Tasine Loc: Southwest US

A few days ago, the federal debt of the United States rather quietly and unceremoniously passed the $19.5 trillion mark.

And while that figure may seem absolutely confounding, what's even more alarming is how rapidly the US government is racking up this debt.

In fact, for the 2016 fiscal year that ends in just ten more days, the US government's debt growth of $1.36 trillion is on track to be the third biggest annual increase ever.

The only two years in all of US history that posted higher US debt growth were 2010 and 2011- the peak of the financial crisis.

Even more acutely, last month the US federal debt grew by $151.5 billion.

Not counting the financial crisis, and a few anomalous months following a debt ceiling reset, August 2016 was the single biggest expansion of US debt EVER.

In other words, US federal debt is expanding at its fastest rate since the financial crisis, and one of the fastest rates in all of US history.
https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/us-federal-debt-expanding-at-fastest-rate-since-the-crisis-2-20238/

The financial crisis is years behind us. The economy is supposedly on solid footing. The government keeps gushing about how much tax revenue they're collecting.

Usually when government debt expands so rapidly it's because they're waging war, fighting a major recession, or financing some serious infrastructure projects.

But none of these things are happening.

Think about it - yesterday I told you that the debt is now $19.5 trillion. The debt hit $18.5 trillion in November of last year.........meaning that they added $1 trillion to the national debt in just 10 months.

What did you get for that $1 trillion? Did they defeat ISIS? Give everyone a massive tax rebate? Recapitalize all of their insolvent trust funds?

Nope. Nada. They made a trillion dollars vanish into thin air and have absolutely nothing to show for it.

That's because an absolutely astonishing level of spending (and waste) is built into the system now.

Just keeping the lights on, i.e. simply paying interest on the national debt, plus all the mandatory entitlement programs, burns through almost 100% of their tax revenue.

This means that they have to go into debt to finance nearly everything we think of as government, from fake airport security to the national parks to the Internal Revenue Service.

To be fair, this approach has worked well for years. The US government has had an ample supply of lenders willing to fund its largess.

But that pipeline of suckers will soon be running dry.

In fact, according to the Treasury Department's most recent data, two of America's biggest foreign lenders (China and Japan) are already cutting back on their $2.37 trillion of US debt.

Then there's the Federal Reserve, another one of the government's major lenders, which now owns $2.46 trillion of US debt.

This is up from just $479 billion right before the financial crisis blew up in 2008. So the Fed has expanded its Treasury holdings by 5-fold (not to mention its ownership of mortgage backed securities has exploded from $0 to $1.7 trillion over the same period..........)

But one of the Fed's major challenges is that they're nearly insolvent, with a razor-thin capital ratio of just 0.8%.

Simply put, if the Fed continues to conjure trillions of dollars out of thin air to feed the government's insatiable appetite for debt, they're risking a major currency crisis at a minimum.

That leaves Social Security, far and away the single largest owner of US Treasuries.

It's been a neat little scam for decades. Workers in the United States pay a portion of their paychecks to Medicare and Social Security, some of which ends up in the pockets of retirees each month.

The rest of that tax revenue (the "Social Security surplus") is loaned to the federal government.

Over the years, Social Security has loaned the government trillions of dollars, stockpiling entire warehouses full of IOUs from the Treasury Department.

But here's the thing - Social Security and Medicare are rapidly running out of money.

Each year in their annual reports, in fact, their respective boards of trustees describe the programs' financial woes in excruciating detail. They don't pull any punches.

The Trustees themselves explain that Social Security's two biggest trust funds will start running terminal deficits in 2020 until they are fully depleted 14 years later.
https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/the-us-government-is-about-to-lose-its-1-lender-20240/?inf_contact_key=aa373f2abb06bb5ef2a0b68da772fbc0627ebb01df5d711f75b85bfc8039b971
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I find this disgusting and worthy of firing a huge number of federal officials, elected, appointed and hired. There is no excuse for this travesty!!!! Were I to be this irresponsible, I would be in prison......and that's where a lot of DC people need to be RIGHT NOW!

Cmac

No body will ever be fired,run off,run out of office,or any thing ever resembleing any thing that would happen in the private sector!!in fact after the election they will get a raise if killery gets into office and you can bet the farm on it.

Tasine Loc: Southwest US

Oh, I believe you are right, particularly if the left wins this election (BTW, they do not "win" elections - they steal them). We could use a few honorable persons in office, but I can name only one or two that I THINK I can trust to do the right thing, the right thing being following the US Constitution and doing the jobs they swore they would do.

Weasel Loc: In the Great State Of Indiana!!

Very well put. Now as we watch the debates, where Hillary says she needs to spend money on International Security, Black Communities, more Study Groups,and so on. I have to say where has all the money spent over the last 8 years gone. We have been there and done that.
A lot of people have made a very, very, very good living in Washington over the last 10 years, and are now ready to move on. Just look at John Banher, our x-speaker of the house. Now the CEO. FOR REYNOLDS TOBACCO.
Yes we pay these people their salaries!

