Free Republic

January 8, 1835 The U.S. national debt reaches $0 for the first timeOn January 8, 1835, President Andrew Jackson achieves his goal of entirely paying off the United States’ national debt. It was the only time in U.S. history that the national debt stood at zero, and it precipitated one of the worst financial crises in American history.The elimination of the national debt was both a personal issue for Jackson and the culmination of a political project as old as the nation itself. Since the time of the Revolution, American politicians had argued over the wisdom of the nation carrying...

Although this article is posted on Newsmax.com, it looks that the originator is the AP. Thus, only posting link: https://www.newsmax.com/t/newsmax/article/1003258/1

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Sunday referred to the $2.3 trillion coronavirus relief and government spending bill, which is among the biggest spending bills passed by Congress, a “down payment on what is needed to crush the virus.” Congress passed the massive $2.3 trillion government spending bill, which includes $900 billion for coronavirus relief, last week. President Trump announced Sunday evening that he would sign the bill despite objections to billions in “pork,” as the bill includes billions in foreign aid and benefits for special interests.

President Trump had supporters waiting in the wings to fight for him and for the American people. Now, the swamp has gotten exactly what it wanted.There is no way to sugarcoat it. The Washington establishment — and the big-spending congressional appropriators, lobbyists, and bureaucrats who comprise it — jammed through a massive “omnibus” spending package and combo COVID-19 relief bill with a price tag of more than $2.3 trillion.President Trump was correct to initially balk at the absurd spending but did so despite the fact his team negotiated much of it while demanding additional direct payments to Americans. Unfortunately, notwithstanding...

President Donald Trump said during a stop on the campaign trail Monday that he will double down on his pro-American domestic policy if he is reelected to a second term in office in November’s election, delivering a promise to “cut middle class taxes even further.” The President’s remarks came during a campaign rally in Martinsburg, Pennsylvania, the latest in a series of rallies across the Commonwealth, which is widely viewed as a key battleground state. “And in my second term I will cut middle class taxes even further,” President Trump stated, eliciting uproarious applause from the crowd.

The Federal Reserve’s point man on financial regulation said the Treasury market has grown so large that some level of central bank involvement may need to continue to ensure orderly trading conditions. Randal Quarles, the Fed’s vice chairman for supervision, was discussing the outlook for the central bank’s $120 billion-a-month in purchases of Treasury and mortgage debt. Those purchases ramped up in March as the central bank responded to market and economic stress caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The functioning of financial markets has improved since the tumult earlier in the year, raising questions about whether the Fed could pull...

The national debt has reached levels not seen since the end of World War II, but Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is calling for a combination of spending increases and tax hikes that will require trillions of dollars of additional borrowing in the next 10 years. Biden is calling for more than $3 trillion in new taxes that would be imposed primarily on corporations and the wealthiest Americans. But two recent analyses of Biden's spending plans agree that his proposals would not come close to paying for themselves over 10 years. If enacted, Biden's plans would push federal spending to...

Matt Bracken guest hosts The Alex Jones Show to break down the true value of stocking up on ammunition.

I am not in the habit of quoting leftist Noam Chomsky, but this line seems relevant when one considers our growing national debt: "When you trap people in a system of debt, they can't afford the time to think." Perhaps now is not the time in the middle of a pandemic, job losses and threats of even higher unemployment, to mention the national debt. Or, perhaps it is. One of the common characteristics of the fall of past empires and superpowers is massive national debt. Ours is currently at $26.5 trillion and growing by the second. Americans should regularly consult...

The Treasury Department will borrow a record-breaking $3 trillion between April and June as it moves to dispense emergency relief for the coronavirus pandemic. In a Monday statement, the Treasury said that it expected to borrow $2.99 trillion "in privately-held net marketable debt," which would leave it with a $800 billion cash balance at the end of June. Congress has passed roughly $3 trillion worth of spending to help prevent an economic collapse during the pandemic, including stimulus checks, expanded unemployment insurance, forgivable loans to small businesses and other financing options for larger businesses. SNIP That figure will be more...

