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off topic: The show "World's Dumbest..." XYZ really makes you think about the bigger questions in life. #PolyMon
Borrowed from another board but interesting....
Check this out!
Bill Moyers: The Top Secret Trade Deal You Need to Know About
A US-led trade deal is currently being negotiated that could increase the price of prescription drugs, weaken financial regulations and even allow partner countries to challenge American laws. But few know its substance.
The pact, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), is deliberately shrouded in secrecy, a trade deal powerful people, including President Obama, don’t want you to know about. More than 130 members of Congress have asked the White House for greater transparency about the negotiations and were essentially told to go fly a kite. While most of us are in the dark about the contents of the deal, which Obama aims to seal by year end, corporate lobbyists are in the know about what it contains.
And some vigilant independent watchdogs are tracking the negotiations with sources they trust, including Dean Baker and Yves Smith, who join Moyers & Company this week. Both have written extensively about the TPP and tell Bill the pact actually has very little to do with free trade.
Instead, says Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, “This really is a deal that’s being negotiated by corporations for corporations and any benefit it provides to the bulk of the population of this country will be purely incidental.” Yves Smith, an investment banking expert who runs the Naked Capitalism blog adds: “There would be no reason to keep it so secret if it was in the interest of the public.”
http://billmoyers.com/segment/yves-smith-and-dean-baker-on-secrets-in-trade/
U R not banned. Post it.
NH
I've been banned again on the liberal Politics board. Someone post this for all those hypocrites to read:
http://frederickdouglassrepublican.com/did-you-know/
That's great
She, Harry Reid & 0bama should resign
and reality sets in...........
Pam Kehaly, president of Anthem Blue Cross in California, said she received a recent letter from a young woman complaining about a 50% rate hike related to the healthcare law.
“She said, ‘I was all for Obamacare until I found out I was paying for it,’” Kehaly said.
A great ANALogy. LOL
NH
Remember when Nancy Pelosi said- "We have to pass it, to find out
what's in it" A physician called into a radio show and said :
"That's the definition of a stool sample" That pretty well sums it up.
And the dumb bastards still love him.
NH
Unbelievable how anti-American this administration is. With a MSM that ignores anything evil going on, he has full reign to pursue destroying the country.
Even more unbelievable is that the liberals who read this will focus only on Ted Cruz is against it, so the real substance of what is happening will be ignored completely. These morons are complete sheep marching to slaughter WITH PRIDE. I hope they don't mind if a few million of us stand back and watch them get devoured in their BLIND ignorance.
Obama’s Justice Department Argues Before Supremes: International Treaties Trump Constitution
October 31, 2013
Here’s one you’re not seeing covered by the establishment teleprompter readers.
The Justice Department is going before the Supreme Court and arguing that the Obama administration has the authority to trump the Constitution with international treaties.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz is stepping up to the plate to fight this globalist broadside.
“The Constitution created a limited federal government with only specific enumerated powers,” Cruz told the Washington Examiner. “The Supreme Court should not interpret the treaty power in a manner that undermines this bedrock protection of individual liberty.”
In a speech delivered to the Heritage Foundation, Cruz said the Justice Department’s arguments before the highest court represent “an absurd proposition” that “could be used as a backdoor way to undermine” Second Amendment and other constitutional rights the global elite are working overtime to eradicate.
The case at issue is Bond v. United States. It concerns a woman charged with violating an international ban on chemical weapons. She stands accused of harassing a onetime friend involved in an affair with her husband. The federal government is arguing that it may use the international law to prosecute the woman, thus violating basic structural guarantees that exceed Congress’ enumerated powers, according to Bond’s lawyers.
“If the administration is right, the treaty power could become a backdoor way for the federal government to do everything from abolishing the death penalty nationwide, to outlawing homeschooling, to dramatically curtailing the states’ rights to regulate abortion,” Carrie Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network told the Washington Examiner.
http://www.infowars.com/obamas-justice-department-argues-before-supremes-international-treaties-trump-constitution/
From the NY Post no less........
Docs resisting ObamaCare
By Carl Campanile
October 29, 2013 5:23am
New York doctors are treating ObamaCare like the plague, a new survey reveals.
A poll conducted by the New York State Medical Society finds that 44 percent of MDs said they are not participating in the nation’s new health-care plan.
Another 33 percent say they’re still not sure whether to become ObamaCare providers.
Only 23 percent of the 409 physicians queried said they’re taking patients who signed up through health exchanges.
“This is so poorly designed that a lot of doctors are afraid to participate,” said Dr. Sam Unterricht, president of the 29,000-member organization. “There’s a lot of resistance. Doctors don’t know what they’re going to get paid.”
Three out of four doctors who are participating in the program said they “had to participate” because of existing contractual obligations with an insurer or medical provider, not because they wanted to.
Only one in four “affirmatively” chose to sign up for the exchanges.
Nearly eight in 10 — 77 percent — said they had not been given a fee schedule to show much they’ll get paid if they sign up.
The survey invited doctors to anonymously share opinions about the new health care law, and many took time out of their busy days to vent.
“Obama Care wants to start right away, but who see all these new patients???? Not me,” e-mailed one doc.
Another said, “I plan to retire if this disaster is implemented. This is a train wreck.”
“I refuse to participate in the exchange plans! I am completely opposed to this new law,” said a third respondent.
One doctor recycled the mantra used to attack addictions: “The solution is simple: Just say no.”
One physician was so disgusted, he threatened to taken only cash patients going forward.
“I am seriously considering opting out of all insurance plans including Medicare because of [ObamaCare].”
Some physicians said the pressure on insurance carriers to control costs is leading to rationed care.
“OBAMACARE is a disaster. I have already seen denial of medication, denial of referrals,” one doc said.
And they worry that stingy payments for medical services offered by insurers could put some doctors out of business and force others into retirement.
“Any doctor who accepts the exchange is just a bad businessman/woman. Pays terrible,” argued one doctor.
Said another MD, “Can’t imagine any doctors would be willing to work for so little money? All doctors should boycott.”
Doctors complained they’ve gotten the shaft for years even before ObamaCare.
“I get screwed from insurance companies already. I refuse to get screwed any longer,” one doctor said.
Others said they don’t have enough information to make an informed choice.
“This is a joke. We are flying blind,” said one doctor.
http://nypost.com/2013/10/29/docs-resisting-obamacare/
Ben Swann interviews Ron Paul (VIDEO)
http://www.activistpost.com/2013/10/ben-swann-interviews-ron-paul.html
Shermann
Obama video: Close private insurance to all but the rich......
Early one morning an elderly retired gentleman yelled to his wife....
"Honey !......... Come see what I created. It's an abstract panorama depicting the five years of the Obama presidency!"
She yelled back,
"Flush the damn toilet and come eat your breakfast."
“We Live in a Time in the United States Where Nothing Is What It Seems”
In the year 2000, when the tech bubble stock market crash began, there were about 17 million Americans depending on government food stamp assistance. Today that number has nearly tripled, to 48 million people.
