Never Ending Undeclared War
from The Guardian UK on December 14, 2011:
Americans face Guantánamo detention after Obama climbdown
Defense funding bill allows American citizens to be arrested as terrorists on home soil and held indefinitely without trial.
Full Article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/15/americans-face-guantanamo-detention-obama
There are a few points that need to be highlighted. First, the war on terror will be a never ending war so this new power of detention will essentially be a permanent one. Second, the United States mainland has now been declared part of the battlefield and US citizens as potential combatants. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have always been sold under the idea of fighting the terrorists over there but now apparently the battle is coming here.
Patrick Henry in his famous “Give me liberty or give me death” speech asked, “Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging.” I encourage you to read the entire speech at
http://www.history.org/almanack/life/politics/giveme.cfm
I think it is now necessary to ask, where is the enemy in this land that requires the massive buildup of military infrastructure we are seeing ? Where is the enemy such that we need the military to be able to take people away from local law enforcement or the FBI into military detention?
Gentlemen, we are that enemy.
If this comes as a surprise to you, it should not. Who do you think gun control laws and TSA scans protect? Gun control laws take away your god given right to defend yourself putting weapons only in the hands of criminals and government, leaving you defenseless against both. Gun control laws protect criminals and the government, they make you completely dependent on government for protection and powerless against government when it becomes tyrannical. Airline security regulations gave us the situation where only the terrorists had weapons on 9/11.
We have accepted federal agents being able to X-Ray or grope search us before boarding a plane. We must give up our right to self defense to enter government buildings, school campuses or to travel between states. We accept having our emails and phone conversations being subject to government recording without having any probable cause. We accept being watched by security cameras as we drive and walk where we need to go. We accept having our financial records analyzed and our internet activity monitored.
What have we done to warrant this massive security and spy infrastructure?
The Washington talking heads will tell you that these measures are all aimed at Al-Qaeda and other extremists. It’s about fighting terrorism, stopping terrorists before they commit acts of terrorism. How many terrorists do you know of that have been caught by the TSA before they boarded a plane? If you can’t think of any it’s okay, they haven’t caught any.
If America were filled with Al-Qaeda terrorists determined to commit suicidal acts of terrorism why do you suppose they will try sneak past armed TSA agents and get on a plane? Why not just buy a few automatic weapons on the black market and head down to your local mall on a crowded December weekend? Why not get on a bus or train that has no security of any kind? Wouldn’t it hurt our way of life badly if people were suddenly scared to ride a bus or had to endure a TSA search every time they needed to do so?
If the outside world were similarly full of extremists hell bent on coming to America to commit acts of terrorism would it not make sense to secure our borders to control who enters the country? The paradox is overwhelming. On one hand we assume that everyone attempting to board an aircraft is a terrorist until proven otherwise but that everyone attempting to sneak across our border is a peaceful refugee. The 9/11 terrorists entered America by sneaking across our Northern border with Canada and yet nothing has been done to address this issue. Seventeen of the nineteen hijackers were of Saudi Arabian origin and yet that nation is immune to criticism. We have become accustom to logical questions being brandished as radical while illogical actions are the norm. Even if this new power of military detention only extends to those suspected of being a terrorist, what exactly determines suspicion of being a terrorist?
According to Senator Rand Paul, “There are laws on the books now that characterize who might be a terrorist: someone missing fingers on their hands is a suspect according to the department of justice. Someone who has guns, someone who has ammunition that is weatherproofed, someone who has more than seven days of food in their house can be considered a potential terrorist.”
You see, these hick state legislators continue to allow their citizens to own and carry guns so if we just classify gun owners as potential terrorists they might rethink owning that gun. Why would anyone but a terrorist want to have a weeks worth of food on hand. It’s not like a hurricane has ever trapped people in their homes for weeks at a time.
Did you know that local police departments across the country are being armed with surplus military equipment they simply have no use for under ordinary circumstances? Here’s an excerpt from an article at The Daily Beast, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/12/20/local-cops-ready-for-war-with-homeland-security-funded-military-weapons.html
North Dakota’s largest city has averaged fewer than two homicides a year since 2005, and there’s not been a single international terrorism prosecution in the last decade.
But that hasn’t stopped authorities in Fargo and its surrounding county from going on an $8 million buying spree to arm police officers with the sort of gear once reserved only for soldiers fighting foreign wars.
Every city squad car is equipped today with a military-style assault rifle, and officers can don Kevlar helmets able to withstand incoming fire from battlefield-grade ammunition. And for that epic confrontation—if it ever occurs—officers can now summon a new $256,643 armored truck, complete with a rotating turret. For now, though, the menacing truck is used mostly for training and appearances at the annual city picnic, where it’s been parked near the children’s bounce house.
It continues:
Like Fargo, thousands of other local police departments nationwide have been amassing stockpiles of military-style equipment in the name of homeland security, aided by more than $34 billion in federal grants since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The One Chart You Need to Understand
Of all the problems facing society,the declining ratio of retirees to workers is what you should be most concerned with. As you can see from the chart, this is a global problem that peaks in 25-30 years and the effects of which we are now only beginning to feel.
