Showing posts with label debt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label debt. Show all posts

Monday, November 12, 2012

Earth to GOP: We Can Save the Party




The Newsweek cover is vile and even overtly racist. Still, it's a bitter reminder of a big election day fail for the GOP.

The Republican base is hopping mad and, quite frankly, very disgusted with their party. Republican voters keep voting for less government, lower taxes and balanced budgets. Instead they get Democrats in elephant suits who spend, increase the debt, endorse entitlements and pursue an insane foreign policy that is bankrupting the nation.

The battle for the heart and soul of the GOP has always been the fiscal conservatives and liberty activists vs. the statist GOP elites. It wasn't just Ron Paul supporters who didn't show up to vote Republican. Many independents and very angry Republicans finally refused to vote Republican.

There's a WAR going on in the GOP and unless grassroots activists, Paulites, Libertarians, fiscal conservatives and independent voters can wrest control of the GOP from the clueless and revoltingly obnoxious elites who lord over the GOP, the Republican Party will be headed straight to the trash heap of history. Many who comprise the Republican base have been furious for a long time over what they perceive as a betrayal of conservative principles.

The independent Internet media and even mainstream media has been buzzing with tales about disgruntled Republicans.

There Is A Brutal Civil War In The GOP, And It Looks Like Karl Rove Will Be The First Casualty
Grassroots Republican operatives and Movement conservatives are quickly turning against the GOP Establishment in the wake of the party's expensive defeat this election cycle.
Republicans we spoke to this week voiced a near-universal disgust with the national Republican Party leaders and Washington political class, who are seen as having put their personal financial interest above winning the election.
What is finally happening is something that should have happened a long time ago - conservatives are finally revolting against their own damn worthless fraud of a party.

The GOP is not a unified party and never was.  The GOP has always been a fragile configuration of establishment Republicans, fiscal conservatives, paleo-conservatives, Buchananites, social conservatives, Libertarians and independents. That constituency fractured in 2006 because conservatives, diverse as they are, were thoroughly disgusted with the Republican Party and they still are.

The Republican Party didn't lose because of the Ron Paul voters and the fact that the Paulites were treated like pond scum at the RNC Convention but the Paulite vote definitely contributed to the Republican defeat because it combined with other disaffected conservative factions to deliver a decisive rejection of the GOP.

So how do we bring the cantankerous conservative factions together?  Actually, it's not that hard.  Stop spending money.  Stop building mountains of debt.  Stop the unconstitutional wars.  Balance the budget and don't spend anymore than is collected in taxes.  Stop corporate welfare and subsidies.  Stop draconian regulations that are killing entrepreneurship and driving business and capital offshore.  Endorse sound money and an end bankster bailouts.

Why is this so difficult?  It's not.  In fact, it's pretty straight forward conservatism.  But try finding one Republican who would agree and vote accordingly.  The voting records of nearly all Republicans are atrocious and an absolute affront to conservatism.

American isn't starved of conservatives or small government advocates.  America is swimming with conservatives, albeit very angry and frustrated conservatives who are delighting in extracting their pound of flesh from the GOP that betrayed them.

Conservatives need a platform of core issues that they can rally around and such a platform must be devoid of all the social conservative issues that are best handled at the state level.  Marriage has no business being a national campaign issue.

The best place for conservatives to start is with the specific enumerated federal powers stated in the Constitution.  Just stick with the Constitution and reject everything that is unconstitutional and, therefore, not authorized by the Constitution.

I suffered through the Republican debacle on a balanced budget amendment that was a total farce because it was loaded with more loopholes than Swiss cheese.  Why should a Republican need a balanced budget amendment just to balance the budget?  Just balance the damn budget.  Period.

The conservative base must fight for control of the GOP.  We need to get rid of a ton of corrupt dead weight Republican statists in Congress and at the state and local level.  The Republicans in Congress vastly contributed to the fiscal and economic nightmare we now face.  These folks need to be FIRED and replaced with true liberty candidates in the mold of Justin Amash and Rand Paul, and, of course, America's strongest constitutionalist and consistent advocate for peace, liberty and prosperity - Ron Paul..

Judge Andrew Napolitano took a swipe at the Republicans in his explanation of what 4 more years of Obama will deliver.

Four More Years for the Unwitting Authoritarian
What's going on here?.

What is going on is the present-day proof of the truism observed by Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, who rarely agreed on anything in public: When the voters recognize that the public treasury has become a public trough, they will send to Washington not persons who will promote self-reliance and foster an atmosphere of prosperity, but rather those who will give away the most cash and thereby create dependency. This is an attitude that, though present in some localities in the colonial era, was created at the federal level by Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, magnified by FDR, enhanced by LBJ, and eventually joined in by all modern-day Democrats and most contemporary Republicans..

Mitt Romney is one of those Republicans. He is no opponent of federal entitlements, and he basically promised to keep them where they are. Where they are is a cost to taxpayers of about $1.7 trillion a year.....

As a practical matter, we are in for very difficult times during Obama's second term. Obamacare is now here to stay; so, no matter who you are or how you pay your medical bills, federal bureaucrats will direct your physicians in their treatment of you, and they will see your medical records. As well, Obama is committed to raising the debt of the federal government to $20 trillion. So, if the Republican-controlled House of Representatives goes along with this, as it did during Obama's first term, the cost will be close to $1 trillion in interest payments every year. As well, everyone's taxes will go up on New Year's Day, as the Bush-era tax cuts will expire then. The progressive vision of a populace dependent on a central government and a European-style welfare state is now at hand.
Judge Napolitano raises a significant issue because the biggest problem facing America and the debt ridden west in general is that they've been borrowing so much money for such a long time that they now face a most hideous fate, namely that the debt burden reaches a point where nearly all tax revenues go to debt service and nations no longer have any money to fund social programs and other government expenditures.  This is precisely what is happening in Greece.  The Greeks who supported cradle to the grave entitlement programs that were funded with massive debt are now facing forced austerity as benefits are cut to service the debt.

