Posted on 02/04/2022 4:08:01 AM PST by Kaslin
When the history of this American era is written, the top headline will not be about election controversies or critical race theory or even COVID-19. This will be known most of all as the era when America sold out its future generations. This week, America's national debt surpassed $30 trillion for the first time, a full $7 trillion increase from just two years ago.
How did this happen, and who's to blame? President Bill Clinton was no deficit hawk, but with a Republican Congress keeping him largely in line and with the dot-com boom providing record government revenues, Clinton gets a pass. His eight years added to the deficit, but not by much by today's standards. As measured against the size of the U.S. economy, the debt ratio actually went down under Clinton.
The real debt explosion happened on the watch of the four presidents in the 22 years since Clinton, two Republicans and two Democrats. There were plenty of emergencies during these 22 years to justify huge and often wasteful spending binges (the war in the Middle East, Hurricane Katrina, the financial crisis, COVID-19). Regardless, the result of this 22-year period was an increase in the national debt from just under $6 trillion (55% the size of the U.S. economy at the time) at the start of the Bush years to $30 trillion (130% the size of the U.S. economy) today. And this deficit spending binge shows no signs of receding. In 2021 alone, the US added nearly $3 trillion to its national debt -- about 12.5% of the entire American economy.
Dwarfing the role of the often-wasteful spending programs of the last four presidents, the bulk of America's debt problem is driven by Social Security and Medicare. These programs, offering retirement and health care entitlements for all Americans, accounted for a full 25% of all federal spending in 2021. As more baby boomers hit retirement and less Americans work, without reforms, the debt impact of these programs is set to explode.
Why does all this matter? In 2021, the federal government spent $300 billion on debt interest alone. That is $2,400 for every household in America. With the inflation America is seeing under President Joe Biden's watch, interest rates are going up. For every 1% increase in interest rates, at today's debt levels, the federal government will pay another $225 billion in annual interest. With just a 2% rise in interest rates, the federal government will pay more each year on debt interest that it does on national defense.
It's easy to blame politicians for America's debt-ridden predicament. They deserve a lot of blame -- maybe none more than Republicans who campaigned as the party of limited government and spending restraint while governing as just the opposite.
The deeper truth is that we are all to blame. The facts are clear. The facts have been clear for decades now, but there has been no national will to take on the debt problem. Politicians who tried to broach the topic were punished, George W. Bush's attempt at Social Security reform being the most obvious example.
Americans have enjoyed the benefits of relatively low taxes along with lavish government spending. Rather than sound the alarm, America's elites on Wall Street and in big business, those who claim to know better, have led the pack for increased government spending. It has helped their short-term bottom lines. The media is also to blame. When Biden uses budget gimmicks to pretend his so-called Build Back Better program won't add to the debt, the media largely lets it go.
America's looming fiscal catastrophe used to be decades away. The boom in spending in recent years has accelerated the timeline. The net effect will be a decline in American national power. The beneficiaries will be America's adversaries, particularly China. How can America effectively check increased Chinese aggression in their region and beyond if the debt starts limiting spending on national defense? This is the world we are leaving for our kids.
Is there any solution today? The first step is to stop the bleeding. Biden's new debt-financed entitlement spending proposals are not responsible at today's debt levels. Luckily, it seems Sen. Joe Manchin understands this.
The next step, which we are nowhere close to, is to acknowledge the problem and begin discussing solutions. America needs a national leader strong enough to step forward and say enough is enough. It is flat-out immoral to burden future generations of Americans the way we are doing.
Will anyone listen to real talk like this? There's some evidence there's a chance. Huge numbers of Americans feel like we are a country in decline. They are longing for change. There's a chance that they could reward someone strong enough to park all the phony political speak and tell the truth.
There is also a real-world example. Back in 1992, when the national debt was only $4 trillion (60% the size of the U.S. economy then), billionaire Ross Perot mounted the most successful third-party Presidential candidacy in modern history, largely on a platform of American renewal and real talk about the debt problems. Perot got nearly 20% of the popular vote even after pausing his campaign until only a month before Election Day. Perot was ahead of his time. He had identified the problems, but back then, America had decades to fix them. Today, a strong case can be made that unless reforms are put in place soon, the results could be catastrophic. Is this likely to work? Probably not, but given the national mood and the near breakdown in American politics, maybe. More importantly, there is no better option on the table. Given the repercussions of just staying on the course to disaster, it seems worth a shot.
BS. It was the fault of the voters on voting for a clinton or bush. Perot had solutions and ideas. Too many people are party first, country last.
Spot on!!!
we can all agree the GOP got us biden. The purge needs to be in both parties
Couldn’t agree more!
Public school NEA education and a stolen election got us O’Biden.
2000 mules and Facebook cash didn’t hurt, either. But the GOP did NOTHING to expose the fraud...
But ultimately God brought America down for her rejection of him (Lo, how the mighty have fallen!) and because in the end times Israel must be without earthly aid to fulfill prophecy.
Yep
Real talk? Ross Perot's plan was to get the experts together and take a look under the hood. This would work, of course, because he was a no-nonsense businessman, so trust him. It was kinda Trumpian when you get down to it, though Perot lived in the pre-twitter era and didn't have a MAGA hat.
George W. Bush took a serious run at both Social Security, which he wanted to shift to a full funded, individually owned thrift savings plan basis, and healthcare, which he wanted to move towards market based solutions with premium support assistance for low income people.
GWB was absolutely right on both. Public opinion polls were mixed but his proposals were well within the Overton window. Republicans on the Hill were nominally supportive but didn't strongly engage, largely (I think) because they recognized the inevitably of a democrat filibuster and saw no reason to waste political capital on a fight they couldn't win. I do think Bush's proposals might have gotten majority support in Congress but there's no way supporters could have gotten close to breaking a filibuster. The democrats and the media, of course, lied their heads off about how Bush was abandoning old people.
Prior to that, Newt Gingrich was pushing for serious reform and had had serious conversations with Bill Clinton -- fully recognizing by that time that Clinton was a habitual liar and con man, but Gingrich was still pushing. That got overtaken by the Monica Lewinsky farce.
Prior to that, there was some conceptual discussion about real entitlement reform in the Reagan administration, but Reagan had other big fish to fry and the discussions never got very far.
So ... we are going to ride Social Security and government healthcare into bankruptcy. The democrats view this as a feature, not a bug, because they think they can use the collapse of the safety net as a gateway to socialism.
Perot worked for Clinton.
2 things...
Federal Reserve Act and
abandoning the gold standard....
I sadly am growing more convinced that the only means of restoring our Republic under the Constitution is a revolution akin to the French Revolution complete with all its excesses. The RINOS running the GOP are just swamp wallowers. The Democratic Party has become the mirror image of the Communist Party. Only a revolution will change the situation.
The debt will be repudiated and we will have new money.
This happens all the time, certain people, preferably bankers and their ilk get screwed, things suck for six to eighteen months, and then you’re good.
Had a look at Japan? Germany? Poland? Estonia?
Stop scaremongering.
And use it to question her authority to be VPOTUS when neither of her parents were American citizens when she was born.
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