Does anyone besides me wonder if they will address the waste at the Pentagon or will it be business as usual? What organization gets seemingly unlimited funding but can't account for where the money goes and still gets seemingly unlimited funding? To me, this is the actual deep state, not some sleight of hand with Soros designed to keep the populous dumb and mad. https://americanmilitarynews.com/2024/11/pentagon-fails-7th-audit-cant-fully-account-for-824-billion/
When the opposition realizes that giving others money away is a failure then we get a chance.
It is the refusal to admit reality is the answer is where the population fails. Did someone mention downtown Santa Barbara Streets, OldTown Hollister debacle, and the failed High Speed Rail?
I’ll be watching to see what they get done seeing that those who have been in power for too long will lie, cheat and continue to destroy. They have the giant American taxpayers’ money at their disposal.
I hope they fire, destroy useless laws and open up exploration of a more efficient, smaller government can do. Fight, fight, fight Elon and Vivek!!
Thank you Mr. Buckley for reminding us of the economic catastrophe we are currently facing. You know you’re in trouble when merely servicing the national debt is greater than the entire DoD annual budget! I watched the post election Trump rally yesterday in Phoenix where he, among other things, vowed to rid the military of Transgenders. All fine and good, I suppose the courts will have something to say about that and no doubt will be tied up in law suits for years. I’m not so worried about kicking “Max Klinger” out of the Army as I am cutting the crushing DoD out of control spending. How about holding the DoD accountable for failing virtually every single audit? Let’s start seriously looking at the DoD budget and the legions of defense contractors for starters!
Also concerning is the amount of money the Biden is shoveling out the back door as an extra “FU” to the American taxpayer during his final days. That’s right, forgiving student loans, altering the ability for illegals to remain in the US and commuting death sentences for cop killers…Biden corruption and chicanery is on a roll, just in time for the holidays!
Thank you for writing. I can't help but to relate the national debt that you describe to the state and local debt. A quick check on the salaries of our locals, for example is simply staggering.
Business has financial caps that govern profit and loss; government lacks this very important concept. Perhaps, while drawing fire away from Trump, the DOGE team will set an example on the cutting room floor of debt up and down government.
Mr. Buckley, I will hold my comments on DOGE until I see the miracle musk and ramaswamy work in bringing down government expenditures. I know I’ll probably have to wait a few years, and I hope my comments will be good when the time comes.
I do have one question though, trump wants America to be the crypto capital of the world. trump and his billionaires boys club along with his wealthy supporters would probably do well, but what about the average American?
Two points. First almost one-fourth of the national debt was created during Trump's first four years. So making the point that "sanity will return with Trump" is pretty rich, no? Second, by any reputable study, the economy has consistently performed better during democratic administrations than under republican administrations. Why do you think this is so?
JL - you give Trump a pass for Covid, Clinton for riding on coattails... No four years exists in its own. But you seem to bias outcomes to your liking.
This is an extremely important issue that becomes more visible when it is expressed as a percentage of GDP.
The current US government debt of $36.750trillion is 123.48% of GDP. In 1980, the GDP ratio was only 38.4%, by the year 2,000, the debt to GDP ratio had grown to 54.83%.
The Debt to GDP ratio indicates the ability of an economy to sustain the levels of debt.
The Penn Wharton of the University of Pennsylvania has contructed a budget model to assess the sustainablity of growth in US national debt.
This PWMB model estimates that even under myopic expectations, financial markets cannot sustain more than the next twenty years of deficits under current US fiscal policy.
Forward-looking financial markets are, therefore, effectively, betting that future future fiscal policies will provide substantial corrective measures ahead of time.
If financial markets start to believe otherwise, debt dynamics would unravel and become unsustainable much sooner.
Another conclusion is that debt to gdp ratio of 200% cannot be exceeded.
Therefore, in addition to reducing debt it is imperative to grow gross domestic product.
Trump's policies of reducing debt and growing the economy faster are a just-in-time policy combination that will need more that four years to accomplish. But he will need a lot of help from the public, applauding will not be enough to steer the ship of state.
Jim references the Feds spent in 2022 about 2 trillion dollars more than came into the government. Did the "people" give permission for the government to spend more money than they have? If the Feds can spend more money than they receive, then why can't the people do the same thing ... simply print your own money like the government does. It's just paper with numbers printed on it and pictures of past Presidents. What harm is fake money, anyway? What makes the Feds so special. Answer: Nothing. The Feds aren't special, unless you want to refer to them as "special" crooks. What's good for the goose good for the gander. You'd think the Feds would set a good example for the public. If the Feds are a bad example, then don't expect the public to be a better example. Feds are stealing, then expect the public to steal. Oh, isn't that what the public seems to be doing a lot of anyway? As Gilda Radner playing the character Emily Litella would say on Saturday Night Live, "Never mind."
