Still upset that Hillary Clinton is not in jail for international money laundering, violation of elections laws, and violation of government secrecy laws? Don't worry, be happy!
Still worried that the Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives in the November elections? Don't worry, be happy!
Still worried that the Republicans will keep control of the Senate in the November elections? Don't worry, be happy!
Why should you not worry and be happy? Because in about 5-6 years, 10 years at the latest, all of your present day political and government worries will not be no bigger than a nit on a gnat's rear end.
Your worries will pale in comparison to the huge government debt hole that the American political class has dug for us over the past few decades:
- A recent study from the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the unfunded budget liabilities just of Medicare and Social Security over the next 30 years is currently $82 TRILLION. This is NOT how much the Federal government will pay out over the next thirty years, this is the amount of SHORTFALL they will not have available to pay and fulfill the government's promised obligations.
- A recent study by ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) indicates that state governments across the country have unfunded pension and other unfunded liabilities exceeding $6 TRILLION.
- And of course, the plain old Federal government national debt is now over $21 TRILLION and growing larger and larger as you read this.
So in total, just in these three categories, the American political class has put us in a debt hole of a whopping $109 TRILLION.
Given this $109 TRILLION, let's have some fun with math:
- If you had spent a million dollars a day since the day Christ was born, you would still not have spent a TRILLION dollars. Amazing, a million dollars a DAY! And we have 109 of those TRILLIONS to pay off.
- Given there are about 327 million people living in the country today, if we divide the $109 TRILLION debt by the population we see that the debt load per citizen, men, women, and children, is $333,000 per person. In other words, to pay off the debt in theory, every citizen would have to write a check for $333,000 to accomplish this feat.
- Given there are about 126 million households in the country today, if we divide the $109 TRILLION by the number of households we see that the debt load per household is $865,000.
- If we decided today as a nation that we wanted to pay off this debt in say twenty years, then taxes would have to go up $5.2 TRILLION a year.
- Given that the Federal government collected about $3.44 TRILLION in taxes in the most recent fiscal year, a record high, to pay off the debt in twenty years the Federal government tax burden on U.S. taxpayers would have to up over 150% for each of the next twenty years.
- And all of this assumes that the Federal government debt will not go higher, an impossibility, and state government unfunded liabilities will not go higher, another impossibility.
- Thus, all of the above calculations represent a best case, they are surely likely to go higher.
- And it could get much worse: if socialists like Bernie Sanders get their way and force the country onto a single payer health care system, the most stupid idea in the whole of creation, that will likely add Federal debt in excess of $32 TRILLION in the first ten years, adding another $3.2 TRILLION a year to the Federal budget.
- Thus, this additional $3.2 TRILLION a year and the additional $5.2 TRILLION calculated above comes to an incremental ANNUAL $8.4 TRILLION increase a year in Federal taxes, which would more than triple the current annual Federal tax load.
- This incremental ANNUAL $8.4 TRILLION that would now be paid to the Federal government is $8.4 TRILLION that cannot be spent to grow the economy or give Americans the freedom to do what they want with their hard earned wages since Federal taxes hikes would decimate their essential and discretionary income streams.
- Since the current annual U.S. economy is about $19.4 TRILLION, taking $8.4 TRILLION out of that economy and giving it to the Federal government to pay down debt would immediately shrink the economy by about 42%.
- As the economy shrinks, tax streams would shrink, resulting in more debt and still higher tax rates and the fiscal death spiral is now in place.
Depressing, depressing numbers. We have allowed the American political class, both Republicans and Democrats, to dig this enormous debt hole and really have nothing to show for it. Our roads, bridges, and tunnels are still falling apart. Our kids are still under educated vs. the kids from most other countries. Our healthcare system is overly expensive. We have no coherent national energy strategy. Just a big gaping, $109 TRILLION debt hole.
Given that our politicians have not done anything to fix this mega problem and are unlikely to do so in the immediate future, two doomsday scenarios are likely to play out:
-Scenario one - Believe it or not this is the better of the two scenarios. As more and more Baby Boomers retire, the costs of Medicare and Social Security will continue to increase the national debt. At some point, fiscal reality will actually force politicians to cut benefits and payments to close the ever increasing debt gap between tax inflows and benefit outflows.
Thus, Social Security checks will be slashed to better align with decreasing Social Security tax revenue. 21% would be a conservative cut in monthly check sizes. Increasing Medicare costs will push Medicare to cover fewer and fewer procedures and increase co-pays by Medicare enrollees. Obama's death panels will finally become a reality as Medicare starts with the oldest Americans and trims the healthcare they receive, again to cover the Medicare revenue shortfall.
As our Social Security and Medicare benefits decrease our kids and grandkids will pay more and more of their hard earned wages to help cover the Social Security and Medicare escalating costs. Their increased tax loads will reduce their freedoms and ability to do with their wealth what they want to do with their hard earned dollars, the $109 TRILLION debt will be unrelenting.
So, our Social Security income will go down, our Medicare health care will decrease in quantity and quality while the costs go up. And our kids and grandkids will be poorer through no fault of their own.
-Scenario two - In this scenario, all of the above bad things from Scenario One are compounded by Washington politicians deciding to inflate the currency to get out of the debt hole. They begin printing money which leads to rampant inflation which destroys savings and the earning power of everyone.
And in short order we have one of two political scenarios, both of which destroy our democracy. We could end up with post Wiemar Germany where hyperinflation due to inflating the currency crashes the government and economy and leads directly to the Third Reich and the Hitler dictatorship.
Or we could end up like current day Venezuela where hyperinflation has crashed their democracy, led to mass food shortages, and where toilet paper has become currency and currency has become toilet paper. And to boot, our Social Security and Medicare benefits would still also go down the drain.
Oh, for the liberals in the audience, before you respond to this discussion, please do me two favors:
- First, park your Trump Derangement Syndrome in the garage, Trump had very little to do with this. Starting with the Johnson Presidency back in the 1960s, when Johnson and the 1960s Washington political class unlocked and raided the Social Security lockbox and skimmed off excess Social Security wealth for their own current use, just about every Republican and Democrat who came through Congress and the White House did nothing to fix the raiding and growing debt. This problem is over fifty years old, Trump has been in office less than two years.
- Also, please to not bring up the favored liberal solution to every problem, tax the rich more. That is an inane idea, I have done the math. For example, rather than raise the tax rate on Jeff Bezos' income, the richest American, let's assume you could somehow liquidate his ENTIRE wealth and apply it to the debt. In that hypothetical and impossible case, you would be able to pay off less than .13% of the $109 TRILLION debt. Not happy stopping at Bezos? Let's liquidate the wealth of the ten richest Americans. Then could then pay off .61%, far less than one percent of the debt. Thus, increased taxing of the income of the rich is stupid if even confiscating their entire wealth is a tiny blip relative to the debt.
So, back to the beginning of this post, don't worry be happy, at least for the short term. Keep in mind that no matter which candidates win the election in November, no matter what ballot referendums get passed or fail, all of this short term angst and worrying will soon be a nit on a gnat's rear end unless the political class takes some bold, courageous and unpopular moves now to attack the debt.
Things are going to get far worse so be happy...at least for now:
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:
www.loathemygovernment.com
It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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