Similar trends exist with respect to unemployment, wage reductions, welfare, disability, health care assistance and government debt.
We now have more people than ever before helplessly dependent on the State.
What happens when America finally runs out of money and our creditors refuse to lend us more?
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/mcgrath-we-live-in-a-time-in-the-united-states-where-nothing-is-what-it-seems_10292013
The obamacare promises compilation.
http://youngcons.com/video-obamacare-supercut-if-you-like-your-health-care-plan-no-one-is-changing-it/
Ignored Reality Is Going To Wipe Out the Human Race — Paul Craig Roberts
http://rinf.com/alt-news/editorials/ignored-reality-is-going-to-wipe-out-the-human-race-paul-craig-roberts/
Ignored Reality Is Going To Wipe Out The Human Race
Paul Craig Roberts
To inform people is hard slugging. Everything is lined up against the public being informed, or the policymakers for that matter. News is contaminated by its service to special interests and hidden agendas. Many scientists or their employers are dependent on federal money. Even psychologists and anthropologists were roped into the government’s torture and occupation programs. Economists tell lies for corporations and Wall Street. Plant and soil scientists tell lies for agribusiness and Monsanto. Truth tellers are slandered and persecuted. However, persistence can eventually win out. In the long-run, truth sometimes emerges. But not always. And not always in time.
I have been trying to inform the American people, economists, and policymakers for more than a decade about the adverse impacts of jobs offshoring on the US economy. The word has eventually gotten out. Last week I was contacted by 8th grade students competing for their school in CSPAN’s StudentCam Documentary Contest. They want to interview me on the subject of jobs offshoring for their documentary film.
America is a strange place. Here are eighth graders far ahead of the economics profession, the President, the Congress, the Federal Reserve, Wall Street, and the financial press in their understanding of one of the fundamental problems of the US economy. Yet, people say the public schools are failing. Obviously, not the one whose students contacted me.
Is it too late? I know much, but not all. So this is not the final word. I think it might be too late. When skilled jobs are sent abroad, the skills disappear at home. So do the supply chains and the businesses associated with the skills. Things close down, and abilities are lost. Why take a major in collage for a job that is offshored. A culture disappears.
But we can start them back up, right? Perhaps not. When a First World country exports its technology and know-how abroad to a Third World country in order to benefit from lower cost labor, how does the First World country get the work back? Living standards and the cost of living in Third World countries are much lower than in First World countries. The populations of First World countries cannot pay their mortgages, car payments, student loans, medical care, and grocery bills with the wages of Third World countries.
When First World wages drop, mortgage, car, credit card, and student loan payments do not drop. Americans cannot live on Chinese, Indian, and Indonesian wages. Once the technology and know-how is transferred, the low wage country has the advantage in the absence of tariff protection.
For America to revive, our economy would have to be walled off with high tariffs, and subsidies would have to be provided in order to recreate US industry and manufacturing. But many corporations now produce offshore, and America is broke. The government has been $1 trillion dollars in the hole each year for the last 5 years.
Jobs offshoring diminished the US tax base. When a job is sent abroad, so is that job’s contribution to US GDP and tax base. When millions of jobs are sent abroad, US GDP and tax base cannot support government spending levels. To the extent that there are any replacement jobs, they are in lowly paid domestic services, such as waitresses, bartenders, retail clerks, and hospital orderlies. These jobs do not provide a tax base or consumer spending power comparable to manufacturing jobs and tradable professional services such as software engineering and information technology.
Republicans and increasingly Democrats, as both parties are dependent on the same sources of campaign contributions, blame “entitlements.” By entitlements they mean welfare.
In fact, entitlements consist of Social Security and Medicare. Entitlements are funded by the payroll tax, approximately 15% of payroll. The fact that a person pays the payroll tax all his working life is why the person is entitled to Social Security and Medicare if they live to retirement age. Welfare, such as food stamps and housing subsidies, are a small part of the federal budget and are not entitlements.
Every since President Reagan was betrayed three decades ago by Alan Greenspan and David Stockman, both of whom sold out to Wall Street and raised the Social Security payroll tax above what was needed to pay Social Security benefits in order to protect Wall Street’s stock and bond portfolios from exaggerated deficit fears, Social Security payroll tax revenues have exceeded Social Security payments. As of today, Social Security revenues exceed payments to beneficiaries by an accumulated $2 trillion. The money was used by the federal government to pay for its wars and other spending programs. The Social Security Trust Fund holds non-marketable IOUs from the Treasury. These IOUs can only be made good from an excess of tax revenues over expenditures or by the Treasury selling $2 trillion in bonds, notes, and bills and paying off its IOUs to the Social Security Trust Fund. This is not going to happen.
The Federal Reserve could not care less about the US population. The Fed was established for the purpose of protecting and aiding banks. Currently, the Fed, as if America were a Banana Republic which America appears to be becoming, is printing one thousand billion dollars per year in order to support the banks and to finance the federal deficit.
This is bad news for Americans, as it means that their fiat money is being created at a far greater rate than the demand for the dollar. The implication for our future is a drop in the dollar’s value. As there are no jobs, a drop in the dollar’s value means high inflation on top of unemployment and double the misery of the Great Depression.
As bad as this is, it is minor compared to the destruction of the planet’s environment. Online information shows that the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem is in crisis after the BP spill and use of Corexit, a dispersant used to hide, not clean up, the spilled oil. http://www.opednews.com/articles/Gulf-ecosystem-in-crisis-a-by-Dahr-Jamail-Corporation-BP_Ecosystems_Gulf-Oil-Spill-Disaster_Gulf-Shrimping-Industry-131020-15.html
The Fukushima catastrophe has hardly begun. Yet already the radioactive water pouring into the Pacific Ocean has made fish dangerous to eat unless a person is willing to accept a higher risk of cancer.
Fukushima has the potential of making Japan uninhabitable and of polluting the air, water, and soil of the US with radioactivity. Yet the crisis is seldom mentioned in the US media. In Japan the government just passed a law that could be used to imprison Japanese journalists who report truthfully on the dire situation.
Take the time to familiarize yourself with the online information about Fukushima.. According to the presstitute media, Americans face threats from Iran nd Syria and from whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden. The real threats are simply not in the news.
If you search Fukushima, you will find information that the presstitute media hides from you. See for example, http://www.globalresearch.ca/28-signs-that-the-west-coast-is-being-absolutely-fried-with-nuclear-radiation-from-fukushima/5355280
There are a number of other threats to the environment on which our lives depend. One is the effort to extract more productivity from the soil by use of GMOs. Monsanto has altered the genes of several crops so that the crops can be sprayed with RoundUp to eliminate weeds. The results have been to deplete the soil of nutrients, to destroy the micro-biology of the soil so that new plant diseases and funguses are activated, and to produce superweeds that require heavier doses of the glyphosate in RoundUp. The heavier dose of RoundUp worsens the aforementioned problems. US agricultural soil is losing its potency.