I would offer this thought: The 8% increase would likely reflect the salary increases and bonuses paid to the ungoverned, unelected, largely useless bureaucrats.
What’s a ‘trillion’? Don’t mean nothin’ - just a word for some esoteric concept of money the government uses.
I was just out on my patio looking at all the crap I’ve accumulated over the years. That big bucket I might need - someday. Those old tools leaning up against the fence that might come in handy - someday. That rope coiled on a nail on the wall . . . all stuff I don’t need! I’m on the warpath now regarding all of it. If I haven’t used something within the past 6 months - it’s gone!
That’s what’s needed in Washington - clean house! Elon and ViVek going thru every program, bailout, grant, benefit, subsidy etc. - all the crap accumulated over time. Review each one with an eye toward tossing it if it isn’t useful, effective and necessary .
I remember when a million dollars was an unimaginable amount of money. Later people were making billions of dollars. The along came the government spending trillions of dollars! Let's just really blow our minds and convert to the Japanese yen system where a hundred yen equals a dollar. Musk is worth about 431 billion dollars today but imagine the amount in yen, or 431 billion dollars times 157 yen/dollar. Or about 43,100 billion yen! Or 67.7 trillion yen!! And what comes after trillion is QUADRILLION or number one followed by fifteen zeroes! Sleep on those numbers ... how long will it take the Feds to surpass that one? Or will quadrillion dollars be the cost of a loaf of bread by the year 2500?
Earl, I am with you on cleaning out, I've lived in this place for 21 years. The problem for me is I need someone else to do it. And Elon and VIvek don't impress me. They have been in the private sector, not the Gov. That's a HUGE difference. As you say, if they go through every program, and such, they will be working for twenty years. They have two years, four at the max.
a) You need a guy to help you clean up, toss out and throw away? Get a handyman on Craigslist.
b) I didn’t mean Elon and Vivek would actually do it - they’d have a bunch of paid interns going thru them one at a time making recommendations. How to pay these interns? With a govt grant _of course_ !
I do see a lot of comments like this, mostly from people who don’t have much experience managing trillion dollar economies. Maybe you do, probably not. Just saying.
John Heine: I had to laugh about not having much experience "managing trillion dollar economies." The "economy" of which you speak has been on auto-pilot for a long time, and it went into turbo-drive when the pandemic came along, thanks to the man asleep at the wheel: Joe Biden. We all discovered that not only was no one driving the car, but no one was/is minding the store either!
TJ: No doubt there'll be other stinkers in Trump's Cabinet level appointments, but that's to be expected. I like Gaetz, but he never looked to be up to the job of chief law enforcement officer in the land, but then again, I'd prefer him to Merrick Garland, though neither man should be anywhere near what is supposed to be a fair and objective position.
And it may be inflation is the only way out for our useless government. As the fed prints more paper, those in the know will continue transferring their wealth to inflation proof assets, while the common worker is trapped just surviving on a mere $100k/year treadmill job.
Then the government can simply stamp out (36) platinum $1trillion dollar coins and ‘pay off’ the debt. This has been proposed by George Gilder and other futurists/economists, not as a solution, but as an example of what the Fed could legally do. Under the Fed Reserve there are no limits. Congress is only an advisory board for the feds actions.
As the Fed prints out cash that is digitally transferred to multinational banks where it’s used to build overseas factories and lending institutions to benefit the banks.. while the federal debt (deficit) so created is placed on the US citizen.
President Trump has taken a more forceful role against the run away fed, and we can hope Trump will find ways to coral this errant body of international banker shills into allegiance.
DOGE may help, but some administration will have to eventually pull the plug on the IRS/FED complex, and those parasitical elements all through government and dependent corporations, NGOs, will not go without a knock down drag out fight.
It’s worth noting the ultra violent French Revolution was in great part motivated by the elite’s careless disregard of the common man, in destroying the nations finances and currency through inflation. House cleaning may be in order.
And it may be inflation is the only way out for our useless government. As the fed prints more paper, those in the know will continue transferring wealth to inflation proof assets.
Under pressure from the GOP Congress at the time, President Clinton had the first and last actual budget surplus.
When Bush II came in, the GOP spent the surplus............ and more "like drunken sailors".
The last federal government office to be shut down was the CAB under Reagan.
If we do not get control now, we may become a post WWII Germany where it took a wheelbarrow load of "Marks" to by a loaf of Bread.
It was a Republican Nixon who took us off the Gold Standard.
