Bouncing
Checks and Balances
Charlie Earl
The system
of checks and balances designed by our Framers has become a “Three versus One”
distortion of the original plan. The Three branches of government, legislative,
executive and judicial, have coalesced into a massive impediment for individual
liberty and personal prosperity for The One….. We the People. From their
initial roles as defenders of our freedom, they have morphed into deniers of
our liberty. They may have internal disputes about implementing legislation or
adjudicating conflicts, but they appear to share a common goal. They endorse by
their actions, their statements and their priorities the sense that they are
the elites who are best equipped to rule the rest of us. The balances so
laboriously devised by the Framers have been cast aside to aid and abet the
“government versus the rest of us” mentality.
Perhaps the
starkest example of government’s violation of its duty is the fiscal situation
facing our nation today. The cost of maintaining the federal monstrosity far
exceeds the revenue it collects while at the same time Congress, the
Administration and the Courts continue to enlarge the government portfolio in
defiance of the Constitution. Increased government oversight leads to
accelerating costs and results in greater deficits and growing debt.
From the
theeconomiccollapseblog:
55 Facts About The Debt And U.S. Government Finances
That Every American Voter Should Know
The future of the United States of America
is being systematically destroyed by our politicians, but unfortunately most
Americans don't really grasp exactly what is happening. 30 years ago, our
national debt had just crossed the one trillion dollar mark. Just recently, it
crossed the 16 trillion dollar mark. Prior to every election, politicians from
both parties swear up and down that they will do something about our exploding
debt, but it never happens.
Once again this year, our
politicians are making all kinds of grand promises about getting U.S.
government finances under control. But they are also promising all kinds of new
plans and programs which are going to cost a lot more money on top of what we
are already spending. For the average American, all of this can be incredibly
confusing. That is why I have put together a list of facts about the debt and
U.S. government finances below. These are things that every voter should know.
The federal government is stealing more than a trillion dollars a year from our
children and our grandchildren, and they are spending that money in some of the
most foolish ways that you could ever imagine. We have accumulated the largest
mountain of debt in the history of the world, but our politicians just can't
help themselves - they appear to be absolutely addicted to spending money. If
we continue on the path that we are currently on, our entire financial system
and our entire economy will be destroyed by all of this debt. Time is running
out and urgent action is needed to address this crisis.
Many of our founding fathers attempted to warn us about the dangers of
government debt. For example, Thomas Jefferson once said the following...
I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our
Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of
the administration of our government to the genuine principles of its
Constitution; I mean an additional article, taking from the federal government the
power of borrowing.
Where would we be today if such an
amendment had been added to our Constitution?
How much brighter would our future be if the federal government had been forced
to only spend what it took in all these years?
Those are very good questions.
The following are some of the 55 facts about the debt and
U.S. government finances that every American voter should know....
#1 While Barack Obama has been president, the U.S.
government has spent 12 dollars about 11
dollar12s for every 7
dollars of revenue that it has actually brought in.
#2 During the fiscal year that just ended, the U.S. government took in 2.449 trillion dollars3.538 trillion dollarsover a trillion dollars32 p
#5
Over the past year, the number of Americans getting a free cell phone from the
federal government has grown by 43
percent. Now more than 16 million Americans are enjoying what
has come to be known as an "Obamaphone".
#6 When Barack Obama first entered the White House, about 32 million
Americans were on food stamps. Now, nearly 47
million Americans are on food stamps. And this has happened
during what Obama refers to as "an economic recovery.”27 million dollars$300,0002all the social inte
#10 The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the largest snack
food maker in the world (PepsiCo Inc.) a total of 1.3 million dollars in
corporate welfare that was used to help build "a Greek yogurt factory in New York."
#11 The National Science Foundation recently gave researchers at Purdue
University $350,000.
They used part of that money to help fund a study that discovered that if
golfers imagine that a hole is bigger it will help them with their putting.
#12 If you can believe it, $10,000
from the federal government was actually used to purchase talking urinal cakes
up in Michigan.
#13 The National Science Foundation recently gave a whopping $697,177
to a New York City-based theater company to produce a musical about climate
change.
#14 The National Institutes of Health recently gave $666,905
to a group of researchers that is studying the benefits of watching reruns on
television.
#15 The National Science Foundation has given 1.2
million dollars to a team of "scientists" that is
spending part of that money on a study that is seeking to determine whether
elderly Americans would benefit from playing World of Warcraft or not.
#16 The National Institutes of Health recently gave $548,731
to a team of researchers that concluded that those that drink heavily in their
thirties also tend to feel more immature.
#17 The National Science Foundation recently spent $30,000
on a study to determine if "gaydar" actually exists. This is the
conclusion that the researchers reached at the end of the study....
"Gaydar is indeed real and… its accuracy is driven by
sensitivity to individual facial features"
#18 Back in 2011, the National Institutes of Health spent $592,527
on a study that sought to figure out once and for all why chimpanzees throw
poop.
#19 The U.S. government spends more on the military than China, Russia,
Japan, India, and the rest of NATO combined. In fact,
the United States accounts for 41.0%
of all military spending on the planet. China is next with only 8.2%.
#20 In a previous
article, I noted that close to 500,000 federal employees now
make at
least $100,000 a year.
#21 In 2006, only 12 percent
of all federal workers made $100,000 or more per year. Now, approximately 22 percent
of all federal workers do.
#22 If you can believe it, there are 77,000
federal workers that make more than the governors of their own
states do.