Now we come to chemtrails, branded another “conspiracy theory.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory However, the US government’s efforts to geo-engineer weather as a military weapon and as a preventative of global warming appear to be real. The DARPA and HAARP programs are well known and are discussed publicly by scientists. See, for example, http://news.sciencemag.org/2009/03/darpa-explore-geoengineering Search Chemtrails, and you will find much information that is kept from you. See, for example, http://www.globalresearch.ca/chemtrails-a-planetary-catastrophe-created-by-geo-engineering/5355299 and http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org
Some describe chemtrails as a plot by the New World Order, the Rothchilds, the Bilderbergers, or the Masons, to wipe out the “useless eaters.” Given the amount of evil that exists in the world, these conspiracy theories might not be as farfetched as they sound.
However, I do not know that. What does seem to be possibly true is that the scientific experiments to modify and control weather are having adverse real world consequences. The claim that aluminum is being sprayed into the atmosphere and when it comes to earth is destroying the ability of soil to be productive might not be imaginary. Those concerned about chemtrails say that weather control experiments have deprived the western United States of rainfall, while sending the rain to the east where there have been hurricane level deluges and floods.
In the West, sparse rainfall and lightening storms without rain are resulting in forests drying out and burning down. Deforestation adversely affects the environment in many ways, including the process of photosynthesis by which trees convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. The massive loss of forests means more carbon dioxide and less oxygen. Watershed and species habitat are lost, and spreading aridity further depletes ground and surface water. If these results are the consequences of weather modification experiments, the experiments should be stopped.
In North Georgia where I spend some summers, during 2013 it rained for 60 consecutive days, not all day, but every day, and some days the rainfall was 12 inches–hurricane level–and roads were washed out. I received last summer 4 automated telephone warnings from local counties not to drive and not to attempt to drive through accumulations of water on the highways.
One consequence of the excess of water in the East is that this year there are no acorns in North Georgia. Zilch, zero, nada. Nothing. There is no food for the deer, the turkeys, the bear, the rodents. Starving deer will strip bark from the trees. Bears will be unable to hibernate or will be able only to partially hibernate, forced to seek food from garbage. Black bears are already invading homes in search of food.
Unusual drought in the West and unusual flood in the East could be coincidental or they could be consequences of weather modification experiments.
The US, along with most of the world, already had a water problem prior to possible disruptions of rainfall by geo-engineering. In his book, Elixir, Brian Fagan tells the story of humankind’s mostly unsuccessful struggle with water. Both groundwater and surface water are vanishing. The water needs of large cities, such as Los Angeles and Phoenix, and the irrigation farming that depends on the Ogallala aquifer are unsustainable. Fagan reminds us that “the world’s supply of freshwater is finite,” just like the rest of nature’s resources. Avoiding cataclysm requires long-range thinking, but humanity is focused on immediate needs. Long-range thinking is limited to finding another water source to deplete. Cities and agriculture have turned eyes to the Great Lakes.
Los Angeles exists because the city was able to steal water from hundreds of miles away. The city drained Owens Lake, leaving a huge salt flat in its place, drained the Owens Valley aquifer, and diverted the Owens River to LA via aqueduct. Farming and ranching in the Owens Valley collapsed. Today LA takes water from the Colorado River, which originates in Wyoming and Colorado, and from Lake Perris 440 miles away.
Water depletion is not just an American problem. Fagan reports that “underground aquifers in many places are shrinking so rapidly that NASA satellites are detecting changes in the earth’s gravity.”
If the government is experimenting with weather engineering, scientists are playing God when they have no idea of the consequences. It is a tendency of scientists to become absorbed by the ability to experiment and to ignore unintended consequences.
Readers have asked me to write about Fukushima and chemtrails because they trust me to tell them the truth. The problem is that I am not qualified to write about these matters with anything approaching the same confidence that I bring to economic, war and police state matters.
The only advice I can give is that when you hear the presstitute media smear a concern or explanation as “conspiracy theory,” have a closer look. The divergence between what is happening and what you are told is so vast that it pays to be suspicious, cynical even, of what “your” government and “your” presstitute media tell you. The chances are high that it is a lie.
About Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now available.
Perhaps just watch the first 30 minutes of "American Blackout," as I did, because it looks like it is going to turn into another propaganda piece meant to cause more dissension, which the liberal, sheeple crowd seem to thrive on.
It should have inspired people to be prepared to take care of themselves, their families, and those they know who are truly not able to care for themselves. Instead, like everything this administration and the MSM puts out on the airwaves, causing jealousy, envy, dissatisfaction, and a sense of entitlement will be the usual outcome. Very sad.
Someone who watched the entire show said this:
Good Morning, Mr. Rawles:
After watching part of last night's Blackout Docudrama on National Geographic. I turned the television off in total disgust and went to bed. What insidious propaganda!
I could not help but notice that the "prepper" father was a gun toting, autocratic bully who bossed everyone and refused to act humanely by sharing all his wealth with those less fortunate or less willing to be responsible for themselves? How interesting.
And of course, the compassionate one was the young and hip boyfriend of the prepper's daughter. He hadn't prepared himself but he was more than happy to live off of someone else's largess. He was also more than happy to be judge and jury as to how someone else's preps should be treated.
And the young woman, who was attacked and most probably raped and/or killed, "deserved" it because she was a wealthy "princess" who lived in a penthouse. She was portrayed as stupid and totally un-connected to the real world in which most of us live. Also interesting was the portrayal of her rich boyfriend who believed he was entitled to whatever resources were available as he tried "throwing his money around."
And of course, we were all going to be saved by the government as our fearless leader gravely assured us. I'm amazed I got half way through the program! Here was an excellent opportunity to impress upon the average citizen that they need to be ready for bad weather or other unforeseen circumstances. Instead we got the "PC" version of who the good guys are and who the bad guys are.
Sadly, this admin is hell bent on the total destruction of the middle class and totally enslaving the 53% sheeple class with dependence on food stamps, health care, housing, and on and on. Since the gov't has spent billions of dollars stockpiling food, guns, ammunition, and militarizing our domestic police forces, would liberals equate the gov't with those they call "teabaggers" and "crazy preppers?"
Michael Schuerer - Two Videos on our Wars
Listening to the first video - It is Amazing what the members of Congress had to say
The second video is about Syria
http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2013/10/26/229200-id-dump-the-israelis-tomorrow-ex-cia-michael-scheuer-tells-congress/
Shermann
Back to work yet seems as if nothing has changed? Let's all take a furlough and catch up on some much needed R and R... Wait, why doesn't the government work now while private sector employees hang out for... a week?
Wouldn't that be interesting? #PolyMon
Jeff Rense & Dr. Stan Monteith - Evil Rules The World (VIDEO)
Just the first line itself is funny...
We are a constitutional republic and not a democracy. Paul Craig Roberts writes great stuff!!!