The problem is simple, retirees live off of the excess production of the current work force. Despite the fact that many retirees saved a large amount of money for retirement that money is in fact just paper IOUs that must be redeemed from the production of the present. Past retirees have been payed out from production ratios as high as 32 to 1 meaning there were 32 people working for every person retired. This meant that only a small percentage needed to be skimmed off of what was produced to supply the needs of retirees.
When the ratio gets down as low as 4 to 1 and 3 to 1, a very large percentage of what is produced needs to be redistributed to retirees to repay the debts they are owed. The Social Security trust fund consists entirely of US Treasury Bonds so converting those bonds to spendable cash requires selling new bonds. Where will the current work force come up with over four trillion dollars to repay the bonds that make up the Social Security trust fund?
The system is screwed up in that the way money is saved is not in something real or useful but is instead in glorified pieces of paper backed up by nothing but faith in the system. If there was a warehouse of food, gold or land backing up those debt notes then at least these assets could be sold or the commodities distributed to the owners of the bond. Unfortunately, there literally is nothing there backing up those bonds except the ability of the government to tax people in the future and sell more bonds to new people.
Can we possible tax people enough that 2-4 workers can supply each retiree’s benefits? It’s simply not possible.
The dream of a comfortable and worry free retirement will be shattered in the next decade. It is physically impossible for so few people to supply the food, energy and medical needs of so many while at the same time producing enough to supply themselves and their children. The idea that the government can simply print money to solve this problem ignores the fact that more money does not equal more production. Printing money will only make prices go higher forcing yet more money printing until the process ultimately burns out.
We have built this system of guaranteed lifestyles and amazing medical care while completely ignoring the very real math and resources problem we would eventually face. Real solutions need to be examined. They will be ugly, harsh solutions but pretending the problem does not exist will only make the eventual situation much worse. The more debt we accumulate and the more promises we make, the harder it will be to pull back to what the physical reality is.
It won’t be fair. Young workers will have to do more and ultimately have less. Retirees will have to accept reductions in benefits and working later in life. These are the only rational solutions to these physical and mathematical problems.
Others will propose excessive taxation and money printing along with complete government control of resources and benefits. This involves the complete loss of your liberty, government rationing of food and medicine, and ultimately a revolution against this system by the youth who bear its burden. War and poverty are also great ways to bring things back in balance and you are naive and ignorant of history if you do not believe that there are men planning this very thing.
I would rather see an honest explanation of the problem and a clear road map of the long hard solution. Like other challenges we have faced, we can overcome if given the chance.
Government needs to get out of the way, to stop killing production with environmental regulation, overly complex taxation and rules only giant teams of lawyers can understand. There is no way we can transform to a less energy dense green economy and sustain the massive retiree burden. Europe is the crystal ball for America to look into. Spain, the most green nation in Europe suffers under 21% unemployment, crushing debt and shrinking production.
Real solutions are need right now, not for marginal changes ten years from now but for immediate changes at all levels. I thought the Tea Party representatives would actually make real solutions their priority but it looks like getting reelected is their highest priority.
Payroll Tax Holiday
What an absolutely ridiculous name for the one year reduction in the Social Security tax rate. In case you didn’t know, one year ago congress and our President got together to extend the Bush era tax rates and added a 2% cut to what you pay in Social Security taxes. Of course, these geniuses made the rate cut be in effect for only this year so unless they act again to maintain the cut it will go back up by 2% on Jan 1, 2012.
It’s no coincidence that the measure of our national production (GDP) is on track to increase in 2011 vs 2010 by a bit less than 2%. The 2% reduction applied to everyone who gets a paycheck and the loss in tax revenue was papered over in a bigger deficit. It was another stimulus package of about 120 billion dollars that was pretty much just spent on stuff made in China or made up for the increase in gas prices.
With only a few weeks left in the year the political dimwits of the left and right are fighting over what they can attach to a bill to extend this rate cut for another year. The right wants the approval of an oil pipeline and the left wants a new tax on millionaires. I have yet to hear from either side a shred of intelligence to try and solve the problem at hand.
In the space of a few paragraphs and taking all of about 30 minutes of time I will put together a proposal that would help our economy and by my estimates have the support of 80%+ of the American people. You won’t see anything like this by our politicians because it would take away from them want they need most, something to fight about next year.
The first and most important aspect of this plan is that is is not temporary. It does not expire in a year, it is permanent meaning a new law would need to be passed for the tax rates to change. People would have a reasonable idea what the tax rates would be for the foreseeable future and a bit of certainty for a change.
Right now Social Security taxes are split two ways, the employee pays 4.2% of his gross earnings and the employer pays 6.2%. That will go back to 6.2% for both if nothing happens by Jan 1. Currently, you are only taxed on the first $110,100 which is about twice the median income of $50,000.
