Dr. Mercola May 15 2008 80,443 views
Going into 2008, the United States finds itself in the position of being unable to pay for its own elevated living standards or its wasteful, overly large military establishment. The government no longer even attempts to reduce the ruinous expense of maintaining huge standing armies.
Instead, the Bush administration has put off these costs for future generations to pay or repudiate. This fiscal irresponsibility has been disguised through manipulative financial schemes, but the time of reckoning is fast approaching.
There are three aspects to the U.S. debt crisis. First, the U.S. is spending insane amounts of money on "defense" projects that bear no relation to the national security of the U.S. At the same time, the income tax burdens on the richest segment of the population are at strikingly low levels.
Second, there is a mistaken belief that public policies focused on frequent wars, huge expenditures on weapons and munitions, and large standing armies can indefinitely sustain a wealthy capitalist economy. The opposite is actually true.
Third, this devotion to militarism despite limited resources results in a failure to invest in social infrastructure and other requirements for the long-term health of the U.S. These are what economists call opportunity costs, things not done because the money was spent on something else. The public education system has deteriorated alarmingly and health care is not available to all citizens. Most important, the U.S. has lost its competitiveness as a manufacturer for civilian needs, an infinitely more efficient use of scarce resources than arms manufacturing.
In the video above, Ron Paul discusses some of the dangers of current U.S. foreign policies.
Interventionism -- The policy or doctrine of intervening, esp. government interference in the affairs of another state or in domestic economic affairs. Characterized by the use or threat of force or coercion to alter a political or cultural situation nominally outside the intervenor's moral or political jurisdiction.
The United States is closing military bases in the U.S. while building them overseas. We ignore our own borders, while policing the borders of other nations.
The U.S. government borrows from other countries, and when no one is willing to hand us a dollar for our song and dance, the Federal Reserve simply prints more money.
When Presidential candidate Ron Paul says, “We’ll either wake up or go broke,” he’s not blowing smoke or crying wolf to garner votes. And, he’s also correct when stating that personal liberties are undermined by the current policy of intervention.
That’s you and me, folks. Our liberties, not the liberties of terrorists, whether real or imagined.
Loss of Freedom – For Sale to the Highest Bidder
I was shocked to discover that the planned defense-related spending for the fiscal year of 2008 now stands at over $1 trillion.
$1 TRILLION!
It’s even more viscerally obscene when you see it in a chart, like this one provided by Chalmers Johnson, the author of the article above.
The military budget of the U.S. exceeds the combined military budgets of NINE other major nations!
And, to top it all off, the supplementary budget to pay for the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- which is not part of this $1 trillion defense budget -- is itself larger than the combined military budgets of Russia and China.
Got a Problem? Spend More Money – It’ll Go Away
The more I think about it, the more this is starting to remind me of the U.S. health care system, where expensive drugs are thrown willy-nilly at symptoms; the treatments and “cures” causing more harm to the patient in the long run while making the pharmaceutical companies rich beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.
According to the Congressional Reference Service (CRS) report to Congress titled, The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Since 9/11, dated February 8, 2008, the U.S. war-on-terror-machine has spent $700 billion -- purportedly making the world a safer place -- since 2001. However, as Mr. Johnson states in his article, this number is by no means an all-inclusive account of the real dollar amounts spent.
But even at that, are we really to believe that despite spending $700 billion we’ve been unable to capture the man allegedly capable of launching coordinated world-wide terror attacks from a cave?
And are we really supposed to believe that if we just spend $1 trillion more in the next foreseeable future, we’ll be able to finally get the upper hand; we’ll be able to stamp out the disease of terror that plagues us?
Seriously?
Clearly, eradicating either disease or “terror” by throwing money at it doesn’t work. The U.S. health care spending, which topped out at $2.1 trillion in 2006, should be ample proof of that.
And yet, it’s the same principle at work, both within the conventional health care paradigm and the interventionist foreign relations agenda: Take a pill; drop a bomb -- you’ll feel better and you’ll be safer for it. Keep taking those foreign chemicals for the rest of your life; set up a permanent presence in foreign lands and tell them how to run things – why are you complaining? We’re fixing you!