Both parties have destroyed the "good as golds" US Dollar Bills.
Sad. Dave
Does anyone besides me wonder if they will address the waste at the Pentagon or will it be business as usual? What organization gets seemingly unlimited funding but can't account for where the money goes and still gets seemingly unlimited funding? To me, this is the actual deep state, not some sleight of hand with Soros designed to keep the populous dumb and mad. https://americanmilitarynews.com/2024/11/pentagon-fails-7th-audit-cant-fully-account-for-824-billion/
You go, Jim. Well stated and not scary at all. We're sure leaving the younger generation a massive clean up on aisle three.
When the opposition realizes that giving others money away is a failure then we get a chance.
It is the refusal to admit reality is the answer is where the population fails. Did someone mention downtown Santa Barbara Streets, OldTown Hollister debacle, and the failed High Speed Rail?
I’ll be watching to see what they get done seeing that those who have been in power for too long will lie, cheat and continue to destroy. They have the giant American taxpayers’ money at their disposal.
I hope they fire, destroy useless laws and open up exploration of a more efficient, smaller government can do. Fight, fight, fight Elon and Vivek!!
Thank you Mr. Buckley for reminding us of the economic catastrophe we are currently facing. You know you’re in trouble when merely servicing the national debt is greater than the entire DoD annual budget! I watched the post election Trump rally yesterday in Phoenix where he, among other things, vowed to rid the military of Transgenders. All fine and good, I suppose the courts will have something to say about that and no doubt will be tied up in law suits for years. I’m not so worried about kicking “Max Klinger” out of the Army as I am cutting the crushing DoD out of control spending. How about holding the DoD accountable for failing virtually every single audit? Let’s start seriously looking at the DoD budget and the legions of defense contractors for starters!
Also concerning is the amount of money the Biden is shoveling out the back door as an extra “FU” to the American taxpayer during his final days. That’s right, forgiving student loans, altering the ability for illegals to remain in the US and commuting death sentences for cop killers…Biden corruption and chicanery is on a roll, just in time for the holidays!
Thank you for writing. I can't help but to relate the national debt that you describe to the state and local debt. A quick check on the salaries of our locals, for example is simply staggering.
Business has financial caps that govern profit and loss; government lacks this very important concept. Perhaps, while drawing fire away from Trump, the DOGE team will set an example on the cutting room floor of debt up and down government.
Mr. Buckley, I will hold my comments on DOGE until I see the miracle musk and ramaswamy work in bringing down government expenditures. I know I’ll probably have to wait a few years, and I hope my comments will be good when the time comes.
I do have one question though, trump wants America to be the crypto capital of the world. trump and his billionaires boys club along with his wealthy supporters would probably do well, but what about the average American?
Two points. First almost one-fourth of the national debt was created during Trump's first four years. So making the point that "sanity will return with Trump" is pretty rich, no? Second, by any reputable study, the economy has consistently performed better during democratic administrations than under republican administrations. Why do you think this is so?
https://www.epi.org/press/new-report-finds-that-the-economy-performs-better-under-democratic-presidential-administrations/
JL - you give Trump a pass for Covid, Clinton for riding on coattails... No four years exists in its own. But you seem to bias outcomes to your liking.
This is an extremely important issue that becomes more visible when it is expressed as a percentage of GDP.
The current US government debt of $36.750trillion is 123.48% of GDP. In 1980, the GDP ratio was only 38.4%, by the year 2,000, the debt to GDP ratio had grown to 54.83%.
The Debt to GDP ratio indicates the ability of an economy to sustain the levels of debt.
The Penn Wharton of the University of Pennsylvania has contructed a budget model to assess the sustainablity of growth in US national debt.
This PWMB model estimates that even under myopic expectations, financial markets cannot sustain more than the next twenty years of deficits under current US fiscal policy.
Forward-looking financial markets are, therefore, effectively, betting that future future fiscal policies will provide substantial corrective measures ahead of time.
If financial markets start to believe otherwise, debt dynamics would unravel and become unsustainable much sooner.
Another conclusion is that debt to gdp ratio of 200% cannot be exceeded.
Therefore, in addition to reducing debt it is imperative to grow gross domestic product.
Trump's policies of reducing debt and growing the economy faster are a just-in-time policy combination that will need more that four years to accomplish. But he will need a lot of help from the public, applauding will not be enough to steer the ship of state.