Instead of just letting the rate go back up to 6.2% on everyone why not leave the employee portion fixed at 4.2% but make changes to the amount of money that is taxable. Simply increase the taxable portion for the employee from twice the median income to four times, from around $110,000 to $220,000.
This will accomplish a few things. It will keep the amount that people making $110,000 or less make exactly what it is this year. For people making somewhat more than that it will begin to return the amount they pay closer to what it was in 2010. You would have to be making $162,000 a year before you paid the same amount in Social Security taxes as you did in 2010. For those making $220,000 and up, they would see an increase in Social Security taxes paid of $2,400 a year over what they paid in 2010, about a 1% or less tax on their total income. For people making between $162,000 – $220,00 they would see an increase of somewhere between $1 – $2,4000.
By only making the taxable amount increase apply to the employee it would not increase the per employee costs to businesses. For small and medium size businesses this would be the difference between being able to keep many people or being forced to lay them off. Businesses would be certain of what the tax cost per employee will be going forward allowing them to make better hiring decisions without the uncertainty of change hanging over them.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t see this type of change as a cure all for our economy and Social Security but it highlights the difference between our quick fix bought and sold politicians and what an informed person with a brain can come up with. There would be an negative economic impact as the people making more than $162,000 a year would have to pay more in Social Security taxes but the alternative is to simply add more money to our national debt which at some point is going to have very real negative effects. If we can’t agree to reform or eliminate Social Security (which I full support) then we have to be realistic about collecting enough money to pay for it. Social Security is going to collapse at some point and the real solution is going to be a much more difficult pill for Americans to swallow. Cutting Social Security tax rates last year, at exactly the point where the taxes being collected no longer covered the benefits being paid was a crazy idea done only to put lipstick on the dying pig that is our economy. It was a selfish act done for short term political gain that both sides are trying to take credit for and arguing to continue.
The proposal of another short term solution is just another way for politicians to score political points by getting something their base wants done by attaching it to this rate cut extension. It will give them a chance to do it all over again next year when the cut is set to expire only this time we will have the Bush era rates set to expire yet again in 2013.
This dog and pony show needs to stop and it needs to stop now. I thought the Tea Party was going to do something to put and end to it but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Newt Gingrich, are you kidding me? This is the Tea Party’s guy in 2012?
I hear things are nice in Poland this time of year.
End Corporate Taxes
With people out on the streets of every major city calling for the 1% to be forced to pay much higher taxes it may seem odd to be calling for the complete elimination of the corporate tax.
It makes absolutely no sense to tax a corporation. The largest cost to most corporations is their payroll and they already have to pay 8.2% of their employees salary to Social Security. The employees, who get all of their money from the revenue of the corporation then pay their 8.2% to Social Security, their Medicare withholding and their federal income taxes. At this point a significant portion of a corporations revenue has gone out the door to taxes.
Whatever profit is leftover is used for a number of purposes the largest of which is to pay the ridiculous 35% corporate tax rate. Many corporations take a large chunk of their profits and distribute them as dividends to stockholders who have to pay the 15% dividend tax rate. These dividends provide retirement income to millions of people and support the stock price of many corporations. If the corporation didn’t pay the 35% tax they would increase their dividend payouts which would be taxed at the 15% rate anyway.
The only way a company can grow, and as a side effect need to employ more people is to reinvest profits into expanding their current production or moving into new product areas. Profits earned by multinational corporations overseas are forced to stay overseas to prevent paying the 35% tax on the money. These companies end up expanding their facilities in other countries even if good opportunities exist here in the US. If there were no corporate taxes then surely companies would invest more money in new production here in the US. Having to pay 35% in taxes to bring overseas profits into the US surely sways the decision of where to expand to outside the country.
The US has lost a tremendous amount of manufacturing in the last 40 years and it should be obvious that our over the top high corporate tax rate is the primary reason. The solution should be clear to everyone, but our desire for fairness over reason is keeping us from doing what we need to. Emotion rather than economics are driving us to do more of what is killing production in the US instead of rolling back or eliminating the cause of our problems.
If corporate taxes are eliminated you will immediately see large increases in the amount of payroll withholding’s and taxes on dividends. Production will increase, prices will decrease and millions of jobs will have to be created. The desire to increase taxes on corporations is nothing but jealously and spite, a hatred of success. The people calling for these tax increases know it will hurt actual tax revenues and lead to more jobs being lost but its about fairness and nothing else. These are the real greedy people in our society. They see what others have earned and want it taken from them so they can be better off without having done anything to deserve that money.
They are on full display in a city near you.
The Consequence of Healthcare
The individual mandate clause of the health care overhaul law will go to the supreme court next year to decide its constitutionality. In reality, all that will be decided is whether a majority of the justices think the law is a good idea as they no longer even reference the constitution in their decisions.
