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[Make sure to read Daniel Greenfield’s contributions in Jamie Glazov’s new book: Barack Obama’s True Legacy: How He Transformed America.]
“Government is simply the name we give to the things we choose to do together,” Rep. Barney Frank, whose prostitute aide ran a male brothel from his Capitol Hill home, once observed.
The former congressman claimed that he had no idea his boyfriend was running a male brothel and most people don’t know the government had racked up $34 trillion in debt.
Sometimes the things we do together are really the things being done to us.
Back in 2020, the national debt was at $26 trillion and that amounted to $80,885 for each of us. Now, after three years of the “adults” being “back in charge”, our share of the debt is $100,000 each. Or $100,696, if you want to be exact, and $257,275 per household.
In the four years since 2019, a whopping $12 trillion was added to the national debt.
During the subprime mortgage crisis, the national debt hit $10 trillion. In 2010, the Tea Party movement arose in response to an unacceptably high $13 trillion national debt and endless government spending. But by the time Obama was done, the national debt had nearly doubled to $20 trillion. And now here we are living large with an impossible $34 trillion debt.
Over the spring, Congress raised the debt limit to $31 trillion. In two centuries, Congress only tampered with the debt limit 58 times and then it raised the debt limit 21 times in this century.
Every time the debt limit is raised, the government gets permission to steal more money.
And when the debt limit is reached, a cry goes up that Congress is obligated to raise the debt limit or, as recent proposals would have it, abolish it entirely. But while Congress can get rid of the debt limit, which mostly exists for political virtue signaling, it can’t abolish the effects of debt.
Currently we’re at a debt that amounts to 125% of GDP and the Congressional Budget Office recently projected that by 2043, we’ll be at over 150% and by 2053, we’ll be at 192%.
This seems wildly optimistic.
The bad news and the good news is that nobody wants our debt. Foreign nations, including China, have been selling off their share of our debt, so have our own banks: some of which were partly brought down by all that paper. The Biden administration keeps printing debt to pay for the interest on all the debt that it already ran up and there are few takers.
Dumping $22 trillion in debt into a market already running the other way wasn’t smart.
Bonds offered at higher interest rates means that more of the debt goes to servicing the interest on the debt. We have a government of loan sharks offering us up to the world to be in hock to debts that we can never repay at escalating rates just so they can have more spending money.
Standard & Poor’s, Fitch and Moody’s have all issued warnings about the level of debt and the fiscal stability of the country. And they’ve all been ignored as just more background noise.
Politicians claim that each insane budget is really a series of “investments”. If these are investments, then the president is Bernie Madoff. What’s remarkable is how little such an enormous debt bought us. Unlike the catastrophic events that triggered past debts, we did not fight a major war or even suffer any economic calamities other than the self-inflicted kind.
$6 trillion in debt was added after we reopened the economy and stopped writing blank checks to every foreign scammer claiming that he was employing 1,000 workers in Des Moines, Iowa.
Bill Clinton introduced us to the $2 trillion budget, Bush to the $3 trillion budget, Obama to the $4 trillion budget and then $6 trillion spending sprees became the norm. Biden’s last proposed budget was $6.8 trillion. Another term will inevitably take us to a $7 trillion dollar budget and beyond. Each of those budgets claims that their spending sprees are investments that will be offset through economic growth once we fund lesbian pottery classes for everyone in Maine.
“I am inspired by America’s progress—and I am more determined than ever to keep our country moving forward,” Obama wrote on his $4 trillion budget request. And he certainly has.
We kept right on moving forward into debt at a rate no alcoholic in a liquor store could duplicate.
Obama promised that his 2017 budget would reduce the deficit by nearly $3 trillion. His budget, like every budget, was hailed as transformative, promising to solve our social problems, restore our technological edge, cure diseases and usher in world peace. None of that happened.
What are we actually getting for our money?
Biden’s Inflation Increase Act allocated $7.5 billion to be spent on electric car chargers for the small percentage of the country that owns a Tesla or some other overpriced and taxpayer funded electric junker. So far not one has been built. $6 billion will be sent to California to help build the high-speed rail to nowhere project which was supposed to cost $9 billion in the 90s and is currently budgeted at $128 billion. The train, of which not one mile of track has been built, promises to one day run at 220 miles an hour on solar power. But mostly by burning cash.