Tasine Loc: Southwest US

Every politician, when he speaks, should be talking about doing what makes America great - NOT what will bring in the votes due to hand-outs offered by said politicians.

maryla

I agree totally!! Time to replace the Congress in particular Mr. Ryan & Mr. McConnell. These guys, despite conservative pleas refuse to listen. They cave to Obama consistently!

lpnmajor Loc: Arkansas

Makes you wonder what happened to the 2014 "mandate" don't it? Folks called me an idiot or an ass, when I said it'd be business as usual, but I was content to wait for them to see for themselves - and here we are.

We spend millions to maintain buildings that aren't being used, while spending billions more on NEW buildings. We spend 10's of millions maintaining mothballed ships that can't be sailed anymore, planes that can't fly and other junk, while spending 100's of billions on new stuff. We pay Congressional staffs annual salaries for part time work, I mean, what do they do when their Congressman is in recess more than he is on the job?

We paid 600 million for planes in Afghanistan, that never flew and were scrapped for $10,000, as well as 25 million for a new Marine headquarters there, that no one will ever use. In short, the Federal Government wastes enough money daily, to fully fund Social Security and Medicare, but still insist that Americans getting THIER money BACK - is the problem - and too many Americans are so ill informed that they buy this bullshit.

Getting new management is useless, because there are no managers and haven't been for many years, there are only moochers and the biggest moochers are NOT on welfare - they are on the Federal payroll. I've been saying for years, that worlds largest welfare program - is the US Government. But those aholes would have us believe that WE are the problem.

Paybacktimeishere

Runaway Gov.'t gives us runaway debt.
Well, I wonder how much OBAMMY'S Slave, Museum will cost the taxpayer?
He spend's other people's money, like no
tomorrow, & The RINO, Cowardly, "Weasil's"
let him do whatever he want's. It should come
As no surprise, we already have The Holacaust,
Museum, among other's, next one will probably
be The Museum Of Transgendered, "freak's"&
The Gay, is the new normal, show place.
Maybe we could call it the Diversity, Multicultural Institute of Phony Victimhood.
Christianity & Morality, will just have to take
a backseat. The Left, has run amuck, & perhap's
in their galloping, wild, lunacy, will run into a
"Brick Wall", not a "Gas Chamber".

Comment Loc: California

IPN once in a while you display signs of sanity as with this piece.

Comment Loc: California

We have Democrats and the rest of congress, he RINOS are Democratic robots as evidenced by the history of congress over the past 60 years. Bill Clinton was impeached for sex with Monika an lying about it. Hillary stole property from the WH in 2000. She was forced to return it. She took public property and put it in her residence, then destroyed it and lied about it. Yet she gets a pass by he corruption of Democrats led by Hussein Obama. Every Cabinet head is corrupt in the Obama Adm. Homeland security giving citizenship to illegals who were set for deportation, working overtime to give citizenship to as many illegals as possible before Obummer is ejected from office. The IRS, the FBI. AND the list goes on and on.

currahee

The solution: nationalize the private central bank commonly known for the last 100 years known as the federal reserve. If we do this, then US citizen tax money will go toward paying for principle only currency. The printed IOU's, called fiat currency will eventually be eradicated and Congressmen will no longer be subordinate to private bankers. Patriotic American senators and congressmen have carried this torch for a long time. Hopefully, we can one day elect another president who will initiate a policy to do this. Our national debt is immoral and stands like beast that can never be conquered.

Tasine Loc: Southwest US

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So why hasn't Congress taken action LONG BEFORE NOW???? I say it is because they love not being the responsible party for our financial affairs as they are SUPPOSED TO BE. They can ALWAYS blame the Fed Reserve rather than take the responsibility that THEY OWN.

lpnmajor Loc: Arkansas

You know how this works; when something good happens, both party's try to take credit for it. When things are screwed up, both party's blame each other. When it become clear that only one party is responsible, someone else is still to blame, the FED, Russian agents, terrorists, the President.

There is one thing we can count on 100% of the time, no matter what party is in control of what, and that is - none of THEM are ever responsible for any crap that happens. 9 times out of 10 - they'll blame YOU.

Tasine Loc: Southwest US

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I totally agree! That is why I don't blame big pharma, big banking, Jews, this and that. I say the US government is the most dangerous enemy the American people currently have. It has the power to STOP ALL THE CRAP, but won't.

maryla

Congress did no cutting in the Continuing Resolution (CR) So money for Zika virus, lots for those ever-loving Refugees, Ted Cruz's bill on ICAN was not included, and the resolution only goes until 12-9-16, making lame duck Congress ever more possible.(meaning those voting on the bills basically have no accountability so if they're voted out, they still get to vote until they leave office)

It is Mitch McConnell and his RINO fears of standing up to Obama. The jackass should be removed, with Paul Ryan not too far behind. Congress doesn't care, not now not ever, if we swoon in debt up to our eyeballs!