The national debt is now over seven trillion, $4.04 trillion in honest contractual borrowing from investors and $2.96 trillion in debt representing money stolen from entitlements like Social Security plus annual interest added by simply handing phony trust funds more phony bonds—fraudulent accounts that serve no other purpose than to double tax us plus interest.
We’ve had a $226 billion increase to the national debt in the first four months of the government’s new fiscal 2004, an average of $56.5 billion a month, or more than two billion a day not counting weekends and holidays.
Last year, the Bush administration ran up the national debt $555 billion with a deficit of $371 billion because they ignored the inclusion of money “borrowed” (stolen) from Social Security and other entitlements—$184 billion, including interest.
This year, the Government Accounting Office (GAO) is already talking about a deficit of $521 billion—and that’s again excluding the one-to-two hundred billion they pilfer from entitlements which they claim are part of the budget as “off budget” revenue and, therefore, shouldn’t be considered “over budget.” Isn’t that cute? Sounds like Enron.
You can count on a real deficit around $700 billion this year.
Of course, in the days when there was a surplus that they want to talk about, like the $237 billion record surplus of fiscal 2000, this same entitlement money comes suddenly out of the budget and is counted differently. But then, they didn’t tell you where that year 2000 surplus came from, did they? Well, I will—$87 billion came from income tax overcharges and $149.8 billion came from entitlement theft with Social Security leading the pack of twenty-four with a $94.5 billion surplus for the government to spend elsewhere.
In 2001, just weeks after George W. Bush took office, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) presented testimony to show that the $87 billion income tax surplus was projected to grow beyond $2 trillion by 2010. Bush cut a sizeable portion of that overcharge with his tax cuts, as well he should have.
Greedy members on both sides of Congress are still bitching about those tax cuts and the loss of unfair revenue when, if they want it back, all they have to do is raise income taxes. But politicians are wont to do this even when it’s necessary.
The argument that most of the income tax breaks went to the wealthy is an argument about who pays the most in these taxes in the first place and is not the real issue. The real issue is why, in our political system, elected representatives are afraid to tell the truth especially when there’s a need to raise taxes. They fear that honesty will cost them their jobs.
Bush has done nothing to reduce payroll taxes for American workers, the major part of the mother lode that the same CBO testimony projected to reach over $3 trillion by 2010, despite the fact that cutting payroll taxes would be the right thing to do and everyone agrees that putting money in consumer pockets is one of the ways to stimulate a sour economy.
At the rate we’re going, the Bush administration will hit the national debt limit of $7.384 trillion by August of this year, less than four months before elections. It will mean that Bush added a trillion dollars to the nation’s debt since May 24, 2003, about fifteen months prior to hitting the debt limit again. That’s another record.
Of course, the crafty administration may be able to hide the fact that we will hit the debt limit just as they hid it for 92 days from February 20th last year to May 24th with their loyal media not mentioning the fact until the last week. All borrowing was suspended during that period and the only reason there was a rush in late May was that the interest to the Social Security trust fund was due in June.
The democrats would be crazy if they missed the opportunity to pounce on the fiscal irresponsibility this August.
The justification for borrowing so much money and leaving a horrendous debt on the shoulders of future generations is the war against terrorism and protecting our country. But how real is this threat?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon weren’t horrendous events, but are the terrorists truly after the American people like you and me? I don’t think so.
There is more evidence to show that the terrorists are after our federal government and our military than that they are after common citizens or our symbols and artifacts of opulence. The enemy is not dumb. They know, perhaps better than the American people, just who is causing the grief and misery in their land.
But the Bush administration uses 9/11 to scare the hell out of Americans and justify their ridiculous expenses in a go-for-broke empire building New World Odor. Instead of admitting that 9/11 was a precision attack on world banking and the military, the neocons running Washington want you to believe that you are the target while the Bush administration stonewalls and hides evidence to the contrary.
We can’t even admit that the World Trade Center was renowned for housing people from 92 different nations of the world. Instead, we claim all 2,978 killed as American innocents and the government is now spending billions to protect Americans flying, attending Super Bowl games, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, or being safe in our homes, when they ought to be closing our borders and getting rid of our own weapons of mass destruction.
When you hear about the “next attack” or warnings about its inevitability, just ask yourself who has the most to gain from such a second and more heinous deed.
“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”