The View

The US Public Debt

James L Bradley July 18th, 2011 If youre going to weigh in on Facebook and spout other peoples opinions, and wade into the middle of this party or that party understand what in the Hell youre yelling about isnt that only fair.
Right now the battle is between the Democrats and the Republicans over the artificial debt cap, that is if you consider the fact that only Congress can decide how much money to spend and from who are what the government can collect taxes and according to the law of the land whatever they decide to spend or collect is law then what is the big deal? The debt limit is a target that has been established that Congress must live within, in other words theoretically they sit there pencil in hand, with a supercomputer backup deciding the direction of flow of the loot in the government coffers albeit I can see the problem as the dunderheads that sit in their offices along the Potomac are mostly either lawyers or career politicians and havent got the foggiest idea of what a budget means. Whereas they need more money they either sue some poor soul or appropriate more money for their favorite cause of project as they dip their grimy fingers coated with corruption pollen into the coffers of the land they could give a rip about the folks back home, unless it is close to an election. Ever since who knows when the sitting President has asked for a line-item-veto, Congress has said no, no matter what the Presidents party was, the opposition in Congress not only said No, but Hell No!. Yet the guys in the majority in the House would like to believe that the half-breed in office today has spent our country into the poor house, hint he needed Congressional approval! The guilty parties of Congress don their blue jeans and local 4th of July sweatshirts head back home and tell the people who elected their sorry butt what a wonderful job their doing, makes no never-mind what party they are affiliated with the story is the same, look at me, aint I great makes you wish that theyd try walking on water. I would imagine that you who are reading this latest rant from my laptop dont even know who is the number one stakeholder in our national debt and is making truckloads of interest off that debt, if you guessed the foreign owned Federal Reserve youd be correct as a nearly 40% stakeholder they are collecting interest on over $5.66 trillion dollars and get this, they print money willy-nilly and shovel it down your craw at a rate that would make George Washington sick to his stomach the major owners are dividing up close to $17 billion every month not a bad racket.

But most of you really dont care youre too busy on Facebook or some other social network telling your buddies that 60% or more of the public doesnt want to see a rise in the national debt ceiling hell 60% of the voting public hadnt even heard of the ceiling and had to be prompted when some off-the-wall pollster gave them a ding-a-ling on Sunday morning. Yet Tea Party organizers ramp up parades and what-not, screaming that to raise the artificial limit would be a sin in Gods eyes while the other side of the aisle yells and beats their chest saying the United States is in a death march to oblivion. While in Congress the Tea Party youngsters (bless their inexperienced hearts) jump up and down hoping that the folks back home well see their making noise, really doesnt matter what kind of noise just as long as the grabs a headline or two back home. They yell and scream that they are the future of America, and that it will be them that rescues the populous from the evil and spendthrift half-breed and his gang of cutthroats. Truth be known, like a great majority of the populous who elected them they havent got a clue bookkeeping 101 or not they remind one of the bump on a log youd run into during a Saturday walk through the local forest. But hey, they have pretty smiles and dress up nice, what do you want? The fuddy-duddies on the other side of the aisle havent really put up a stink, they too like the older participants in the Republican party know where their bread is buttered, and unlike the youngsters have some pretty stuffed war chests keep in mind if they win or loose in the next election according to law (which previous members created) they get to keep what is not spent, of course there are some like our ditsy Secretary of State who ran up the bill so high it will never be paid off but thats okay hubby Bill has a few bucks floating around. Personally I wish she get a reliable hair stylist after all she represents our nation across the world, having traveled a bit the past few years and Ive encountered some sly remarks by the locals when her face appears on a local TV broadcast, such as when they turn to me and mimics my thoughts she looks like she just climbed out of the sack. If nothing at all, get it shaved off and wear a wig, and go on a diet sort of hard to preach how bad off we are when it takes a 70mm lens to film her getting off her plane. One advantage, she overshadows most heads of state. Now that you and I have established the truth that neither one of us understand what is happening behind closed doors at Timothy F Geithners domain or smoke and mirrors, should give us pause when we spout forth with information that is purely political in nature and in reality has very little to do with the expanding purse strings of the United States. Once a person comes to the conclusion that the entire debt thing being thrown in your face, and mine, is the creation of the political forces in the USA I guarantee theyll sleep better at night.

Trillion is an awful number to try and get your hands around, and like I previously mentioned is an artificial cap put on the nations wallet which today happens to be around $14,291,724,210,931 give or take a few million, or approximately 77 roundtrips to the Sun. Who will win the political gambit on the Potomac by August 2nd, is anyones guess, but if the old guard have their way and continue to protect the monetary value of the United States and the multi-national corporations they represent both sides of the aisle my friend then it will not matter the vote of the lifting or not of the artificially imposed ceiling that limits the expansion of our government spending a little. I noticed today that Senator Thomas Allen "Tom" Coburn a Republican from the State of Oklahoma along with being an MD and a deacon in the Southern Baptist Church has cranked out a 614 page proposal that would reduce deficits by $9 trillion over the next ten-years a proposal that is a mixture of budget slashing and raising taxes, and a major restructuring of the nations Social Security Program including Medicare and Medicaid which he predicts the proposal would reduce by some $2.64 trillion. His proposal cuts into every branch of the government and every cabinet department. It is already mentioned that there are some conservatives who will not embrace the proposal in that it will slashed the projected defense budget by over $1 trillion and called for tax hikes increasing revenues by nearly $1 trillion mostly by eliminating what he labels tax expenditures. Naturally a big hit on his list of cuts is the National Health Care law that expands Medicaid enrollment and along with other Republicans proposes shifting control of Medicaid over to the states. As for Social Security he proposes to up the retirement age to 69 and have those earning over $150,000 a year pay higher premiums. Included in his restructuring/reform of Social Security is the reduction of the growth of benefits for higher-income earners and the method in which spousal benefits are calculated a minor cost savings all-around as the changes would only save $17 billion over the next ten-years, but he says, the changes in the program will make it more solvent over the long-term. That is until the next politician lines up his or her crosshairs on what young Americans believe is a waste of money. As for defense another minor tick some programs he suggests are already on their way out, such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, reducing the nuclear weapons stockpile, and limiting the growth of the defense workforce reforming the departments health care programs, which are a mess today, whereas any reform would be welcomed, returning to pre-2007 levels of active duty personal (which is a chuckle, as each states National Guard makes up the bulk of active duty personal and are accounted (paid) in a different budget line-item) at the end-of-the-

day the Senator is dicing and slicing the Federal Budget in an attractive manner where his proposal effects a composite slice of America with a tickle here and there on the 13% of Americans over the age of 65 a gently push as the block nearly all vote and 13% is nothing to sneeze at. More political budget magic how would you do, slapping those numbers on your machine at home sitting there with your favorite brew dicing and slicing the Federal Budget Id bet even money with your wife or mate giving you and assist youd slice and dice with the best of them, that is if you understood basically how each agency was supposed to function by the way buy our Secretary of State a wig!