Guest Post by John Stossel
Two weeks ago, President Donald Trump signed the largest stimulus bill in U.S. history: more than $2 trillion.
For once, both Republicans and Democrats agreed. The Senate voted 96-0. The House didn’t even bother with a formal vote.
At the White House, a reporter asked the president, pointing out that the bill includes $25 million for the Kennedy Center, “Shouldn’t that money be going to masks?”
“The Kennedy Center has suffered greatly because nobody can go there,” Trump responded. “They do need some funding. And look — that was a Democrat request. That was not my request. But you got to give them something.”
“Something” they got. The bill includes $25 million for Congressional salaries, $50 million for an Institute of Museum and Library Services and lots of other wasteful things.
Only a few politicians were wary. Rep. Thomas Massie complained that he wasn’t even allowed to speak against the bill.
Rep. Alex Mooney asked: “How do you pay for it? Borrow it from China, borrow it from Russia? Are we going to print the money?”
Those are good questions.
Our national debt is already $24 trillion. Now it will jump, percentage-wise, to where Greece’s debt was shortly before unemployment there hit 27%.
Greece was bailed out by the European Union. But the United States can’t be bailed out by others.
How will we pay off our debt? That’s the topic of my new video.
There are really three options:
1. Raise taxes.
2. Print money.
3. Default.
Let’s consider each:
1. Raising taxes on rich people is popular. Even Michael Bloomberg wants “higher taxes on billionaires” like him.
But raising taxes on the rich often kills the wealth and jobs some rich people create. And it won’t solve our debt problem. Even if we took all the billionaires’ wealth — reducing their net worth to zero — it would cover only an eighth of our debt.
2. Some on the left now say, “Don’t worry about debt, just print money!”
This belief, called Modern Monetary Theory, destroys lives.
Zimbabwe’s dictator tried it. Eager to spend more money on wars, higher salaries for government officials and luxury for himself, he had his government print more money. But that meant more money pursued the same goods. That caused explosive inflation. Soon, a $2 bag of onions cost $30 million Zimbabwean dollars.
The more money the government printed, the more inflation there was. They eventually even issued 100 trillion dollar bills. Today those 100 trillion bills are worth about 40 cents.
Inflation wrecked lives in 1920s Germany, Argentina and Russia, and in modern-day Venezuela, too.
3. America could simply refuse to pay our debt. But that would betray everyone who invested in America, and bankrupt Americans who bought Treasury Bonds.
Defaulting on your debt wrecks economies, too. When Argentina defaulted, unemployment rose to 21%.
Once you’re deep in debt, no option is good.
How did we get to this point?
Presidents have talked about the dangers of debt for decades. But they didn’t deal with it; they just talked about it.
“We have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children’s future,” warned Ronald Reagan. “We must act today to preserve tomorrow.”
Bill Clinton said, “We’ve got to deal with this big long term debt problem.”
Barack Obama called driving up the national debt “irresponsible” and then proceeded to do exactly that.
Donald Trump complained that Obama “doubled” the nation’s debt. But now, under Trump’s presidency and the new CARES Act, our debt will grow even faster.
This will not end well.
So far, the deficit spending hasn’t done enormous harm. But it will. You can stretch a rubber band only so far, until it breaks.
Our debt will wreck our children’s lives.
Yet, today politicians mostly talk about spending more.
John Stossel is author of “Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media.” For other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com.
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ha ha ha …. Trump is s draining the swamp … 420 thousand indictments … the storm is upon us… ha ha ha.
What’s even funnier is that there’s still True Believers ™ here.
When debt-money is your monetary system, every nail needs a hammer. There is no way out. Well ya, but it’s a result of circumstances and means we start over with nothing.
Just remember that your flag decal won’t get you into heaven any more. Rest in peace, John Prine. Thanks for everything.
I hadn’t heard …very , very sad news. Thanks for sharing. RIP… have that cocktail now.
Great song writer. One of my fav John Prine songs – Hello In There.
This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer. Will Rogers
“It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.”
― Mark Twain
Dear John.
We’ve been bankrupt, they are just finally informing the likes of you because it doesn’t matter anymore.