If they decide that the mandate is constitutional it will forever change the nature of this country in a way most people don’t realize. It will set a precedence that will be used by future congresses to force things upon people they never thought possible. It will transform us from a free market republic to a fascist democracy.
For those who don’t know Fascism is the marriage of government and industry, the collusion of big government and big business. Today fascism has been re-branded as State Capitalism with the big example being China.
If the government can compel you by force to have to purchase a product from a private company in order to be a legal resident then there is nothing that they cannot make you do. Industry after industry will lobby congress making the argument that if people do not purchase their product it will be detrimental to everyone who does.
Once the mandate is deemed constitutional it will open the door of corporatism up wider than ever. The technology giants will throw their weight behind making the purchase of broadband mandatory and having the government provide it to all the poor people. The fitness industry will lobby to make gym memberships and even attendance mandatory as the health benefits are beyond question. The door to the Orwellian future of 1984 will be blown open.
Until now, the power of government has been limited to regulating how things are done or taxing economic activity when it occurs. The idea of forcing people to purchase something from a private company could not have even been imagined by our founders. It will criminalize NOT performing an act of economic activity between two private parties. Everyone will be able to make the argument to congress that not buying their product hurts society. Not even in the USSR was something so bold attempted by government.
People naturally brush off the slippery slope argument when it comes to government assuming new powers without the people explicitly granting them. Social Security got its foot in the door by only covering widows and taxing only the very rich. Today it consumes 16% of all payroll income and pays out nearly a trillion a year to everyone over 65. At the time it was widely accepted that such a program was unconstitutional but there was no one to bring a challenge against it due to its limited impact. Now that millions depend on it for their existence the chance of repealing it is practically zero.
Once government gets a new power to wield it is guaranteed they will find new ways to use it.
Greece Defaults…Now What?
The main criminals in charge finished their summit overnight and came up with a grand solution to Europe’s debt crisis. Here it is.
Every private holder of Greek debt will take a 50% loss on the value of their bonds.
This amounts to a loss of 100 billion Euros on the 200 billion Euros privately held. The additional 150 billion Euros held by the ECB and IMF will not take the 50% loss. How nice for them.
The banks and pension funds that own these bonds will be recapitalized by the governments of Europe so the end result is the Greek government gets to officially be forgiven 100 billion Euros to be assumed by other European nations.
The last time I checked the rest of Europe was also in debt up to their eyeballs with countries like Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland on the brink of default themselves. Where does the money come from to forgive Greece 100 billion Euros and not have the banks and pension funds that take these losses suffer the consequences?
Somewhere in Europe or maybe even here in America the digital printing presses are getting fired up. The effect of this announcement has been an across the board jump in the price of everything. Stocks, gold and commodities are all up big while bonds and the dollar are down. This is TARP Europe, the next bandaid on the global financial system.
Don’t believe for a second that anything has been fixed. The debt that has been defaulted on by Greece has really just been spread around the world to take the focus off of Greece.
If you are Italy or Spain today what exactly is the message to get from all this?
If you just get yourself so far gone that your country stands on the brink of collapse the rest of Europe will rush in and let you spread your misery equally around Europe. Why cut your spending or raise taxes when you can wait to be saved once you get to the edge of the cliff.
Greece was tiny with a debt of 350 billion, Italy and Spain are a trillion each. Spreading that kind of pain around will not go unnoticed, not that we don’t already have mobs in the streets of nearly every European capital.
If you haven’t prepared yourself for the eventual spiraling of this collapse then you have precious little time to do so. Paper assets will soon be only valuable as toilet paper which may become the most valuable paper you can get your hands on.
Gold, silver, food, water, guns and ammo. These will be the currency of the near future now that the Greek domino has fallen. Global socialism is about to fail in a way the world has never witnessed and yet this too shall pass.
Bottom Up, Top Down and Inside Out
Bottom up, top down then turn everything inside out. This isn’t the latest J-Lo dance step, it is the plan to transform the world, to remold it nearer to their heart’s desire.
I’m not surprised if you don’t know who the man speaking in this video is. Van Jones is the former Green Jobs Czar who mysteriously resigned in the middle of a holiday weekend back in 2009 after his radical past was exposed by the new media. He’s a self described communist revolutionary who believes in replacing our current system with an entirely new system of eco-socialism. Having such a man visit the White House should be a scandal of Watergate proportions but he was in fact recruited to work at the White House by Obama’s senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. Do some research on Van Jones and Valeria Jarrett and their role in the Obama White House.
The first clip is from the Glenn Beck show airing almost a year ago. At the time it was crazy to think that people would be rioting in the streets in major cities all across America but if you look at the news today you will find “Occupy Wall Street” rallies taking place all over the country. The press keeps saying these protests are grass roots and don’t have a coordinated message but nothing could be further from the truth.
The Occupy Wall Street protests are the bottom up movement being organized by those at the top. The radicals of the 1960’s have gone from fighting the man to being the man without changing their point of view. They still have the same goals as back then but now they are in power, now they call the shots. When the riots broke out in the 60’s the government cracked down to protect ordinary Americans and end the chaos but this time it will be different.