Shermann
Ron Paul's New Monetary System "Get The Government Out Of The Way"
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-25/ron-pauls-new-monetary-system-get-government-out-way
As part of Mike Maloney's recent documentary, Ron Paul was interviewed to discuss the monetary system that he proposes. He begins... "Just get the government out-of-the-way, you know, and let the markets decide and apply the rules of ’no counterfeiting’ to the people and to the government..." as he goes on to discuss everything from The Founding Fathers to how a gold standard could work...
Via Market Sanity,
The following is a bonus feature on the Hidden Secrets of Money episode 4. The video can only be watched by subscribing to Hidden Secrets of Money. However, a full transcript of the interview has been written by Market Sanity for your convenience:
Mike Maloney: If you could create a monetary system for the world, what would it be?
Ron Paul: Just get the government out-of-the-way, you know, and let the markets decide and apply the rules of ’no counterfeiting’ to the people and to the government.
MM: So you would make fraud and theft illegal for everybody, not just everybody except the financial sector?
RP: Ya. If you and I devised a gold standard and we issued certificates that were guaranteed in gold, then if we ever defrauded people we ought to go to jail for it. That would be the minimal role of government. But you know, today, the Constitution still says – even though they ignore it – that only gold and silver can be used as legal tender.
If the government wanted to issue a gold coin and make sure that it was an honest weight and measure, it still would be legal for the state to do that. But, I think because it’s a mandate on the states; the states should not use anything other than silver and gold. That interpretation should be rather broad too: that the states could do it. The prohibition against the states was that they couldn’t issue bills of credit. The Founders knew what paper money meant because the states were doing it like crazy. That’s one of the reasons why they had the Constitutional Convention was because of the monetary issue. So they [the states] aren’t allowed to print money. And that’s OK, that’s counterfeiting. At the same time, they could use gold and silver.
But I would allow the market to work, because I think we’re more sophisticated on money now through free market understanding. The Founders accepted the notion of a fixed ratio between gold and silver. Bimetallism is not a good economic theory because it’s too rigid. If there’s a discovery of silver, and the price of silver goes down, you know, you want that to be flexible.
But that doesn’t mean the free market wouldn’t use gold and silver. Just look today. It’s so much easier to adjust, you know, with our computers and all. If you walked into a store, I could just imagine. In many places, more likely in foreign countries, they’ll take dollar or their local currencies and have immediate conversion. But you can also have immediate conversion between gold and silver, or certificates in silver or a credit card in silver. You could pay it in silver. You can pay it in dollars or Euros today and it’s immediate.
I would let the market decide it. It could be that they want to use a basket of commodities. I’m still old-fashioned enough that if I’m thinking in terms of a unit of an account, and I have a bunch of them on paper or on a credit card…if I want to put them in a handful of silver or a handful of gold, I like that idea. That for me is the ultimate test, but it doesn’t mean another system wouldn’t work if you followed these basic rules.
It would not be flawless because people have the tendency to break the rules, but happens when a government has the worldwide fiat currency and breaks the rules for 40 years? That is such gross distortion, and that’s why the imbalances are so great right now of the debt and the debt system and all the malinvestment. They did not prevent the correction, they just propped it up in 09'. So the correction didn’t occur, and if you want the system to continue you really have to allow the correction to happen. That, of course, is why we haven’t had a recovery.
Obama’s Military Purge Removes 197 Officers (AND COUNTING) AS DHS TAKES OVER STREETS
http://beforeitsnews.com/christian-news/2013/10/obamas-military-purge-removes-197-officers-and-counting-as-dhs-takes-over-streets-video-2485130.html
Obama Reveals His Dictatorship —
Paul Craig Roberts
Obama Reveals His Dictatorship
the isolation of America
Paul Craig Roberts
Washington preens itself on being “the world’s greatest democracy.” Washington uses the claim that it is spreading democracy as a justification for its naked aggression–a clear and unambiguous war crime–against other countries. Washington cloaks its illegality in democratic rhetoric despite the obvious fact that its wars are not a consequence of democratic decision.
Washington has used deception and lies to gain acceptance of its extra-constitutional and extra-legal wars, but Washington’s wars have all been launched outside the constitutional/democratic framework of the United States.
Obama’s war against Libya occurred without the participation of Congress. And now Obama is again revealing that the US is so far removed from democracy that he plans to attack Syria without a vote by Congress. Where is the democracy when a Caesar makes the decisions that the Constitution reserves to Congress?
Polls indicate that 80 percent of US citizens believe that a US military attack on Syria requires approval by the House and Senate. Yet, the Obama regime is purposely avoiding any such vote. The Obama regime has also ignored the letter signed by 162 members of the House of Representatives demanding to see evidence, debate it, and vote prior to any US military strike.
It is an act of treason for the US military to carry out any war orders without congressional authorization. Any military commander who violates his oath to defend the Constitution of the United States has committed high treason against the United States. If the US were truly a lawful democracy, such commanders would be subject to arrest and trial.
The fact that the executive branch and the military operate outside the Constitution and democratic process is proof that the US is not a democracy.
In yesterday’s columns I noted that Obama, his media whores, and worshiping Obamabots are overlooking considerations of critical importance. One is that military aggression is a war crime. In the past, Bush and Obama had cloaks for their war crimes, such as a “coalition of the willing,” NATO, some limited “congressional consultation” or vague resolution, or a UN resolution that is then stretched to cover the regime’s actions.
None of these things are adequate legal cover. Their worth comes from the fact that other countries and institutions besides the US executive branch are involved in the war crime. There is safety in the numbers. Charging the entire Western world with war crimes means only that the entire Western world will defend the validity of their excuse.
But this time the regime has no cover. There is no “coalition of the willing,” no UN resolution, no NATO support, and Obama has ignored both Congress and the American people. For Obama to proceed with his attack on Syria would be the action of an unaccountable dictator. He would have no cover for his war crime.
Obama’s effort to rush to war with Syria has already destroyed the credibility of the US government as a truthful, honest government. The entire world, even Washington’s most subservient puppet states, have recognized that Washington has no evidence to back its accusations. No one believes Obama or Kerry. Both have revealed themselves to the entire world as brazen liars.
This has destroyed all trust in the US government. And now Obama seems determined to prove that America has a dictator, not a democracy.
It is difficult to imagine a more serious blow to the US than the one Obama has delivered.
All of the important props for Washington’s propaganda, such as “the world’s greatest democracy,” have been kicked out from under what now stands revealed as a criminal enterprise.
Russia’s President Putin has openly expressed his contempt for the lies that are flowing nonstop from the mouths of Obama and Kerry. Putin called Obama’s claims “utter nonsense.” Putin said that if the Americans have any proof, “let them show it to the United Nations inspectors and the Security Council.”