The only solution is global default for everyone. Hit the reset button. There will be pain, but it will be shorter term than the other solutions I think. Honestly though, I think it will just encourage all governments to just do the same dumb thing all over again. I have known people that file bankruptcy every seven years as the law allows. They cannot live off credit, they cannot go without, everything they want they think they “have to have”.
I filed chapter 7 when I was 22 years old. I was a dumb, young, single mom recently coming off a divorce. It took me years to recover, because back then it was much harder to get rid of the BK stigma from your credit, there were only credit cards you had to put a deposit on to get. Car loan? Forget it. I had to actually save up some money or use my tax refund for a cheap second hand car.
Now, people can actually get their HOUSE foreclosed on, and 12 months later if they save up 10-20% down they can actually get another mortgage. Think about that. You default on a 300-400K mortgage. A year later you can finance another house. True these are higher-interest loans most often. But is that really the solution?
The hypocrisy is breathtaking.
“But is that really the solution?”
for those who own the monetary system, absolutely it’s the solution. once you understand that the dollar is fiat and is generated without cost, and that the money system owners are not interested in repayment or loan performance but only in you being indebted to them and thus working for them, it all comes clear.
The federal debt, federal reserve and feckless politicians are mere symptoms. Seeking bandaids for them won’t cure the underlying disease.
“Merkaa” been bankrupt for longer than I WANT to remember, and . . . in more ways than I WANT to enumerate. But I must admit: after a farming childhood, drafted VFW – ‘Nam ’69, couple of years 24/7 drugging/global gallivanting, 5 years max security Thai prison, end of a faithful 25-year companionship by slow painful death; viewing this “mother of all cultural FUBARs” from this inland, rural, GROUNded, GROUPed, GUNned, GARDENed and . . . SIMPLIFIED “situation” provides me with both increasing daily amazement and thankfulness to be still UNmedicated, active and as of this posting . . . a little closer to Home.
Psst, “citYzens/urbies/coasters, parasitic polluticians/gov-agents, BAR-fly LIEyers/PERsecutors, lib-turd academics, Soros-subsidized chump-change liberty subverters/bolsheviks, corp-owned media whores, sillywood hollyweirds/perverts, WS white-shoe boys/banksters/”traders” and other “NON-productive TAKERS” – tick-tock/GAME-ON!
To fellow PRODUCTIVE “fly-over deplorables” of similar vain and “situation” – continue to “FELLOWSHIP/THRIVE in place”. May you endure/continue to prosper according to the Lord’s “Will from the Beginning”.
MAGA – Make America GRATEFUL/GRACIOUS ALWAYS.
NO FEAR/HATE – parry past all the gov/corp-owned media bull-schiff.
“JC, always before of me” – Hoo-rah.
To John Stossel I say – NO SHIT SHERLOCK.
Some Evil Fuckers are just finishing up cocktails on the fantail of a sleek 50 meter yacht, eagerly anticipating fresh lobster for dinner and tanned, nubile bodies for dessert, as the vessel plies cobalt waters towards private placid palm fringed islands in the vicinity of Bora Bora.
Hey P…..I’ve got an extra piece of tail waiting on you…..and a nubile nymph as well….you just have to swim to my location .LOL
Yep, we were not bankrupt with $23 Trillion in public debt, but once it hit $25 Trillion we entered the bankrupt universe.
line item veto ? drain the swamp my ass.
Frankly (if that’s your real name), at the very least I was hoping for a “signing statement”.
This will be a turning point. Government will do as it did in the last depression and try to spend its way out, which will not work any better than it did in the 1930’s. There is basically no gold to confiscate so they cannot do that. They can, and will raise taxes, but it will have to be done in a manor that will prevent public unrest.
They are facing huge problems as both State and Municipal governments will fail because of this, and demand Federal bail outs. Underfunded and poorly managed public pension funds will also need Federal bail outs.
It is not out of the question to imagine the national debt will increase 25% to 50% over the next couple of years with tax revenues shrinking considerably as unemployment and business failure become common .
People who think the government can print the money to spend, are ignorant of how the government finances itself.
The government does not print money. It borrows it. If it printed its own money, there would not be a national debt to begin with. The government borrows money at interest, and that interest must be paid. That debt service is now almost 20% of the Federal budget.