Folks, both of these systems are set up in such a way that nothing really gets better, nothing is really resolved; the “disease” is never conquered, only complicated.
Why?
Because otherwise the well would dry up, now wouldn’t it?
When Did Gluttony Cease to Be a Deadly Sin?
The problem is, the well is drying up anyway. Not because people have discovered the truth about these schemes and decided to reject them, but because they’ve gotten too greedy too fast, and both systems have become unsustainable by their sheer gluttony.
America has, under the solid misguidance of the Bush administration, managed a near impossible feat: increasing the national debt by 45 percent since 2001, to a sobering $9 trillion.
And when I suggest that a gluttonous “too much, too fast” attitude is at work, I’m basing it in part on this fact: from the moment of the U.S. constitutional birth in 1789, the debt accumulated by the federal government did not hit $1 trillion until 1981. It took 183 years to incur the first trillion dollars. It only took 20 years to grow that debt to $5.7 trillion, and a mere seven years to reach $9 trillion.
I’d call that fiscal suicide by exponential gluttony.
Perhaps if we’d spent a couple of bucks on education, we’d have at least a handful of elected officials who could do the math, and a couple of others to supply the critical thinking. I don’t know. Just a thought.
Maybe someone should have considered the fact that being a ‘world super power’ is in large part dependent on having proper leverage. As it stands today, the U.S. can boast about being the 163rd country on the list of nations’ accounts of trade surplus’ and deficits.
That puts the U.S. dead LAST of all nations on the planet, with the highest trade deficit in the world.
If international banking and trade were a casino, the U.S. would be that guy who sucked down a few too many “free” drinks, gambled a little too long, invited a few too many inappropriate ladies, and lost big; now sweating bullets, frantically trying to figure out how to avoid getting his bones crushed and fingernails ripped out by the professionals who lent him the money for his spree.
Maybe he’ll pop a pill and buy a bazooka, thinking that’ll take care of the problem for the time being.
Sound familiar?
When 5% of the world's population has 50% of the world's defence budget, you are not living in a democracy. You are living in a tyranny.
When the "leader of the free world" was not elected by the free world, but self-appointed to the role, you are not living in a democracy. You are living in a tyranny.
When foreign affairs are largely conducted from a position of power rather than a position of goodwill, where "negotiation" means the threat of trade barriers and sanctions and military intervention, you are not living in a democracy. You are living in a tyranny.
When one country unilaterally decides to impose "democracy by force" upon countries and cultures whose people don't want it, you are not living in a democracy. You are living in a tyranny.
When one country grows rich on an abundance of foreign investment, then deliberately debases its currency so as to impoverish its investors, you are not living in a democracy. You are living in a tyranny.
bpfsa,
Excellent comments and factual. We are sinking fast and our fellow citizens are still oblivious.
You are correct about one thing for sure, you do not live in a democracy. I don't know whoever told you that you do, but they were wrong. You live in a Constitutional Republic. Our founding fathers were very smart men.
Well said bpfsa.
What ever happened to our freedom to choose?
Well put! To get a good idea of how we got into this fix, Google "ponerology," the scientific study of evil. Many in the Bush administration have the conscience of a cat playing with a mouse, oblivious to its suffering. We naively think these people are just like everyone else, and that we would do the same thing in their shoes. They prevail more and more because the good among them have been systematically eliminated--observe what is happening to Dr. Paul. I have hope that if more people understand this phenomenon, we may finally be able to disempower these monsters. Turns out the Christian concept of evil is spot on, we've all just been barking up various wrong trees--typically at the behest of someone who is truly evil.
I was listening to the news last night... they were saying that the democrats were going to get in because there were no republicans that offered the people anything different... any hope. They should listen to Ron Paul... people don't realize it because of the way the media have ignored him, but he is that something different and the hope people have been wanting to hear about.
But isn't it true that when the Amish people have basket case kids, due to inbreeding, they just dump them on the State agencies? I even know one who makes picnic tables for money. He doesn't have electricity at his house, but he does run an extension cord over to his next door neighbor's house. I would hardly call them "Self reliant".
Why do you come here.