This is where our money goes. Billions of dollars are allocated to proposals developed by politically connected consultants which are then spent by the consultants on more consulting. Nothing ever gets built because then there would be less money to spend on conducting environmental reviews (by consultants) and reaching out to stakeholders (by consultants) and then lobbying for more money by explaining that all the other money had conditions attached to it that prevented it from being properly spent, but this time the consultants will get it right.
“Wake me up at any time in the middle of the night and ask me what they are doing, and I will say they are stealing,” Czar Alexander II reportedly once said.
We could have spent trillions conquering Canada, colonizing Mars or constructing a pyramid covering all of South Dakota that could be seen from space, and then at least we would have something to show for our money. Instead we bankrupted our children so that politically connected consultants could buy mansions while promising to save the planet from us.
America of 2024 combines the least appealing features of a kakistocracy, an oligarchy and a kleptocracy which holds elections to distract us from how much money is being stolen.
By the time the next election rolls around, a $34 trillion debt will turn into a $35 trillion debt.
“A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon, you’re talking real money,” Sen. Everett Dirksen had observed in 1962. That year the federal budget crossed $100 billion for the first time in history.
Today, $100 billion (or more accurately $110 billion) is what the Fed is spending to cover cash losses. No one has really paid much attention because $110 billion is hardly money anymore.
The new motto is “a trillion here, a trillion there, pretty soon, you’re talking real money,”
Once, the recently departed Shecky Green, while speculating at a Las Vegas craps game, shouted out “I bet my life!!”, as he threw himself upon the craps table.
We are now in a similar situation.
That’s what government does best, steal moola.
I’ve been reading about how they did that during the Dark Ages, but it went on earlier of course, in Rome and other places.
What happens when the American government files bankruptcy. That will be very interesting.
As the years progressed from the Roaring 20’s, The current mission is too oblivilate to impossible solutions in financial reimbursement.
Lazy percussions,comforts the elitists and harms everyone else. The politicians don’t care about our welfare,remember that when a socialists, asks us how government can harm us?
To whom do Americans owe all this money?
Well, we owe it to foreign banks, pension funds, bond funds, Central Banks, Foreign governments, and to individuals who buy U.S. Treasury bonds. It will be very interesting to see what would happen, if the U.S. government is unable to pay the next group of U.S. Treasury bonds that comes due, and the government says we do not have the money to pay in full. Do your research and you will find the answer.
It owes it to all the people who own Treasury Bonds, other than the non-negotiable Treasury Bonds :owned” by the fictitious trust funds of SS and Medicare.
Do you not recognize how significant the interest payments are and how much more significantly those payments will increase over time?
But hey, maybe we can just print the money!
So Americans owe it mainly to other Americans?
I follow the U.S. Treasury Report, the national debt is now 34 trillion dollars, and it will be 35 trillion dollars by September 30, 2024 or higher. The interest is now more than one trillion dollars a year. The projected U.S. Federal Budget deficit is projected to be around 1.5 trillion dollars for the fiscal year ending September 20, 2024. Just to balance the the Federal Budget would require the government to cut spending by 750 billion dollars and raise taxes by the same amount.
Do you think the American people would vote for any candidate that would propose doing that? I don’t think so.
So what is going to happen? The U.S. will suffer a financial collapse in the future. All it would take is the right set of conditions to bring that about. We came very close back in 2008.
With the way things are going now, it is only a matter of time. Then the real turmoil in America will begin. We will all suffer the financial consequences.
Then we’ll see more and more government created inflation, some argue that all inflation is due to government intervention. But inflation actually helps the government pretend that their borrowing is reduced.
Crony consultants will write a report about it if you give them enough.
It was a Republican, President Trump, who called the last $600 stimulus checks, financed with debt, “measly.” (Money for nothing. Do we get our chicks for free, too?)
Here’s the progress Trump made on reducing the budget deficit–> <– I guess we needed to wait until the unemployment rate went below the incredibly low 3.5% before government should do something about balancing the budget.
The author doesn't allude to the unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare, liabilities that exceed the national debt. Trump's lackeys ran campaign ads criticizing DeSantis's support for addressing those unfunded liabilities. Trump's solution? Achieve a GDP growth rate not achieved once during his four years in office. Educate me by giving us Trump's realistic plan to address these "HUUUGE" unfunded liabilities.