In fact, the evidence that exists indicates that the chemical attack originated with the rebels and may have been an accident caused by “rebels” transporting chemical weapons given to them by the Saudis but without instruction to correct handling. The reporter, Dale Gavlak, who spoke with the rebels, who were themselves harmed by the weapons, is a Middle East expert from the University of Chicago who has reported for the Associated Press, National Public Radio, and the BBC. http://original.antiwar.com/Dale-Gavlak/2013/08/30/syrians-in-ghouta-claim-saudi-supplied-rebels-behind-chemical-attack/ [1]
For another perspective unreported by the US media, see Ambrose Evans-Pritchard’s report in the UK Telegraph that Saudi Prince Bandar, head of Saudi intelligence, attempted to bribe and intimidate Putin into abandoning Syria to the Americans. Reportedly, Bandar offered Putin a Saudi-Russian oil cartel and offered Putin protection against Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia’s Winter Olympics. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/10266957/Saudis-offer-Russia-secret-oil-deal-if-it-drops-Syria.html
As farfetched as all of this sounds to Americans, it is more plausible than anything Washington says.
Washington’s claim that the Syrian “rebels” have no access to chemical weapons is obviously false. On May 30, an Istanbul newspaper reported that Turkish police apprehended al-Nusra “rebels” with sarin gas that al-Nusra planed to use in an attack
on Adana. http://www.todayszaman.com/news-316966-report-police-foil-al-nusra-bomb-attack-planned-for-adana.html [2]
Having repeatedly declared that the use of chemical weapons requires a military response from the US, what will Obama and Kerry do when it comes clear that the “rebels,” not Assad, are responsible for the chemical weapons? Will Obama and Kerry attack the “rebels”? Will Obama and Kerry attack Saudi Arabia for giving the chemical weapons to the “rebels”? Don’t hold your breath.
My Ph.D. dissertation supervisor, G. Warren Nutter, was brought into the Pentagon by Melvin Laird as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs and given the task of winding down the Vietnam War. Nutter opposed US foreign policy based on secrecy and deception. He was convinced that US foreign policy had to be transparent, consistent with the country’s principles, and carry public support. A policy based on secrecy and deception would undermine democracy and the trust of the public and foreigners in the US government.
Today there are no Warren Nutters in Washington, and there have not been such people in government for many years. As Nutter foresaw, the consequences are the loss of public confidence in government and the isolation of the US in world affairs.
Obama now stands on the verge of military aggression as isolated as Adolf Hitler when Germany attacked Poland.
UPDATE: 4:00 PM US East Coast Time
The White House Fool, learning from the alternative media and not from his moronic advisers that he is isolated in the world and has no cover for his war crime against Syria, has announced that he is going to wait until he gets approval from Congress.
No doubt the White House Fool was also moved by the letter from 161 members of the House of Representatives that to engage in hostilities without congressional authorization is unconstitutional. The letter contains the threat of impeachment:
“We strongly urge you to consult and receive authorization from Congress before ordering the use of U.S. military force in Syria. Your responsibility to do so is prescribed in the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution of 1973.
“While the Founders wisely gave the Office of the President the authority to act in emergencies, they foresaw the need to ensure public debate – and the active engagement of Congress – prior to committing U.S. military assets. Engaging our military in Syria when no direct threat to the United States exists and without prior congressional authorization would violate the separation of powers that is clearly delineated in the Constitution.” http://antiwar.com/blog/2013/08/31/impeachment-congress-fires-opening-shot-across-obamas-bow/ [3]
We can be thankful that at least 161 members of Congress recognize their responsibility to hold the executive branch accountable to the Constitution. Perhaps the lies from the executive branch became so brazen that they lost their effectiveness. Instead of fearing a hyped “terrorist threat,” people now see the threat of a White House Tyrant.
As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap
Paul Craig Roberts
October 24, 2013
The year 2014 could be shaping up as the year that the chickens come home to roost.
Americans, even well-informed ones, don’t know all of the mistakes made by neoconized and corrupted Washington in the past two decades. However, enough is known to see that the US has lost economic and political power, and that the loss is irreversible.
The economic cost of this lost will be born by what remains of the middle class and the increasingly poverty-stricken lower class. The one percent will have offshore gold holdings and large sums of money in foreign currencies and other foreign assets to see them through.
In the political arena, the collapse of the Soviet Union presented Washington with the grand opportunity to reallocate the Pentagon budget to other uses. Part of the reduction could have been returned to taxpayers for their own use. Another part could have been used to improve worn out infrastructure. And another part could have been used to repair and improve the social safety net, thus insuring domestic tranquility. A final, but perhaps most important part, could have been used to begin repaying the Treasury IOUs in the Social Security Trust Fund from which Washington has borrowed and spent $2 trillion, leaving non-marketable IOUs in the place of the Social Security payroll tax revenues that Washington raided in order to fund its wars and current operations.
Instead, influenced by neoconservative warmongers who advocated America using its “sole superpower” status to establish hegemony over the world, Washington let hubris and arrogance run away with it. The consequence was that Washington destroyed its soft power with lies and war crimes, only to find that its military power was insufficient to support its occupation of Iraq, its conquest of Afghanistan, and its financial imperialism.
Now seen universally as a lawless warmonger and a nuisance, Washington’s soft power has been squandered. With its influence on the wane, Washington has become more of a bully. In response, the rest of the world is isolating Washington.
The prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh, recently declared China and Russia to be India’s “most important partners” with whom India shares “common strategic interests.” Prime Minister Singh said: “ India and Russia have always had a convergence of views on global and regional issues, and we value Russia’s perspective on international developments of mutual interest.”
India joined China in expressing concerns about the Federal Reserve’s practice of printing money in order to cover Washington’s vast red ink. The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) are taking steps to create their own method of settling trade accounts in order to protect themselves from the looming dollar implosion, China has forcefully called for a “de-Americanized world.” After watching the “superpower” offshore a large part of its GDP to China and then add to the diminished tax base the burden of $6 trillion in wars that brought no booty and served no US interest, China has concluded that American power is spent. The London Telegraph thinks “it is only a matter of time before the renminbi replaces the dollar as the primary currency for trading commodities and resources.”
The Obama regime attempted to attack Syria based on the sort of lies that the Bush regime used to invade Iraq, only to be slapped down by the British Parliament and Russian government. This rebuke was followed by the childishness of the government shutdown and threat of default. Consequently, the Washington morons have lost their monopoly on economic and political leadership. A few days ago the British government announced a historic agreement that permits British investors direct access to China’s markets and allows Chinese banks to expand their operations in Great Britain.
In Australia, the US dollar will no longer be used as the currency in which to settle the Australian trade accounts with China. Instead of dollars, trade will be settled in the Chinese currency.
Washington served as cheerleader, as did most economists and libertarians, while US corporations, greedy for short-term profits and executive bonuses, offshored US industry and manufacturing, calling it free trade. The obvious and predicted result is that China’s demand for resources needed to fuel its industrial and manufacturing power now dominates markets. This means that the US dollar is being displaced as world currency. The only market that America dominates is the market for financial fraud.