This time the government is organizing the protesters to help them grow large enough and to cause enough chaos that the average American is going to beg for something to be done. The former street radicals now in office organize with the labor unions, universities and various leftist organizations to fund and promote the street protests. They enlist as many useful idiots as possible to show up clueless as to why they are there but determined to affect change. The radicals at the top don’t care what happens to these people or what they want, it’s their agenda and they will do whatever it takes to bring about their fundamental transformation.
So once the protests reach the point where the government can no longer ignore the pleas of the citizens they will “begrudgingly” be forced to bring the top down, to clamp down with an iron fist to end the chaos. In this case, since those at the top are really one in the same with the street rioters they will also see the legitimacy of the protesters demands and agree to the needed reforms to help end the violence.
This is the trap, how they remold the world nearer to their heart’s desire. The coordinated message of these protests is “End Capitalism” and “Justice and Freedom for All”. Their list of demands includes a $20 an hour minimum wage for everyone whether you have a job or not. What they are demanding is not freedom or justice but in fact welfare and freedom from responsibility. What they in fact seek is the return of slavery to America. This time slavery will not be based on race but on ability, those with the ability to produce will become the slaves of the unable or unwilling masses. How else can you guarantee everyone a $20/hour living wage if their are not many slaves working to produce what they require.
From each according to his ability (Producers produce all that you can)
To each according to his need (Everyone makes the same, only what you need and nothing more)
This is the communist manifesto, the fundamental transformation, the hope and change of our generation. This will be the result of turning everything inside out after the bottom rises up forcing the top to come down and restore order. By this time next year the world will have been reshaped unless an unforeseen miracle takes place.
The Fabian Window shown below depicts the remoulding of the world nearer to the hearts desire that the Fabian Socialists and American Progressives seek. The world is being heated up like a piece of iron upon an anvil ready to be remoulded. Upon the shield is their emblem, the wolf in sheep’s clothing. They will hide their intentions to deceive the masses into supporting their humanitarian cause. They will tug at the world’s heart strings talking of injustice and poverty painting themselves as warriors for the people.
Wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Our Society as Forseen Decades Ago
From Atlas Shrugged —
“You honest men are such a problem and such a headache. But we knew you’d slip sooner or later—and this is just what we wanted.”
“You seem to be pleased about it.”
“Don’t I have good reason to be?”
“But, after all, I did break one of your laws.”
“Well, what do you think they’re for?”
Dr. Ferris did not notice the sudden look on Rearden’s face, the look of a man hit by the first vision of that which he had sought to see.
Dr. Ferris was past the stage of seeing; he was intent upon delivering the last blows to an animal caught in a trap.
“Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against—then you’ll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We’re after power and we mean it.
You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you’d better get wise to it.
There’s no way to rule innocent men.
The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals.
Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.
Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone?
But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted—and you create a nation of law-breakers—and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”
If you haven’t read this book then you should do so as soon as possible. Hayek stated in The Road to Serfdom that government attracts the worst kind of individuals, those who seek power over others and to profit from their position. Ayn Rand brought this concept to life in Atlas Shrugged and it has taken many decades but her vision is now becoming reality.
The only kind of laws being created these days are those that “can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted”. The Patriot, Health Care and Financial Reform Acts are each shining examples of this philosophy. Thousands of pages long, written in the worst kind of legalese and creating hundreds of new agencies that will, after the fact determine what is and isn’t legal. The laws themselves declare very little explicitly illegal, they leave that up to regulators to be named later, men who will be lobbied by corporations and special interests to craft the rules to their benefit.
The socialists cry that the free market has failed, that people are too greedy to be left unregulated. I ask, what free market? There hasn’t been a free market in Western civilization in a century.
How about the supposed free market in housing that socialist claim ruined our economy. The government lowers interest rates to practically nothing and creates corporations that guarantee home loans with the full force of the Federal government. They mandate that banks lower lending requirements to let people with no savings and little income qualify for huge loans. The government guarantees to backstop the loans that are nearly certain to fail eliminating all risk for the banks in order to get people buying homes.
Home prices rice rapidly due to the payments being small and no down payments being needed creating ever increasing demand. The governments response is to lower rates further and inflate the bubble even more.
Does this sound like a free market to you? In a free market their is no safety net for banks and there is also no mandate to give loans to unqualified people. In Canada they had neither of these things and while their real estate market dipped somewhat when ours did, NONE of their banks failed and their real estate market is now rising in value. They have a free real estate market there and the contrast could not be more clear.
The socialists are knowingly trying to paint the failure of their centrally planned markets as proof of the inferiority of capitalism. The reason we are in a global downturn is because globally we have been attempting to plan the economy. The normal market forces that we all understand so clearly in our daily lives are being distorted by global planners. Why is there a World Bank? Who authorized our government to be part of it? Did you even know such a thing exists?
