On a periodic basis we do some posts that fall under the theme of “by the numbers.” Rather than trust what the American politician tells us about reality, we like to examine the real numbers and the real reality in the world to understand what is actually going on. Relying on politicians, and their cohorts in the media, to tell us what is reality is always a sucker bet. They have their own agendas and goals, usually centering around their needs and self-enrichment. So we need to look at the reality of the numbers to determine what is really going on.
Previous analyses of “by the numbers” can be accessed by entering the phrase in the search box above. We look at the numbers to truly find out how good, not likely, or bad, most likely, the American political class is doing in managing our tax dollars, protecting our freedoms, and resolving major issues that affect all of us.
1)One of the least discussed but biggest crises facing the country, a crisis that will crash our economy and squash our freedoms, is the ever growing Federal government national debt, which is quickly approaching an astonishing $35,000,000,000,000. And things are not getting any better:
According to the Congressional Budget Office, this year’s Federal budget deficit is $400 billion higher than it was estimated to be just four months ago in February.
That is a 27% increase since February.
The national debt is expected to rise from 99% of the country’s GDP to 122% of GDP by 2034, the highest it has ever been in the country’s history.
Remember, that the fast approaching $35,000,000,000,000 national debt means that every man, woman and child would have to write a check for over $100,000 to pay off the debt, an obvious impossibility.
These are the scariest numbers facing the country right now, no debate necessary. And yet, NOBODY in Washington has the guts, the brains, and the nerve to do anything about it.
2)Given the $35 trillion national debt that the Federal government has dug for itself, consider just one example of how we got to this horrendous number and really have nothing to show for it:
In 2021, early in Biden’s term, he and Congress set aside $42,500,000,000 to expand high speed internet access to every American.
Sadly and pathetically, three and a half years later the FCC commissioner, Brendan Carr, testified to Congress that exactly 0 people have been connected as a result of this program.
He also reported that 0 people will likely see the benefit of this program since plans for this effort will not be completed until 2025 at the earliest.
According to the commissioner, money from the program has been spent but not spent on the original intent of the budget authorization. Out of control spending with zero tangible benefits after 3 years.
3)One of the more outstanding features of Biden’s failed immigration policies is that he has often facetiously been tagged as Mexican Drug Cartels’ Employee of the month, having allowed the cartels free rein to bring in unprecedented amounts of illegal drugs into the country via our leaky Biden borders.
Just one example of this failure was recently reported in Los Angeles:
A 5 year investigation by Federal authorities has found a money laundering scheme involving the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel and Chinese individuals in the United States.
The 10 count indictment charged these two groups with money laundering as it related to drug trafficking sales worth more than $50 million.
24 individuals were named in the indictment.
The good news is that a drug cartel operation is out of business. The bad news is who knows how many similar types of money laundering and drug trafficking operations are still going on, littering our streets with poisonous drugs and annual drug overdose deaths of over 100,000.
4)One very sad and serious problem that the American political class has created and which has shown no ability to fix is the homelessness problem in this country. We are by far the richest country to ever exist in history and yet on any one day there are probably about 600,000 Americans living on the streets, hungry and without shelter.
And much like the city of Seattle that we recently discussed relative to homelessness, the city of Portland and it's politicians also have a pretty poor, but expensive, track record in fixing their homeless problem:
In 2023, the Portland area of Oregon spent over $530,000,000 to address their wide ranging homeless problem.
And yet, despite spending about half a billion dollars in one year on the problem, a recent analysis and report found that the number of homeless in the area increased a whopping 70%.
“The number itself was shocking,” confessed John Tapogna, a senior policy advisor at ECOnorthwest, which conducted an analysis of these figures.
According to the latest counts, it is estimated that there are about 7,500 homeless individuals in the Portland area living either in emergency shelters or on the streets.
If somehow that $530 million of taxpayer money could have magically been given directly to those 7,500 homeless folks, each one of them would have received about $71,000 EACH, an amount that would have allowed each one of those folks an income that could have afforded them living space.
Instead, 7,500 are still homeless and that $530,000,000 is nowhere to be found.
Spending $500,000,000 of taxpayer wealth and seeing the problem still grow by 70% is certainly a major failure and probably means some politically connected groups and individuals are getting quite wealthy off the taxpayers without being effective. The numbers do not lie.
Enough numbers today: failed homeless problem solving in Portland, drug cartels alive and well in Los Angeles, Biden’s high speed internet program fails, and $35,000,000,000,000 in national debt is closing fast.
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If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:
https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom
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