When industrial, manufacturing, and tradeable professional service jobs are offshored, they take US GDP and tax base with them. The foreign country gets the benefit of the relocated economic activity. Due to the revenues lost from jobs offshoring, there is a large gap between federal revenues and federal expenditures. As Washington’s irresponsible behavior has raised so many doubts about the dollar’s value and the government’s commitment to stand behind its massive debt, foreign countries with trade surpluses with the US are less and less willing to recycle those surpluses into the purchase of US Treasury debt.
Today the two largest holders of US Treasury debt are not investors or even foreign central banks. The two largest holders are the Federal Reserve and the Social Security Trust Fund.
As for those $6 trillion wars, that’s to pay for national defense to protect us from women, children, and village elders in far away countries devoid of air forces and navies, and to provide those recycled taxpayer monies from the military/security complex that find their way into political contributions.
The Wall Street gangsters sighed for relief over the last minute debt ceiling agreement. This shows how short-term Wall Street’s outlook is. All the October agreement did was to push off the crisis to January and February. The “debt ceiling agreement” did not produce a new debt ceiling that would last beyond February, and it did not resolve the large difference between federal revenues and expenditures. In other words, the can was again kicked down the road. A repeat of the October fiasco won’t play well.
Obamacare is causing the premiums on private insurance polices to rise substantially, almost doubling in some situations unless people move to the uncertain exchanges, and Obamacare’s raid on Medicare payroll tax revenues has resulted in a cut in Medicare payments to health care providers. The result is a further reduction in consumer discretionary income and a further drop in the economy.
This in turn means a larger federal budget deficit and the need for the Federal Reserve to purchase more debt.
Another reason the Federal Reserve is faced with increasing, not tapering, quantitative easing (money printing) is the decline in foreign purchases of US Treasury bills, notes, and bonds. As the instruments pay interest that is less than the rate of inflation, holding Treasury debt makes no sense when the dollar’s value and the potential of default are open questions.
According to reports, not only are foreign governments, such as China, ceasing to buy US Treasury debt, China has started to sell off its holdings, substituting gold in the place of US Treasury debt.
This means that the bonds must be purchased by the Fed or interest rates will rise as the increased supply of bonds on the market drives down bond prices. The only way the Fed can purchase a larger supply of bonds is by printing more money, that is, by more quantitative easing.
With the world moving away from using the dollar to settle international accounts, as the Fed prints more dollars the rate at which foreign holders of dollar assets sell off their holdings will rise.
To get out of dollars requires that the dollar proceeds from selling Treasuries, US stocks and US real estate be sold in the currency markets. The selling of dollars drives down the exchange value of the US dollar and results in rising US inflation. The Fed can print money with which to purchase Treasury debt, but it cannot print foreign currencies with which to purchase dollars.
The decline in the dollar’s exchange value and the domestic inflation that results will force the Fed to stop printing. What then covers the gap between revenues and expenditures? The likely answer is private pensions and any other asset that Washington can get its hands on.
Initially, private pensions will be taxed at a rate to recover the tax-free accumulation in the pensions. The second year a national emergency will be used to confiscate some share of pensions. Those relying on the pensions will find themselves with less income. Consumer spending will decline. The economy will worsen. The deficit will widen.
You can see where this is going, and there seems to be no way out. Policymakers, economists, and corporation executives are in denial about the adverse effects of offshoring, which they still, despite all the evidence, maintain is good for the economy. So nothing will be done about offshoring. Republicans will blame the budget deficit on welfare and entitlements, and if those are cut consumer spending will decline further, widening the budget deficit. Inflation will rise as incomes fall, and social cohesion will break down.
Now you know why Homeland Security purchased 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition, enough ammunition to fight the Iraq war for 12 years, has its own para-military force and 2,700 tanks. If you think the “terrorist threat” in America warrants a domestic armed force of this size, you are out of your mind. This force has been assembled to deal with starving and homeless people in the streets of America.
September employment report: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), September brought 148,000 new jobs, enough to keep up with population growth but not reduce the unemployment rate. Moreover, John Williams (shadowstats.com) says that one-third of these jobs, or 50,000 per month on average, are phantom jobs produced by the birth-death model that during difficult economic times overestimates the number of new jobs from business startups and underestimates job losses from business failures.
The BLS reports that 22,000 of September’s jobs were new hires by state governments, which seems odd in view of the ongoing state budgetary difficulties.
In the private sector, wholesale and retail trade produced 36,900 new jobs, which seems odd in light of the absence of growth in real median family income and real retail sales.
Transportation and warehousing produced 23,400 new jobs, concentrated in transit and ground passenger transportation. This also seems odd unless the price of gasoline and pinched budgets are forcing people onto public transportation.
Professional and business services accounted for 32,000 jobs of which 63% are temporary help jobs.
So here you have the job picture that the presstitutes, hyping “the jobs gain,” don’t tell you. The scary part of the September job report is that the usual standby, the category of waitresses and bartenders, which has accounted for a large part of every reported jobs gain since I began reporting the monthly statistics, shows job loss. Seven thousand one hundred waitresses and bartenders lost their jobs in September. If this figure is not a fluke, it is bad news. It signals that fewer Americans can afford to eat and drink out.
The unemployment rate that is reported is the rate that does not count as unemployed discouraged workers who are unable to find jobs and cease to look. This favored rate, the darling of the regime in power, the presstitutes, and Wall Street, also is not adjusted for the category of “involuntary part-time workers,” those whose hours have been cut back or because they are unable to find a full-time job. Obamacare, as is widely reported, is causing employers to shift their work forces from full time to part time in order to avoid costs associated with Obamacare. The BLS places the number of involuntary part-time workers at 7,900,000.
The announced 7.2% unemployment rate is a meaningless number. The rate can decline for no other reason than people unable to find jobs drop out of the work force. You are not counted in the work force if you are discouraged about finding a job and no longer look for a job.
The phenomena of discouraged workers shows up in the measure of the labor force participation rate, which has declined in the 21st century. The opportunities for American labor are so restricted that a rising percentage of the working age population have given up looking for jobs.
Yet, the Obama regime, the Wall Street gangsters, and the pressitute media tell us how much better the economic situation is becoming as more small businesses close, as memberships decline in golf clubs, as more university graduates return home to live with their parents, who are drawing down their savings to live, as Fed Chairman Bernanke has made it impossible for them to live on interest payments on their savings.
According to the US census bureau, real median household income in 2012 was $51,017, down 9% from $56,080 in 1999, 13 years ago. In contrast, annual compensation in 2012 for US CEOs broke all records. Two CEOs were paid more than $1 billion, and the worst paid among the top ten took home $100 million. When the presstitutes speak of economic recovery, they mean recovery for the one percent.
America is in the toilet, and the rest of the world knows it. But the neocons who rule in Washington and their Israeli ally are determined that Washington start yet more wars to create lebensraum for Israel.
Early in the 21st century the liberal Democrat Senator from New York, Chuck Schumer, and I coauthored an article in the New York Times about the adverse effects on the US economy of jobs offshoring. The article caused a sensation. The Brookings Institution in Washington quickly convened a conference which was covered by C-SPAN. C-SPAN rebroadcast the conference several times. During the conference I said that if jobs offshoring continued, the US would be a third world economy in 20 years.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now available.