We’re living in truly extraordinary times — and no, I’m not talking about Netflix’s Tiger King documentary. I’m referring to the unprecedented actions taken by the Federal Reserve and national government to deal with the severe economic consequences of policymakers’ decision to shut down much of the U.S. economy to keep people safe from coronavirus. Over the past several weeks, the Fed has started to implement its plan to “print” trillions of dollars to bolster credit markets, and Congress and the Trump administration recently signed into law a gargantuan $2 trillion stimulus package. Even more incredibly, President Trump is now...

Okay, I’ve been trying to do some research as to when “The Dafficit” (Hat tip to Daffy Jim Sasser) became a thing. About the only people nuttier than gold bugs and audit the fed crack pots. Country will never be broke, it can do something you or I CAN’T do. So when did this political-financial flim-flam get started and who did so?

America’s long-term national debt problem could lead to economic Armageddon. The misguided belief that we are actually paying down our debt is giving this administration a false sense of security. We can have all the growth we can muster in our GDP but if we are spending more than what’s coming in, the debt will only keep building. The days of growing our way out of debt were lost $5 trillion ago. This week the CBO announced that for the first four months of the government’s fiscal year ending in January we had created a deficit of $1.2 trillion. As a...

WASHINGTON - The government’s debt is rising faster than one can say bankruptcy, default, delinquency, insolvency and ruin. If you don’t believe me, here’s what Phillip Swagel, the director of the Congressional Budget Office, told the House Budget Committee last month: “As a result of the persistently large deficits, federal debt held by the public is projected to rise to $31.4 trillion at the end of 2030, an amount equal to 98 percent of” our nation’s entire GDP. That means our entire economy. “At that point, debt would be higher as a percentage of GDP than at any point since...

Ten to 20 years from now, we will not be talking about impeachment, and believe it or not, we won't still be talking about Donald Trump either. We will be talking about our debt crisis. For all the good that came from this era, the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations will all be remembered as the ones that caused the crisis that will hammer our children and grandchildren. To understand where we are, it's helpful to review the past few years of this issue's development. At the Bush White House, where I worked for eight years, we knew we had...

I’m not an economic expert by any means. IMHO, the primary economic policy of the Trump administration is and should be economic growth and I think he takes this seriously. The problem we have is this government is overloaded with debt. And because of this debt, the Fed accelerated the printing money. The problem with this is that it causes inflation. The problem with inflation is that if it is too high, it suppresses economic growth. It looks to me that this is what is happening, thanks to a substantial amount of debt Trump inherited from Obama and past presidents...

The Democratic-controlled House on Tuesday approved a $1.4 trillion federal spending bill to avoid a government shutdown that includes funding for President Trump's border wall, strips ObamaCare taxes, raises the minimum age for buying tobacco products and gives Democrats increases for a variety of other domestic programs. The House – as it prepares to vote on articles of impeachment against President Trump – approved all 12 spending bills. They now go to the Senate to sync up later this week. “I am proud that we were able to come together, negotiate our differences, and reach a bipartisan agreement that makes...

The federal government's outstanding public debt has surpassed $23 trillion for the first time in history, according to data from the Treasury Department released on Friday. Growing budget deficits have added to the nation's debt at a speedy rate since President Trump took office. The debt has grown some 16 percent since Trump's inauguration, when it stood at $19.9 trillion. It passed $22 trillion for the first time just 10 months ago. Of the $23 trillion figure, just under $17 trillion was in the category of debt held by the public, which is a more useful gauge of the debt...

I grew up during the Reagan years, and I remember them well. To me, the war and social upheavals of the 60s were history I’d never experienced and the country had thankfully moved past, and I was too young to remember the Carter malaise. So, the sense of national unity, patriotism, and optimism under the Gipper seemed like the norm, not an eight-year aberration, for a child of the 80s like myself. In hindsight, President Reagan was exactly what the country needed at the time. His inspiring speeches, calming demeanor, and even strident anti-communism were the perfect tonic for a...

The Congressional Budget Office reported on Tuesday that, with one month to go, the federal deficit for fiscal year 2019 has already topped $1 trillion. As night follows day, Trump administration critics blamed the tax cuts. And once again, the data prove them wrong. The CBO report says that the federal deficit reached $1.067 by the end of August. That’s up $168 billion from the comparable period in fiscal year 2018. The deficit this year will be larger than the entire budget was in 1987. Where did the increase come from? Why, tax cuts, of course. But the report shows...