We have been creating an ever more complex plan for our economy with each passing year with the result always being the same; crisis. Just once, I would like to see someone say that maybe what we need to do is plan less, simplify. Rather than give government more control to solve a crisis caused by government we should take away control and see what happens. Look for the people who scream about the end of the world when you mention this idea and you will know who benefits most from the corruption.
Socialism is for the socialists, not the people. It allows the socialists to enjoy life without having to deal with all those ordinary people clogging up the roads and praying to their gods.
Entitled to Bankruptcy
Social Security and Medicare
There are three questions regarding Social Security and Medicare that I would like to address. I doubt you’ll find honest answers to these questions from any of our politicians.
Are these programs legal under our Federal constitution?
Are these programs moral?
Are these programs fundamentally bankrupt?
The question of whether something is or isn’t constitutional is actually very simple but is always complicated by supreme court decisions and moral justifications. Like many federal programs we have today, Social Security was born from a crisis, the crisis being the great depression. When people are starving they tend not to care about what is or isn’t constitutional.
Those who seek to enact unconstitutional programs see a crisis as an opportunity for an emergency measure to deal with the problem. Once enacted the program is rarely if ever repealed.
There is no doubt that our constitution in no way authorizes the Federal government to provide income or medical insurance. Article 1, Section 8 of the constitution clearly lists what the Federal government is allowed to make laws regarding which leaves all other powers to the people and the states. The politicians know this, the supreme court justices know this but it is such a check on their power that they choose to ignore it. Our system is such that it is very hard to get something declared unconstitutional once it has been passed especially if it benefits a large group of voters. Our system needs our politicians and judges to be moral people who seek their positions to serve rather than profit. We know this is no longer the case.
So the short answer is no, these wealth transfer programs based on age are not legal under our system. The states could legally implement them if their constitutions allow it but the federal government has no authority whatsoever to run these programs.
The question of the morality of these programs may seem complicated but in reality is very simple. How does an individual turning 65 cause me to somehow become indebted to them? If my neighbor on his 65th birthday were to knock on my door and demand his first monthly payment and to inform me of my responsibility to pay him every month until he dies would it be legal? If he did so pointing a gun at my head threatening to throw my family on the street would it be legal? You would of course answer no to these questions.
What does Social Security and Medicare do but authorize government to seize my income for the sole purpose of giving it to someone else. It allows this same person to do exactly what was described above except that the government does it for him. If I don’t pay I’m subject to arrest at the point of a gun and seizure of my property. In other words, these programs allow the government to legally steal money from one group of people and give it to another group. We now have to make the choice between obeying the law and doing what’s right.
Any program that uses the violent force of government to provide income to chosen groups is legalized theft, and last I checked theft was immoral. Argue this any way you like but in the end you cannot define what the origin of my debt is to the senior receiving benefits. If I crash into your car or break a window on your home then I am indebted to you for that action. If a group of people get together and decide that other people should be taxed and that money given to a third party then I become indebted without cause. This is why our constitution did not grant this power to government. In a Democracy (which we are not), the will of the majority decides all. In a constitutional Republic, the majority decides yes or no within the limited powers of the government unless a super majority amends that constitution to grant it new powers.
Now you may argue that all that these programs due is give people back the money they paid in throughout their lives. In the case of Social Security, not having payed in does not mean you will not receive benefits. Also, if that were true then the system would be able to continue paying everyone currently on it even if it were ended for younger people. The truth is that without young people paying into the system now there would be no money to pay the people receiving benefits. The first people to receive benefits payed little or nothing into the system. As others have stated, this is a pyramid scheme that those who get in early benefit from and eventually a large group of people lose everything they’ve put in.
For Medicare, this argument is a total falsehood. While you do in fact pay into Medicare your entire working life once again it is not a requirement to receive benefits. The amount of money each person contributes doesn’t even come close to paying for the benefits you’ll receive. In fact, what Medicare collects in payroll taxes only covers about 60% of its expenses and it is rapidly getting worse. So what’s happening is general tax revenue that is supposed to be used to fund the legitimate functions of government is going to cover these broken wealth redistribution schemes.
Social Security $718 billion
Medicare/Medicaid $818 billion
Interest on Debt $213 billion
Tax Revenues $2,272 billion
The financial state of these programs is a simple thing to determine and once we do so it will become clear how even the most radical plan being proposed is doomed to failure. Taking today’s figures from usdebtclock.org for September 15, 2011 the cost of Social Security is 718 billion, Medicare/Medicaid 818 billion and total tax revenues are 2,272 billion dollars. When combined these two programs consume 1.436 trillion of 2.272 trillion, which ends up being 63.2% of all tax revenues. If you add in the 213 billion in interest on our existing debt you end up with 72.6% of tax revenues or almost three quarters of all money the government takes in.
