By This week in Congress our public officials have been discussing the raising of our debt ceiling to keep government from a shutdown and defaulting on our debt. We as a nation have to start to address and hold our public servants accountable for their action as they roam the Halls of Congress taxing and spending with no regard to our national debt which currently is at 28,871,893,873,245. and rising millions every minute. The debt ceiling is the legal amount of money Congress can borrow to pay for all their legislation which require funding that is not covered by the revenues they take in.
1917 was our first real debt limit as we needed to fund WWI and other spending so Congress passed The Second Liberty Bond Act of 1917 to administer a debt ceiling for out of control spending. Throughout the next 20 years Congress would alter and adjust the restrictions placed on the treasury so they could manage the incurring debt. Then in 1939 Congress placed a limit on the debt. As the years rolled on we continued to increase our debt ceiling to accommodate the massive out of control spending in Washington. When our public servants spend more then they take in and they have reached the ceiling placed on spending they just raise that ceiling and continue spending what they don’t have. The vote yesterday will increase the ceiling by 480 billion to continue spending money we don’t have for about 3 months and then Congress will be back to increase the ceiling again as revenues taken in from all the taxation placed upon us still do not balance our budget.
On CSPAN Washington Journal today Christopher Russo from George Mason University Mercatus Center was asked by the host, John Mcardle if it was still worth having a debt ceiling! The response was “I believe that at this point the debt limit posse um, a danger to the U.S. economy and our financial system that it is no longer worthwhile. The Congress authorizes the spending and taxes that treasury does. For better or worst Congress budget mandates the deficit and the treasury should be able to then undertake the actions necessary to finance that deficit.” He went on to explain, “That said I do stress that we do face a run up in our debt levels that is unsustainable.”
Russo would like to have Congress tackle the issue which would have a permanent suspension of the limit and long term reform of the budget to stop the unlimited spending and growth of the debt.
In 1917 our national debt was 5.7 billion dollars as we borrowed against our nation to fund the war. in 1918 the amount borrowed was 8.8 billion dollars bringing our nations debt to 14.9 billion dollars in just one year. That is laughable today was we spend trillions in unfunded liabilities today.
The U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in a hearing on September 28th of this year stated that inflation would probably be somewhere in the vicinity of 4%. Currently inflation in our nation is standing at 5.25%. Our numbers show inflation should be coming in at similar increases as last year if not a few points higher as consumable goods are becoming harder to purchase with supplies not making it into our economy currently. An example I can give from personal experience with my daughters embroidery business. She has been trying to order Nike golf shirts from her supplier for 2 months now to fill a customers order which can not be shipped as they can not receive merchandise from the manufacturers.
When we have unsustainable rise in our nations debt we end up with higher taxes, lower take home pay, higher interest rates and a weaker economy. Our debt to GDP ratio is now 125%. Congress needs to address the uncontrolled spending coming out of DC by reducing the money funneled to the foreign nations which have shown by their actions they do not like America. We send billions to help foreign nations only to have the governing factions end up stealing millions and millions for their circle of influence. I saw last week in an article stating the son of the former Afghanistan Minister of Defense, Abdul Rahim Wardak bought a 20 million dollar home in LA. The question has to be raised, where did the funding come from as we spent billions of our tax dollars in Afghanistan to rebuild, train and monitor the region. Were those funds from the money our government sent over there?
The Congress authorizes the spending and taxes that treasury does. For better or worst Congress budget mandates the deficit and the treasury should be able to then undertake the actions necessary to finance that deficit.”
Russo late on in the interview stated as they talked about our economy and the industrial revolution with positive growth, ” I’m not saying we need a second industrial revolution although that would be phenomenal if we had one. What I am saying is the gentlemen is right we need as a part of the package I am putting forward a way not just to fix the debt limit, which again is a self inflicted wound but also a way that we can raise the overall level of growth and as a third component of that of course is also bring down the level of spending to be more commiserate with taxes. That’s not to say we can’t run any deficits or that the GDP should be zero, I don’t believe either. Nonetheless, it does not help if taxes are higher than ever and spending is higher than ever.”
Our problem is simple, government never works for the revenue taken in. What they do is tax everything under the sun so they can push their ideologies onto the American people as they steal our hard earn taxed dollars to expand on their pet projects. With that said we need candidates who will see our national debt and inflation as a national security issue. We as a nation are on the cusp of history, failing as a Republic. Our current assembly of individuals in Congress parading as representatives do not care about our nations debt, inflation or stresses placed on our citizens as they spend our nation into bankruptcy. If they did care they would stop the deficit spending immediately and vote to have a balanced budget with single issue legislation where one item is presented in a bill and they vote up or down on it. If they continue this rampant spending they will lead us down a path we can never recover from causing great economic despair.