#23 During 2010, the average federal employee in the Washington D.C.
area received total compensation worth more than $126,000.
#24 The U.S. Department of Defense had just nine civilians earning
$170,000 or more back in 2005. When Barack Obama became president, the U.S.
Department of Defense had 214 civilians earning $170,000 or more. By June 2010,
the U.S. Department of Defense had 994
civilians earning $170,000 or more.
#25 During 2010, compensation for federal employees came to a grand
total of approximately 447 billion dollars.
#26 If you can believe it, close to
15,000 retired federal employees are currently collecting
federal pensions for life worth at least $100,000 annually. That list includes
such names as Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, Trent Lott, Dick Gephardt and Dick
Cheney.
#27 During 2010, the federal government spent $33,387
on the hair care needs of U.S. Senators.
#28 During 2010, U.S. Senators pulled $72,370
out of the "Senate Restaurant Fund".
#29 During 2010, an average of $4,005,900
of U.S. taxpayer money was spent on "personal" and "office"
expenses per Senator.
#30 In 2013, 3.7
million dollars will be spent to support the lavish lifestyles
of former presidents such as George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
#31 During 2011, the federal government spent a total of 1.4
BILLION dollars just on the Obamas.
#32 When you combine all federal government spending, all state
government spending and all local government spending, it comes to approximately
41 percent of U.S. GDP. But don't worry, all of our politicians
insist that this is not socialism.
#33 As I have written about previously, less
than 30 percent of all Americans lived in a home where at least one person
received financial assistance from the federal government back in 1983. Today,
that number is sitting at an all-time high of 49 percent.
#34 Back in 1990, the federal government accounted for just 32 percent
of all health care spending in America. This year, it is being projected that
the federal government will account for
more than 50 percent of all health care spending in the United
States.
#35 The number of Americans on Medicaid soared from 34 million in 2000
to 54 million
in 2011, and it is being projected that Obamacare will add 16
million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.
#36 In one of my previous
articles, I discussed how it is being projected that the number
of Americans on Medicare will grow from 50.7 million in 2012 to 73.2
million in 2025.
#37 If you can believe it, Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities of
more than 38 trillion dollars over the next 75 years. That comes to
approximately $328,404
for each and every household in the United States.
#38 In the United States today, more than
61 million Americans receive some form of Social Security
benefits. By 2035, that number is projected to soar to a whopping 91 million.
#39 Overall, the Social Security system is facing a 134 trillion dollar shortfall over the
next 75 years.
#40 When Barack Obama first took office, the U.S. national debt was
about 10.6 trillion dollars. Now it is about 16.2 trillion
dollars. That is an increase of 5.6 trillion dollars in less
than 4 years.
#41 The federal government has now run a budget deficit of more than a
trillion dollars for four
years in a row.
#42 If right this moment you went out and started spending one dollar
every single second, it would take you more
than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.
#43 If you were alive when Jesus Christ was born and you spent one
million dollars every single day since that point, you still would not have
spent one trillion dollars by now.
#44 Some suggest that "taxing the rich" is the answer. Well,
if Bill Gates gave every single penny of his entire fortune to the U.S.
government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for 15 days.
#45 If the federal government used GAAP accounting standards like
publicly traded corporations do, the real federal budget deficit for 2011 would
have been 5
trillion dollars instead of 1.3 trillion dollars.
#46 The United States already has more government debt per capita
than Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland or Spain does.
#47 At this point, the United States government is responsible for
more than a third of all the government debt in the entire world.
#48 The amount of U.S. government debt held by foreigners is about 5 times
larger than it was just a decade ago.
#49 Between 2007 and 2010, U.S. GDP grew by only 4.26%, but the U.S.
national debt soared by 61%
during that same time period.
#50 The U.S. national debt is now more
than 37 times larger than it was when Richard Nixon took us off
the gold standard.
#51 The U.S. national debt is now more than 5000 times larger than it
was when the Federal
Reserve was first created.
#52 The U.S. national debt jumped more on the
very first day of fiscal year 2013 than it did from 1776 to 1941
combined.
#53 Historically, the interest rate on 10 year U.S. Treasuries has
averaged 6.68
percent. If the average interest rate on U.S. government debt
rose to that level today, the U.S. government would find itself spending more
than a trillion dollars per year just on interest on the national debt.
#54 A recently revised IMF policy paper entitled “An Analysis of U.S. Fiscal and Generational Imbalances:
Who Will Pay and How?” projects that U.S. government debt will
rise to about 400 percent of GDP by the year 2050.
#55 Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff is warning that the
U.S. government is facing a gigantic tsunami of unfunded liabilities in the
coming years that we are counting on our children and our grandchildren to pay.
Kotlikoff speaks of a "fiscal gap" which he defines as "the
present value difference between projected future spending and revenue".
His calculations have led him to the conclusion that the federal government is
facing a fiscal gap of 222
trillion dollars in the years ahead.
Even if some of this economic
analysis is exaggerated or overstated, nonetheless it is illustrative of a
government that has grossly exceeded its constitutional parameters and its
capacity to perform effectively. Who is checking and who is balancing as power
becomes more concentrated among the marble and granite halls of government?
As government through its various
devices attempts to “level the playing field,” it is engaged in a massive
concentration of power that limits the choices for citizens. Soon…we will be
forced into a “one size fits all” society with few remedies available to us.
Who is checking the power of runaway government? Who is balancing the power to
prevent tyranny?
Charlie Earl