As stated in an earlier post we are adding 10,000 people to the roles of Social Security and Medicare every single day or more than 3.5 million people every year. With medical care expenses growing faster than anything but college tuition costs it is reasonable to expect the cost of Medicare to continue growing rapidly. Social Security benefits are also tied to inflation and as their payments have not been increased in the last few years they are sure to be going up with the undeniable inflation happening lately. The interest on our debt is currently manageable due to the fact that the interest rate on our debt is sitting at an all time historical low. At best, we can only hope to maintain this rate but seeing as how we are adding roughly 10% of our GDP to our debt each year the interest payment has to rise by a similar percentage.
When put together, these three factors all point to the fact that within a few years Social Security, Medicare and interest payments on existing debt will consume every dollar the government takes in. Every single politician who has mentioned reforming these programs has clearly stated that any changes would not effect current recipients or people close to retirement. In other words, nobody is proposing to do anything to address the predictable bankruptcy state we will soon be in.
Changes that take effect ten years from now are meaningless if the system will collapse before 2015. If , as I estimate, by 2015 nearly every dollar taken in is transferred to seniors and interest payments, how will we pay for the trillions of dollars of other things our government does?
Imagine a company that had every single dollar in revenue it took in taken up by retiree pension and health care expenses. Would they be able to borrow the money to pay for all their employee salaries, buildings, utilities and raw materials? No bank on earth would loan them money.
America, we are this company. The only difference between us and this company is that we are in the business of making money and so we don’t need a bank to lend us the money. We can simply order the money be created and like magic the government has the money it needs. Sure the price of gold, oil and food are rising out of control but we have food stamps and public transportation to help poor people.
Back to the question at hand. The answer is clearly yes that these programs and by extension our nation are bankrupt. If you take away the emotion and political toxicity of these programs the solution would be clear to anyone with any financial sense.
Anyone currently receiving Social Security needs to have their benefit payment reduced immediately. The retirement age needs to be immediately raised by at least 5 years taking the minimum age to 67 and the standard age to 70. The same thing is true for Medicare. The payment percentage needs to be lowered from 80% to something realistic and the payments for routine care needs to be eliminated. Everyone goes to the doctor a handful of times a year for routine medical needs. This is not the purpose of insurance and by making it essentially free it encourages abuse and fraud.
This would encourage people to seek out the best value in medical care and allow doctors to compete on cost and service. The cost of medical care would drop dramatically once the insurance companies got out of the medical maintenance business. It would give individuals an incentive to be healthier and to only use medical services when truly necessary. If you are paying you will seek out the best value and only go when necessary. If someone else is paying the mindset becomes “Well I might as well go as it’s already payed for”.
What you have to understand is that these programs were sold as safety nets for the small number of seniors that lived past their expected age and ran out of money. Sixty-five was chosen as the age because that was the average life expectancy at the time. You were supposed to die before you qualified for Social Security. Today, life expectancy has thankfully risen to around 80 years old but Social Security has remained unchanged. The only changes that have been made have been to make many more people qualify for it than it was intended for. What was sold to America as a way to protect the most vulnerable was slowly transformed into a Socialist institution that has nearly a quarter of the population dependent on it.
While you may think that this is a cruel position to take against our nations seniors nothing could be farther from the truth. Unless these drastic changes are made to get the benefits in line with the money available, these programs will completely collapse in short order. Seniors will go from full income and medical benefits to nothing, practically overnight.
These changes will allow those currently relying on these benefits to continue to get by and will serve notice to the younger generation that they need to plan on being able to support themselves in their senior years.
These programs are also going to come under extreme financial distress very soon due to the expansion of Medicare eligibility done under Obamacare. The continuation of 99 weeks worth of extended unemployment is like an expansion of Social Security that will just quicken the entire bankruptcy process. Socialism only works until you run out of other people’s money to spend and that end is rapidly approaching.
The Bipartisan Plan For Our Future
The left and right sides of the political spectrum are going to come together on a plan that will satisfy the desires of both sides. Now understand, when I talk about the left and right I’m talking about the political power brokers of the Democrats and Republicans and not the typical man on the street.
Let’s identify the main desires of big government left and right and then we can look at how this plan satisfies both sides.
The Left
- Large scale reduction of fossil fuel use for environmental reasons and for profiting the green energy companies that support them.
- Reduced total industrial output for environmental reasons.
- Increased control over the mobility and location of ordinary people.
- Increased dependence on government subsidies for food, energy and income.
The Right
- Continued growth in military spending.
- Reduced dependence on foreign oil or increased control of foreign resources.
- Increase profits for energy companies and chosen corporations.
- Increased control over use of resources by average people.
- Increased dependence on military and contractors for jobs.
- Promotion of their religious ideas.
The only plan that can satisfy both sides of the political spectrum is war in the Middle East, specifically with Iran. The setup for this war is as obvious as any we have ever seen and should be so clear to anyone who paid attention to the buildup to war with Iraq. This war has the potential to drag in countries like China and Russia who have large investments in Iranian energy and can ill afford to have their supply cut off.