I'm glad both my kids are grown. Both have good jobs. Both have homes with no mortgage. I have one 18 yr old grandson, I hope he finds his way. He wants to cook, a pretty dead end job unless he goes to school or I buy him a restaurant or diner, drive-in, or dive. LOL
NH
With Obamacare - It is a govt forced channeling of money to large insurance companies - That would be corporatism or fascism.
Shermann
I love his analogy of being forced by the gov't to do something and taking away freedoms and moving toward communism.
How would liberals feel if the federal gov't said that the 2nd amendment was a right, so they were forcing everyone to purchase and own a firearm? This is exactly what they are doing with the ACA, yet the liberal monkeys swoon at how wonderful this is.
If it were the gun example, can you hear the outrage at a federal gov't forcing a liberal to buy something they did not want?
But, as always, the liberal mind will not see this as the logical comparison IT IS.
Nobody gives a hoot about the "team" anymore. For most it is every man for himself. I struggle with how to parent my teens as it is more evident than ever that nice guys finish last AND get an ass whoopin' to boot.
I'm here brother. I go to "the other side" for amusement only. It is frightful that those folks are really believing in the Annoited One.
NH
I can think of NO WAY to change this trend. There would be riots in the streets if we tried to correct the problem. I cannot think of anything that would bring everyone together to fight for the "cause". nothing. Can you imaginre shutting off the cell phones of the inner city slugs? No more drug deals by phone. OMG, what have I said??
NH
I believe we have exceeded the tipping point. Our govt has succeeded in creating a weak, pathetic, lazy and apathetic populous that will expect others to powder their azzes. I am fearful of the future my children will experience.
I have said for 30 yrs that we are on our way out. I am not sure it can be stopped and turned any longer.
NH
Programs such as Obamacare are actually Fascist in nature. It is a government mandated transfer of wealth to corporations - In this case, Large Private Insurance companies.
Shermann
I fear the US will NOT pull through if the move AWAY from a Republic and TOWARD a Socialist State continues.
A Republic demands that a Constitutional gov't be LIMITED. Citizens have more control.
A Socialist gov't only allows perhaps a citizen to vote, making them believe they actually have a choice, while the truth is that bureaucrats and those who think they are elite totally run the country.
The US was created as a free state and a free economy until the despicable Franklin Roosevelt took over.
Socialism is a sneaky way to dupe the people into thinking they are trading only BITS of freedom for LOTS of safety . . . a huge lie.
America was founded as a representative REPUBLIC, not a Democracy, as liberals today purposely fill the heads of the stupid and the young ignorant and impressionable.
When the Founding Father said "All men are created equal," they were referring to inalienable rights bestowed by a higher power, or a Creator. So they set up a gov't to try and balance freedom and equality. They were not implying that all people are EQUALS, as all you have to do is look at people walking down any street, and you will quickly see that people are indeed NOT equal in many respects.
The original gov't was granted powers by the people. They could NOT grant themselves ANY powers.
Then Roosevelt decided to completely switch this and make the gov't hold the power strings, and the gov't would grant freedoms to the people. ASS BACKWARDS!
The liberals have taken a country where people were held responsible for their bad choices and rewarded for their good choices, and they have turned it into a welfare state.
EQUALITY meant equality bestowed by the Creator, not equality in education, jobs, food, housing, income, social status, insurance, healthcare, etc.
With each new law handed down from a gov't stolen from the people to try and make people more EQUAL in every area, someone always must LOSE, and it is most Americans who have lost FREEDOM.
We now have a gov't that tells a once free people what they can and can't do in every area of their lives.
They view themselves as a benevolent dictator who knows what every person needs better than they do. And this lie has been accepted by many groups, including the least ambitious and the dimwitted . . . and championed by the most corrupt among us, the politicians!
If a dictator exists, then FREEDOM cannot!
Ronald Reagan said it well:
"It doesn't require expropriation or confiscation of private property or business to impose socialism on a people. What does it mean whether you hold the deed or title to your business or property if the government holds the power of life and death over that business or property? Such machinery already exists. The government can find some charge to bring against any concern it chooses to prosecute. Every businessman has his own tale of harassment. Somewhere a perversion has taken place. Our natural, inalienable, rights are now considered to be dispensation of government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp, as it is at this very moment!"
And ALL politicians have sold this bill of goods to the people, but especially the liberal left. They have convinced at least 1/2 of the people that they are tolerant, full of love, caring, and all they want to do is to make the peoples' lives easier and safer.
Those born before WWII know what loss is and know what freedom is, but the current generations do not, so they have eaten up these lies with no resistance.
The result? A nation moved to not being first in anything. Declining education. No manufacturing but only a service economy. A nation of many morals is now perhaps one of the countries with the least morals.
Who needs grades and competition as long as everyone FEELS GOOD? Why have an open market place where hard work and determination is all that counts when a "benevolent" gov't can make everything "EQUAL?"
The country is in decline and failing economically and every other way due to this lie of socialism that has been sold to generations with no background to understand they have been duped.
We used to say "God Bless America," but now, for those who understand the reality, we say "God Help America."
Can the Gov't make it the whole work week? Maybe a long lunch here and there is to be expected?
Or, maybe we should, to quote Mr. Axel Rose... "take the credit card to the liquor store..." and just go to work with a hang over? What's the difference, 8 hours goes by pretty fast???
Just read the first 3-4 small paragraphs, and look at the first chart. Job creation? Only if you are a waiter or a Wal Mart employee. This out of control spending, piss poor policy making, and an artificial plug in the dike by the FED will all end badly. Why anyone can't see this guy is WAY in over his head, OR a total collapse is exactly what the plan is, is beyond me.
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2013/10/18_The_Scary_Chart_That_Has_Everyone_In_Washington_Terrified.html
Here's another chart to look at and analyze again, as the blame liberals throw around for not enough income versus who is spending too much is kind of shattered by this. When looking at the spending explosion, do the dates sort of jump out as to who was in the cat bird's seat during this time? His quote about deficits in 2006 used the phrase "the buck stops here" when telling the people how he would rule as president. Seriously scary, pitiful, and sad that 53% STILL believe what comes out of his mouth, as if he is any different than any other politician.
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=200
"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that, 'the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better."
~ Senator Barack H. Obama, March 2006
"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that, 'the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better."
~ Senator Barack H. Obama, March 2006
There are ways, but since the solutions all would impact the status of living for those in charge -- they might have to live like multimillionaires instead of god billionaires -- nothing will probably ever be done. It makes me fear a total collapse in the future for some generation, which is most sad.
And how do we fix it?