So long as Republicans remain focused on the social issues and the pursuit of endless wars, they will continue to lose.  Most of the Republicans that currently hold congressional seats have as much backbone as cooked spaghetti.  Moving forward, the 'business as usual' attitude won't fly for a conservative base hungry and starved for real conservatism.

Republicans need to understand that their own party played a critical role in delivering the nightmare we are facing.  Americans, meet your future neighbors:




Monday, July 23, 2012

What Happens When Governments No Longer Have Money to Pay Entitlements and Pensions?



Greece is broke. Spain is broke. Portugal is broke. Italy is nearly broke. Bailout requests continue to mount. Many nations simply borrowed heavily to sustain an unsustainable socialist cradle to the grave paradise. Folks are protesting in the streets in big numbers. They are protesting cuts in entitlements. They are protesting cuts in public sector pensions.  They are protesting cuts in healthcare benefits.  They are protesting the lack of jobs.

Demand for Spanish Bonds Collapses; "No Money Left to Pay Services" says Treasury Minister; Massive Protests Over Austerity; Two-Year Yield soars 60 Basis Points

But they can protest all they want. At the end of the day, broke is still broke, bankrupt is still bankrupt and there literally is no money to pay promised benefits. As the debt mounts, more and more revenues are siphoned off just to service the gargantuan debt which in turn decreases the amount of money left over for entitlements.

In France, Francois Holland won an election by promising to tax the rich at a rate of 75%, a campaign promised that he kept.  It's widely believed that such a draconian measure will drive the wealthy out of France and to much friendlier tax abodes.  The panicked Spainards are considering similar measures.

Prepare for Spanish Implosion: Businesses Threaten to Leave Spain Over Tax Hikes; Finance Minister Proposes 56% Tax on Short-Term Financial Transactions

Americans tend to ignore what is happening across the pond because they really don't believe that what is happening in Europe and elsewhere could ever happen in America.  Of  course, Americans are living in a fantasy land but that won't last long and when reality finally hits America it will pack a wallop of a bite.

There are credible signs in America that our delusions will be short lived.  The US is sitting on unfunded liabilities (pensions, SS, Medicare, Medicaid and other entitlements) of over $100 trillion.  This didn't come from Alex Jones.  It came from the Dallas Federal Reserve!
According to our calculations at the Dallas Fed, that unfunded debt of Social Security and Medicare combined has now reached $104 trillion—trillion with a 'T'—in discounted present value. – Richard Fisher, February 10, 2010
There is also the issue of massively underfunded public sector pensions and retirement benefits at the state and municipal level.

Public Sector Pensions Underfunded by $4.6 Trillion - That's a Future Tax Folks

Here's what is really going to happen.  Sooner rather than later, nations and people will simply be forced to start living off what they actually produce and save instead of the debt fueled consumerist economy driven by fiat banksters.

Will it be painful?  Absolutely.  But the alternative of continuing to live the monetary lie will be far more painful as central banks just continue to inflate currencies to the point where folks will need a truckload of greenback just to buy a loaf of bread.

Governments steal from the people by devaluing currencies with inflation.  And yes, citizens are complicit in the schemes so long as they perceive a value for themselves (raking in their share of the plunder).

America has one huge advantage.  The dollar still maintains its lofty status as the world's reserve currency and it's also a petro-currency.  If oil ever starts trading in non-dollar currencies, the dollar is toast and America officially becomes just another failed banana boat republic.  Moreover, there is the issue of our mountain of unsustainable debt and the continued willingness of foreign nations to subsidize our outsized debt fueled fictitious lifestyles.  Many astute financial pundits believe and have documented the fact the foreign nations are quietly and not so quietly shedding Treasuries because they are very concerned about ever getting paid. The simple truth is that America is a Debt Man Walking.   Who is the largest purchaser of Treasuries?  The Federal Reserve!
The Federal Reserve has been the largest buyer of U.S debt in the last three years...here.
Economist Peter Schiff has been saying for years that America needs to get back to producing things, learning to save and living within our means.  He's right.  It's precisely how America became the wealthiest and greatest free nation to ever grace the planet.   America once had the most prosperous middle class in all of human history.

We simply blew it by allowing government, banksters, militarists and corporatists to concentrate wealth and power into the hands of a few.  The consequences have been devastating.

Pundits like using the term SHTF (shit its the fan).  When the SHTF what will really happen?  Commodities will become the new temporary currency, especially food, fuel and medicines.  Alternative paradigms of survival will emerge, notably in underground economies that will grow as government becomes powerless.  There are communities in Greece where they barter and use local currency (not the Euro).   Raw and absolute survival instincts will kick in and trump loyalty to the state.

Some folks have put forth the premise that America's failed system of governance and its fascist, crony capitalist economic system must fail if the people are ever going to have the opportunity to rise in liberty and restore their prosperity.  It's a valid premise.

100 years of Keynesian statist economic central planning has effectively obliterated all that once propelled western nations to liberty and prosperity.  The system can't be tweaked or even saved. All that's left is starting over and starting over can only work with sound money and minimal government power.