This website is about truth and the people here support the truth. The people here are one of the most knowledgable and are not under the "influence" of the main stream media. So everyone is going to be suprised that someone ignorant like you can be browsing this site.
Even if you comment was not flamatory, people are going to comment back with the truth.
Bill orielly is the biggest liar on this planet. He has lied so many times and you can search youtube for video proof of his lies.
You comment only shows that how you are talking utter crap.
You are right about us spending the money we dont have, but it no way justifies using our taxes for wars that are fought for personal gains.
You mean to say we should start living like amish people and be happy with "what we have" while the we still continue paying taxes that are going directly into pockets of oil companies and the world bankers. Sheeeeeeeeeesh.
I am not even american and I know Bill oriely and fox news is a hogwash.
I know which channels you watch.
Ron paul is the only person talking sense.
I know we should take responsibility for our own actions, that is why we fail at work, or school. It is meant for things like that.
Ike was from Kansas.
The amount of money spent on the military is only 4% of the GDP. 4% PEOPLE! It's all the social handouts that are costing all of us.
And, 4% is DOWN from what it was for previous presidents.
Don't be fools and listen to the leftist propoganda known as your TV news.
You think you are buying ice cream when you are really buying cyanide.
Shame on you if you want to take away anything from our soldiers and their equipment to do their job.
“The moral and constitutional obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not coddle the world, precipitating no-win wars, while bringing bankruptcy and economic turmoil to our people". - Congressman Ron Paul - Freedom Under Siege, 1987
www.rEVOLutionMarch.com
Sorry rigatoni, President Eisenhower was born in Texas. He grew up in Kansas. You and ZPE are both kinda right. I appreciate the quote, though. Thanks ZPE
Where are you getting your information from potter1958? "The amount of money spent on the military is only 4% of the GDP." is a pretty interesting statement.
Can you give any statistics on these "social handouts" you're referring to?
I wouldn't mind spending 4% of GDP on defense, if it were really solving the problem. To think that invading Iraq would solve a terrorism problem is preposterous. But many super Patriots beleive that the way to stamp out terroism is to get tough, and spend billions of dollars overthrowing governments. We have succeded in creating a power vacuum in Iraq, which just allows more terrorism to gain a foothold. As much as no one liked Saddam Hussein, there was no civil war before we overthrew him. And what kind of holier thaan thou attitude do we have taking over governments?
With regards to money for social programs, one must be careful to distinguish between purchases and transfers. Purchases use real resources (e.g. building weapons, instead of schools or housing, or employing military personnel in Iraq instad of emplyoing these workers making autos or building briges at home). Transfers pass the money around. Money is taken from the middle class to give to the poor, or sometimes to the middle class. A good example is Social Security. Taking FICA tax from a worker and giving it to an elderly person does not use up real resources (except for the small cost of administration of the program). It's not the same as sending troops to Iraq, or for that matter, building highways and bridges.
Social handouts, huh?... There is a moral imperative built directly into our brains and the US Constitution to promote the general welfare. Empathy is our moral obligation. How is it that we seem to ignore the fact that we are interdependent with the entire planet? If the US Gov is going to bail out big business then they can certainly limit big business from time to time to help the health of our nation. Why are we so blind as to think that money is THE indicator of the strength and health of our great nation? How about getting back to the gold standard? Actually separating church and state? Getting rid of property taxes so that people can actually own their land? And for the love of Life, get rid of the Federal Reserve, the IRS and the FDA as they are now! We are indeed a Constitutional Republic and not a democracy, thank Life for that! Except we allow people to vote on our rights, rights that should NEVER be open to the lowest common denominator. When 1% owns 90% and are not willing to bear the burden until we are all advantaged without any being disadvantaged then it is time to use the president's war powers to help the oil companies, drug companies, etc. see the light. Treat people who weaken the country by speculating frivolously, put money over the welfare of the US, piss on the Constitution as terrorists. How about tithing as a way out of this mess? And be willing to go for partial answers as steps toward a healthy and honest nation? Sorry if I seem a bit righteous here... Just fired up. And remember this is not a Christian nation, folks. That alone is a deeply important issue to be addressed.
Thanks and Love to All,
Stephen