Right now we have people on the left arguing for the “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine adopted by the UN making it our obligation to intervene in cases of genocide. It’s why we’re fighting in Libya and soon will be in other places. The anti war left have found a way to morally justify war as a humanitarian effort, amazing.
On the right we have a consistent drum beat being pounded out about the world ending danger of a soon to be nuclear armed Iran. From the talk radio pundits to the Presidential hopefuls we find a constant repetition of the pro war talking points.
My friends, this is a story that the promoters of big government have been putting forward since the arguments were being made for adoption of the constitution. For nearly 250 years they have been using the phantom menace of impending war as justification for more centralized control and ever greater security powers. Before the constitution was ratified we were told that without the new powerful central government that the Indian tribes would overrun the individual states or we would be unable to repel an invasion by the Dutch. That’s no joke, the Dutch.
We had to go to war in Vietnam and Korea or the communists would show up Red Dawn style. We had to liberate our current friends (the Kuwaitis) from our old friends (the Iraqis) to protect freedom (not oil). We had to bomb caves and mud huts in Afghanistan to be safe from terrorism. We had to wipe out all of Iraq to be safe from Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.
Don’t misunderstand me on this. What happened on 9/11 required a response and what should have happened is congress should have declared war with Afghanistan and we should have put half a million soldiers on the ground there. That war should have been won in a year or less and should be nothing more than a distant memory by now. The fact that we still have nearly 200,00o troops combined in Afghanistan and Iraq a decade later is a disgrace. It proves how these wars are nothing but cash cows for the military contractors and other chosen corporations.
The amount of money spent and the amount of your liberty lost in fighting these phantom menaces is staggering. We currently spend 43% of all the military spending on planet earth. As only 5% of the world’s population does this make any sense? It is even crazier when you consider that a large portion of the rest of the world’s military spending is done by our allies. How in the world could a reasonable person be convinced that a tiny country like Iran could pose a serious military threat to the United States that warrants a preemptive war against that country?
If we reduced our spending from 43% to 20% of the world’s total would that make us so weak that China or Russia would decide we are an easy target to conquer? We are protected by thousands of miles of ocean on both sides and bordered by military allies in Canada to our North and Mexico to our South. We have a police force in New York city that has as many men as the entire military of Afghanistan (50,000), and is probably better armed. We have a population that has more than one gun per person with some places like Texas having nearly eight guns per person. If you managed to defeat the most high powered military on the planet and our continental allies you would still have to contend with a fully armed citizen militia.
I hope you’ve gotten the point. Even if we spent a third of what we spend now we would still be the most secure nation on earth. Despite this obvious point and a history of making this same mistake over and over we will again go to war.
A war with Iran will immediately satisfy the top desires of the left and right. Our supply of oil will be instantly cut in half sending the price of a barrel to unimaginable levels. In the name of patriotism many Americans will gladly volunteer to reduced energy usage of all kinds and will run out to buy what will then be heavily subsidized electric cars. Due to the limited range of these cars on a single charge many people will be forced to relocate closer to work or to switch to public transportation. Energy subsidies will be needed by millions of Americans in order to afford gas and heat for their homes. Millions more will need food subsidies due to dramatic rise in food costs that will be brought about by higher energy prices. Through war, the left will achieve what they have been unable to do through legislation.
The right will see a dramatic increase in military spending to fund the war along with a massive increase in profits for energy companies. Remember, America still produces about 8 million barrels of oil a day to satisfy our 18 million barrels a day need. If the price of a barrel goes from $90 to $300 the profits made on those 8 million barrels will be immense. It won’t cost them a dime more to get those 8 million barrels out of the ground except of course in taxes which they will gladly pay. They also benefit as due to the national emergency new areas of oil exploration will be opened that are currently off limits.
The additional energy that will be needed to charge the millions of new electric cars will have to come from somewhere. This is were the energy companies benefit. The only real sources of energy available to supply that quantity of electricity are natural gas and coal. Both of these are available in tremendous quantities here in America and in the case of natural gas is currently sitting at a very low price. The shift from gasoline to electricity powering cars would really shift us from gasoline to natural gas causing both the price and quantity sold to go way up. There is no doubt that we will also see a huge amount of money go into solar and wind energy but as we have seen, the real output of these sources will be nothing more than a statistical blip despite the vast cost. The green energy companies will benefit either way so once again the war is a winner for both the left and right wing corporations.
This is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of new controls that will be placed upon you from both the left and right. You only need to go back and look at the incredible trampling of liberty that took place during times of war and how many of those policies stayed in place after the war was over. Price controls, rationing and internment are all part of our war time history and will be yet again.
Wars and rumors of wars, it’s how those who seek power and control have always achieved their greatest victories. Their victory is at the expense of liberty and the elimination of the individual’s ability to seek prosperity. Peace and prosperity come hand in hand with liberty while war always brings control and oppression with a good dose of poverty. The commanders of the war machine and the administrators of the welfare state will together profit from our loss.
Wyatt's Torch 