Government on all levels has been expanding and spending like drunken sailors for the past 30 yrs. and has run up enormous debts. The bill has now come due on those debts, and it will be faced with balancing that fact with shrinking income from tax receipts.
After attempting to spend its way out of this problem unsuccessfully, government on all levels will have to come to grips with fiscal reality for the first time in decades. Their only option will be to dramatically cut its expenses, which means cutting its own size and scope. It will need to drastically cut social programs and to lay both the costs and control of these programs off on to the local levels.
This will be a time of forced decentralization, as the reality of the incompetency of government becomes undeniable.
Government is an evil entity, it is morally corrupt, and detrimental to the public it is created to serve. It’s forced decline will ultimately be a good thing for the country, but it will be a painful road to get there.
If we actually have gold in Fort Knox (reminds me-RIP Pussy Galore by the way),revalue it and back the debt with gold
Why did God create Gentiles?…… Somebody had to pay retail.
Give the man credit for at least talking about stuff the popular media will never talk about. when our representatives? talked about spending more the first thing I thought of was the debt. This desperate spending orgy is One more sign that we need to prepare for the coming shit storm.
Upvoted you for the sentiment, but it’s too late, the shit storm has met the whirling dervish.
gman,
Would you call this envy or G.R.E.E.D?
envy on whose part? and sorry but what is g.r.e.e.d., I look it up but find nothing clear.
I write greed like that to bring attention to myself. I am in need of attention. Lol.
I have posited several times on TBP that greed causes more destruction than envy but no one seems to agree. I believe we are now watching the destructive power of G.R.E.E.D
“Would you call this envy”
no. it is simple self-insular tribalism. judaism is 1400bc mesopotamian genocidal ethnic cleansing slaver tribal warfare, cast as a religion. in judaism, only jews are humans, while everyone else is a talking human-shaped animal put here by god to serve them (in talmudic teaching this is to spare jews the indignity of being served by mere non-speaking animals). everything on earth, including all its other peoples, is seen as resources to be plundered at will, by divine right, even – especially – if a nation welcomes jews and admits them as fellow citizens (“for god put good will in the hearts of the egyptians towards israel. thus israel plundered the egyptians.”). they don’t envy non-jews any more than a cattle rancher envies his cattle.
“or G.R.E.E.D?”
judaism is about jews. it’s about absolutely nothing else. it’s not about abraham, or the law and prophets, or about the talmud, or about the nation state of israel. and it’s not about yahweh. it’s about jews. thus it is necessarily worldly and materialist. “we will sit like an effendi and eat” – this is their heaven. “greed” doesn’t really describe it – it’s not a focus on material gain, rather it’s that they have nothing else in view. in their religion a wise and godly and righteous and (fill in the blank) man is wealthy as a matter of course, and a man otherwise is poor – so in their eyes a wealthy man is wise and godly and righteous and (fill in the blank) as a matter of course by definition. so when they speak of “life” and “seeking life” and “celebrating life”, they mean a materialist life (specifically their own life, not any other) and this will eventually devolve down to money and gold and their control of it (thus the federal reserve). or, as revelation 18:13 puts it describing the economy of the whore of babylon (which I think is jerusalem), “cinnamon and spice and incense and perfume and frankincense and wine and olive oil and fine flour and wheat and cattle and sheep, and cargoes of horses and chariots and slaves and human lives.” I don’t think the word “greed” really encompasses that.
This.
Best answer I have received. It only took about 3-4 years. Lol
https://www.ishares.com/us/library/stream-document
Not redeemable shares. Only broker-dealers with a basket (50,000) shares at a time can redeem for silver at price paid vs spot. This is how you play physical silver. You buy 50,000 shares through a broker dealer instruct them To immediate redeem them in physical and take them to the public market.surely they are doing 400 oz bars and not silver eagles etc….they may pose a problem. Any way, You can sell it a physical to some corp, ngo, or govt, etc etc…beats paying $25 oz for junk silver locally…..
Click on top to see the one page of prospectus that informs you of what you need to Know
https://www.ishares.com/us/products/239855/ishares-silver-trust-fund
come on the .1 % need that money. your grandchildren can afford it heaven forbid the rich should have to buy a smaller yacht or their ownership of the worlds assets should fall below 90% Trump understands this they are his people.