Did that check from Mexicans to pay for the wall come in yet? If it does, maybe it should be diverted to buying back Treasury bonds…
As for "investments," when I taught economics, in an effort to improve students' critical thinking ability, I informed them that politicians like to describe any government spending they're proposing as "an investment." People who understand economics should ask "but is it a good investment?"
I appreciate this author's columns and will make another donation to Frontpage to show that appreciation. I'd write more but need to get back to reading David Horowitz's most recent book…
When Trump was in office, I wish he worried as much about spending and budget deficits as he does meaningless “trade deficits”.
I’ll definitely vote for Trump again, but I wish he at least paid some lip service to massive spending cuts. The time and effort he wastes on worrying about trade deficits should be spent on worrying about the bloated federal budget.
Excellent comment. I have a “trade deficit” with every establishment that I buy a good or service from. I only have a trade surplus with my employer. Adam Smith dispensed of the silly notion of the “balance of trade” in 1776.
The U.S. has a huge capital account.
No nation can survive when one of its major political parties is hell bent on its destruction. If the Republicans regain control of government in the next election, and institute some economic reform, the Democrats will be laughing up their sleeve. Strengthening the dollar, by lowering the debt, as far as they’re concerned, serves only to increase the amount of wealth they can steal the next time they are in charge.
I actually get to spot a logical flaw of one of my favorite authors. If you do not work then you can not contribute to repaying the debt People who get money from the government can not help repay the debt.
When you take the national debt and divide by the number of people in the current work force, the amount owed by those who can pay back the debt more than doubles.
Other than that Dear Mr. Greenfield, please keep up the great work.
I pay taxes on the withdrawals from my retirement accounts.
You can tax wealth rather than income. Any guesses who wants to increase the taxes on inheritance?
One additional point …
Most of us have no idea what 34 trillion dollars is …
In a nation so dumbed down we cannot do fractions or balance a checkbook … our ability to understand numbers is on par with our ability of a Never-Trumper to find a bathroom in a Walmart …
To give you an idea … the Bush 43 administration rebuilt almost 500 water treatment plants for just over 1 billion. 5 trillion would replace America’s entire residential property inventory (excluding land value). Look at it another way …
About 22-24 MM Americans are millionaires. (per the net) If you’re wondering where your share is, most of it is locked up in home values. (Think the old lady down the street living on a pension – with the taxmen drooling outside her door waiting for her to pass so they can change her valuation to 1.2 MM or whatever). Most of them are worth just over a million.
So all of the people together are worth about 22 trillion. Which means … essentially … that the national debt has already squandered about 50% more than the upper end of the middle class. Which means … the middle class already owes more than they have.
Since the lower classes have nothing to speak anyway, we can assume this means America is bankrupt. And we owe all of the money to people who have provided no service and no product to speak of.
Do not be confused by economic voodoo. Producing entities have nothing to do with the entities holding our debt. The vast sum is held by financial ‘services’ with a contractual ‘hold’ on our debt. The money, by and large, was squandered. If you’re looking for any physical residual of it … get some videos on China and watch them building – and then destroying skyscrapers. That’s where a trillion or so went.
As for the rest? … Idk. … Space aliens? Pizza parties? … Inquiring minds want to know.
I’m 65 years old and just to be clear, I’ve never acknowledged ownership or responsibility for ANY of our national debt since it was done without my permission, in opposition to my values, to the detriment of my family, and against my wishes.
“Every time the debt limit is raised, the government gets permission to steal more money.”
Why do we even have a debt limit? What’s the point?
I don’t owe $100,000. I pay my taxes.
It isn’t my fault that they don’t manage their money properly.
NO, I DO NOT OWE ANY MONEY TO THIS CORRUPT GOVERNMENT OR ANY OF ITS CORRUPT AGENCIES BECAUSE I ALREADY PAID MY TAXES.
So, that leaves the GOVT.. THEY HAVE ABUSED AND MISUSED ALL TAX MONIES COMING INTO THEM.
THERE WILL BE A RECKONING, but it won’t be for the American people who are law-abiding and righteous.
THE RECKONING WILL BE ON THIS GOVT AND THE UNRIGHTEOUS PEOPLE LIVING IN AMERICA.
So, those who are unrighteous, YOU SHOULD BE VERY VERY AFRAID…………of GOD AND HIS SON, JESUS, WHO WILL COME FOR THE RIGHTEOUS, leaving all the UNRIGHTEOUS behind to endure 7 years of VERY VERY BAD HARDSHIPS. HAVE FUN.