Jim references the Feds spent in 2022 about 2 trillion dollars more than came into the government. Did the "people" give permission for the government to spend more money than they have? If the Feds can spend more money than they receive, then why can't the people do the same thing ... simply print your own money like the government does. It's just paper with numbers printed on it and pictures of past Presidents. What harm is fake money, anyway? What makes the Feds so special. Answer: Nothing. The Feds aren't special, unless you want to refer to them as "special" crooks. What's good for the goose good for the gander. You'd think the Feds would set a good example for the public. If the Feds are a bad example, then don't expect the public to be a better example. Feds are stealing, then expect the public to steal. Oh, isn't that what the public seems to be doing a lot of anyway? As Gilda Radner playing the character Emily Litella would say on Saturday Night Live, "Never mind."
I would offer this thought: The 8% increase would likely reflect the salary increases and bonuses paid to the ungoverned, unelected, largely useless bureaucrats.
What’s a ‘trillion’? Don’t mean nothin’ - just a word for some esoteric concept of money the government uses.
I was just out on my patio looking at all the crap I’ve accumulated over the years. That big bucket I might need - someday. Those old tools leaning up against the fence that might come in handy - someday. That rope coiled on a nail on the wall . . . all stuff I don’t need! I’m on the warpath now regarding all of it. If I haven’t used something within the past 6 months - it’s gone!
That’s what’s needed in Washington - clean house! Elon and ViVek going thru every program, bailout, grant, benefit, subsidy etc. - all the crap accumulated over time. Review each one with an eye toward tossing it if it isn’t useful, effective and necessary .
I remember when a million dollars was an unimaginable amount of money. Later people were making billions of dollars. The along came the government spending trillions of dollars! Let's just really blow our minds and convert to the Japanese yen system where a hundred yen equals a dollar. Musk is worth about 431 billion dollars today but imagine the amount in yen, or 431 billion dollars times 157 yen/dollar. Or about 43,100 billion yen! Or 67.7 trillion yen!! And what comes after trillion is QUADRILLION or number one followed by fifteen zeroes! Sleep on those numbers ... how long will it take the Feds to surpass that one? Or will quadrillion dollars be the cost of a loaf of bread by the year 2500?
Earl, I am with you on cleaning out, I've lived in this place for 21 years. The problem for me is I need someone else to do it. And Elon and VIvek don't impress me. They have been in the private sector, not the Gov. That's a HUGE difference. As you say, if they go through every program, and such, they will be working for twenty years. They have two years, four at the max.
Thanks Dan - couppla comments:
a) You need a guy to help you clean up, toss out and throw away? Get a handyman on Craigslist.
b) I didn’t mean Elon and Vivek would actually do it - they’d have a bunch of paid interns going thru them one at a time making recommendations. How to pay these interns? With a govt grant _of course_ !
I do see a lot of comments like this, mostly from people who don’t have much experience managing trillion dollar economies. Maybe you do, probably not. Just saying.
John Heine: I had to laugh about not having much experience "managing trillion dollar economies." The "economy" of which you speak has been on auto-pilot for a long time, and it went into turbo-drive when the pandemic came along, thanks to the man asleep at the wheel: Joe Biden. We all discovered that not only was no one driving the car, but no one was/is minding the store either!
He also tapped Matt Gaetz....
TJ: No doubt there'll be other stinkers in Trump's Cabinet level appointments, but that's to be expected. I like Gaetz, but he never looked to be up to the job of chief law enforcement officer in the land, but then again, I'd prefer him to Merrick Garland, though neither man should be anywhere near what is supposed to be a fair and objective position.
Cheap shots? The guy paid for sex with underage girls?
I'll give the drugs a pass.
And it may be inflation is the only way out for our useless government. As the fed prints more paper, those in the know will continue transferring their wealth to inflation proof assets, while the common worker is trapped just surviving on a mere $100k/year treadmill job.
Then the government can simply stamp out (36) platinum $1trillion dollar coins and ‘pay off’ the debt. This has been proposed by George Gilder and other futurists/economists, not as a solution, but as an example of what the Fed could legally do. Under the Fed Reserve there are no limits. Congress is only an advisory board for the feds actions.
As the Fed prints out cash that is digitally transferred to multinational banks where it’s used to build overseas factories and lending institutions to benefit the banks.. while the federal debt (deficit) so created is placed on the US citizen.
President Trump has taken a more forceful role against the run away fed, and we can hope Trump will find ways to coral this errant body of international banker shills into allegiance.
DOGE may help, but some administration will have to eventually pull the plug on the IRS/FED complex, and those parasitical elements all through government and dependent corporations, NGOs, will not go without a knock down drag out fight.
It’s worth noting the ultra violent French Revolution was in great part motivated by the elite’s careless disregard of the common man, in destroying the nations finances and currency through inflation. House cleaning may be in order.
And it may be inflation is the only way out for our useless government. As the fed prints more paper, those in the know will continue transferring wealth to inflation proof assets.