NH
33 Stats That Prove That SOMETHING Desperately Needs To Be Done About The National Debt
The U.S. national debt is 36 times larger than it was just 40 years ago. That is not a misprint. That is actually the truth. We are literally destroying the future of America, but most Americans don’t really seem to care. In fact, the most hated politicians in America are the Tea Party politicians that recently tried to take a stand against the out of control borrowing that the federal government has been doing. Pew Research has just released a new survey that shows that the popularity of the Tea Party is at an all-time low. So while many Americans may say that they theoretically want something to be done about the national debt, when push comes to shove they don’t actually mean that. You see, the reality of the matter is that about 128 million Americans get money from the federal government every month. That accounts for the majority of all government spending. Anyone who tries to take those goodies away is going to be hated. So we are going to continue down this crazy path until the system completely crashes someday.
The “deal” that was just made in Congress does nothing to reduce our spending or control the growth of our debt. It just kicks the decisions about government spending and the debt ceiling down the road for a few months.
In fact, the agreement on the debt ceiling did not actually place any limits on how much the federal government can borrow over the next few months. It just temporarily suspended enforcement of the debt ceiling. So the federal government could technically go out and borrow trillions of dollars during the next few months and nobody could do anything about it.
Let’s hope that does not happen.
And of course the “debt deal” contained all kinds of pork that will benefit certain politicians that were instrumental in putting together the deal.
When are the American people finally going to get sick and tired of this kind of thing?
Meanwhile, our debt problem continues to get even worse. The following are 33 stats that prove that SOMETHING desperately needs to be done about the national debt…
#1 The U.S. national debt is on pace to more than double during Obama’s eight years in the White House. In other words, under Barack Obama the United States will accumulate more debt than it did under all of the other presidents in U.S. history combined.
#2 During fiscal year 2013, the U.S. Treasury paid off $7,546,726,000,000 in maturing U.S. government debt and issued $8,323,949,000,000 in new debt. In fiscal year 2014 those numbers will be even larger.
#3 In September, the average rate of interest on the government’s marketable debt was 1.981 percent. In January 2000, the average rate of interest on the government’s marketable debt was 6.620 percent. If we got back to that level today, it would collapse our entire financial system.
#4 Between 2008 and 2012, the ratio of government debt to government income increased from 4.0 to 6.6.
#5 Between 2008 and 2012, U.S. government debt grew by 60.7 percent, but U.S. GDP only grew by a total of about 8.5 percent during that entire time period.
#6 Since 2007, the U.S. debt to GDP ratio has increased from 66.6 percent to 101.6 percent.
#7 A revised IMF policy paper entitled “An Analysis of U.S. Fiscal and Generational Imbalances: Who Will Pay and How?” projects that U.S. government debt will rise to about 400 percent of GDP by the year 2050.
#8 At this point, the federal government hands out money to approximately 128 million Americans every single month. In case you were wondering, that is about 41.3 percent of the population of the entire country.
#9 Back in 1980, the U.S. national debt was less than one trillion dollars. Today, it is rapidly approaching 17 trillion dollars.
#10 Since the year 2000, the size of the U.S. national debt has grown by more than 11 trillion dollars.
#11 During Barack Obama’s first four years in the White House, the amount of new debt accumulated by the federal government breaks down to approximately $50,521 for every single household in the United States.
#12 The United States already has more government debt per capita than Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland or Spain.
#13 At this point, the United States government is responsible for about a third of all the government debt in the entire world.
#14 According to the U.S. Treasury, foreigners hold approximately 5.6 trillion dollars of our debt.
#15 The amount of U.S. government debt held by foreigners is about 5 times larger than it was just a decade ago.
#16 If the federal government used GAAP accounting standards like publicly traded corporations do, the real federal budget deficit for 2011 would have been 5 trillion dollars instead of 1.3 trillion dollars.
#17 As I noted recently, if the U.S. national debt was reduced to a stack of one dollar bills it would circle the earth at the equator 45 times.
#18 How much money is one trillion dollars? If you were alive when Jesus Christ was born and you spent one million dollars every single day since that point, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now.
#19 If right this moment you went out and started spending one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.
#20 If you started paying off just the new debt that the U.S. has accumulated during the Obama administration at the rate of one dollar per second, it would take more than 189,000 years to pay it off.
#21 The U.S. national debt is now more than 5000 times larger than it was when the Federal Reserve was first established in 1913.
#22 If Bill Gates gave every single penny of his entire fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for 15 days.
#23 The federal government is stealing close to 100 million dollars from our children and our grandchildren every single hour of every single day.
#24 Historically, the interest rate on 10 year U.S. Treasuries has averaged 6.68 percent. If the average interest rate on U.S. government debt rose to that level today, the U.S. government would find itself spending more than a trillion dollars per year just on interest on the national debt.
#25 Federal spending on entitlement programs has been increasing six times faster than population growth has.
#26 Overall, the federal government runs nearly 80 different “means-tested welfare programs“, and almost all of them are experiencing explosive growth.
#27 According to a Government Accountability Office report that was released earlier this year, Obamacare is going to cause the federal debt to rise by $6.2 trillion.
#28 If you can believe it, today more than 70 million Americans are on Medicaid, and it is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.
#29 As I have written about previously, the number of Americans on Medicare is projected to grow from a little bit more than 50 million today to 73.2 million in 2025.
#30 Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities of more than 38 trillion dollars over the next 75 years. That comes to approximately $328,404 for each and every household in the United States.
#31 It is being projected that the number of Americans on Social Security will rise from about 62 million today to more than 100 million in 25 years.
#32 Overall, the Social Security system is facing a 134 trillion dollar shortfall over the next 75 years.
#33 Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff is warning that the U.S. government is facing a gigantic tsunami of unfunded liabilities in the coming years that we are counting on our children and our grandchildren to pay. Kotlikoff speaks of a “fiscal gap” which he defines as “the present value difference between projected future spending and revenue”. His calculations have led him to the conclusion that the federal government is facing a fiscal gap of 222 trillion dollars in the years ahead.
Our financial situation is clearly not even close to sustainable. We are heading for an inevitable collapse, but in the aftermath of the “deal” in Congress, Barack Obama declared that all Americans “need to stop focusing on the lobbyists, and the bloggers, and the talking heads on radio”. Apparently he does not want you reading articles like this or listening to radio programs that are warning about the dangers of our national debt.
At the same time, the U.S. government continues to waste money in some of the most bizarre ways imaginable. It is almost as if they don’t even care that they are destroying the future of our children and our grandchildren with their incredibly reckless spending.
And of course the mainstream media is very much on the side of the big spenders. In recent weeks, those that identify themselves with the Tea Party have been endlessly called names on the big mainstream news networks even though they are just about the only ones that are trying to pull us back from the path to self-destruction that we are on.
The big mainstream news networks have portrayed those that identify with the Tea Party as idiots and morons, but the truth is that studies have found that Tea Partiers are better educated, more scientifically literate and have higher incomes than the general population.
The real idiots and morons are the ones that want us to continue down this road to financial oblivion. We have accumulated the largest mountain of debt in the history of the world, and unless something dramatic is done, America is not going to have any kind of a future.
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/33-stats-that-prove-that-something-desperately-needs-to-be-done-about-the-national-debt
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