The warning signs are blaring red … but let’s be honest, they have been blaring red for years.
Bright red …
Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump saw them … as did the fiscally liberal Democratic and Republican congresses which convened during their administrations. Sadly, none of these “leaders” have done anything to slow the reckless, unsustainable and increasingly dangerous growth of the national debt, which has increased nearly ten-fold over the last quarter century.
In fact, all of them have ramped up the fiscal insanity …
Now, ominous warnings about a distant dystopian future have become ominous warnings about a not-so-distant dystopian future.
And the situation is only deteriorating …
According to the latest daily statement (.pdf) of the U.S. Treasury, outstanding federal debt totaled $22.01 trillion – up roughly $2.5 trillion since Trump took office. Meanwhile, trillion dollar deficits are projected for fiscal years 2019, 2020, 2021 .. and beyond.
Even more concerning? Interest payments on the debt – already totaling more than $1 billion each day – are projected to consume $1 trillion annually within the coming decade.
Unbelievable …
From its inception in December 2006, this news outlet has consistently railed against unnecessary and excessive federal spending – both at home and abroad. We have also warned of the dangers of expanding the dependency and entitlement cultures that form the basis of the federal behemoth.
In February of 2009, less than a month after Obama took office, we ripped his so-called “stimulus” plan over these very concerns.
“It is, quite simply, the worst possible response to our current economic crisis that America could have come up with – making its taxpayers fund an unprecedented bailout of failed bureaucracies at every level of government with money we don’t have,” we wrote at the time.
Were we right? Yes …
[su_dominion_video_scb]Of course we didn’t limit our criticism to Obama … we blasted Bush and other establishment Republicans for their support of Washington, D.C.’s unsustainable spending culture as well.
“Republicans have rightly washed their hands of (Obama’s) monument to central planning, but let’s not forget it was a Republican president who started us down this road – (and) Republicans who failed to reign in spending when they had the chance, thus creating the liberal blitzkrieg we are currently witnessing,” we added.
Have we held back on criticizing Trump after he fell in line with the moneychangers in our nation’s capital? Hell no.
He is every bit as guilty as the presidents who preceded him … probably even more guilty given the promises he made while running for office.
As a candidate in 2016, Trump vowed to eliminate the national debt over a period of eight years. Clearly that isn’t happening. In fact, Trump has gone in the opposite direction. Along with a Republican-controlled congress, he has placed America on a path to hit $30 trillion in debt within the next ten years – assuming there is not a catastrophic default between now and then.
Obviously, our perspective on decades of deficit spending stands in stark contrast to the views advanced by the mainstream media, who have embraced each new, bigger government expansion with open arms. Our perspective also contrasts with that of so-called “conservative” think tanks that bemoan bloated budget deficits on the one hand while embracing wasteful military spending on the other.
Who do these groups think they are fooling?
“The federal government’s soaring debt – particularly the huge interest obligations it is imposing upon contemporary budgets – remains a clear and present danger to the American Republic and to future generations of citizens and taxpayers,” we wrote last December. “What can be done? At this point, very little … although we do support raising the eligibility age for Medicare, pushing retirement back several years and imposing draconian cuts on the military and other federal bureaucracies.”
Those reforms will never happen, though, because the dependency/ entitlement culture simply will not permit them …
What’s left to do, then?
Nothing … except wait for ticking time bomb to detonate.
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