatest threat and existential enemy of our Republic is the Democrat party
To gurantee the existence of America, the progressives must be wiped out. We can not continue side by side. There can be no co existence.
Misunderstanding that very basic concept makes one a naive fool
http://usadebtclock.com/
123 Trillion unfounded liabilities and climbing
79 Trillion of this is Medicare
China has leverage and insurance of which we may not be aware
Remember when SecState Hillary returned from China and made some bizarre comment about “ eminent domain”?
I think Bill Hillary and Barry made deals that China holds in its back pocket
Not that Iowa farmers, WV and Kentucky coal miners and US city port workers are going to meekly accept new imperial overlords
There is also a guy out there claiming the Treasury issued one trillion dollar IOU notes.
Paper is paper without the armies to enforce it.
Well if there is one thing Trump knows, it’s how to default on debt.
Depends on how one defines “military spending.”
If the author is including spending for the IC then
I agree.
Actually the greatest threat are the RINO democratic fifth columnist traitor sell out useful idiots in the Republican party. Without them we could have dealt with the democrats. In fact we thought we had, but Boener and Ryan nixed that.
Isn’t it more of a security threat to all those who honor that currency at face value, when they know we printing money like the ... FED. I guess I’m asking who is dumber? USA printing funny money for 40 years or the world for taking it?
“The greatest threat and existential enemy of our Republic is the Democrat party”
True, but the Demonrat party is just the host for the real “enemy”.
If theres one thing any business person knows, its the difference between defaulting on debt vs using bankruptcy laws under which to restructure debt
Trumps failing casinos continued to operate under court supervised restructured loan terms and when that couldnt keep them going, he transferred ownership of them to the debt holders - who were not Mom and Pop but investors like Wilbur Ross who seems to hold no hard feelings.
No one took a bath
Now, what obama and pelosi did to GM bond holders and franchisees...
Obama outright stole my GM retireement bonds
Tied to our debt is the invasion across our borders.
And all of that is dwarfed by the presence of over 30 million fraudulently documented foreigners and the willingness of so many of our elected and appointed to side with them.
The most important thing is to not overspend, which is really hard to do with politicians setting the spending.
We do have another opportunity, in addition to less spending, that people don’t consider.
Our outstanding debt is in Treasury Bonds (and Bills and Notes). They are liquid investments that are bought and sold on the market after issuance. When interest rates go down the current value of the bond GOES UP (yes, the maturity date matters, but I am keeping it simple).
When interest rates go up the value of those bonds go down. When rates are as low as they have been over the last 5 years or so a small increase in rates will have a dramatic effect on the current value of the bond.
It is possible to buy some of our own debt back on the open market at a significant discount.
The entitlement programs are the biggest drivers of our debt.
“We are going to default on our debt to foreign nations, including China.”
I’m beginning to think the same thing. Really...who’s gonna repo the USA?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.