Despite government preferences to the contrary, it would seem that the public is awakening to the undeniable fact that the U.S. economy is in shambles and this trend is forcing many to become quite familiar an entirely new reality:
- The economic crisis is politically driven. And,
- The politically driven have no idea how to undo what they have done.
For Americans to arrive at a viable solution they must first understand the nature of the system as it is and both how it evolved and why it fails so efficiently. The 2nd Edition of the three-volume Series entitled Blind Vision addresses each of these points with deliberate and surgical precision and as one might predictably expect, I suggest you read and study each of them as part of your personal desire to expand your cognitive facilities.
How or in whatever way one chooses to characterize the issues this country faces the fact remains that formulating an effective response will require a potent level of competent discourse the likes of which most Americans are simply unaccustomed to receiving. Unknowingly, due in large part to the absence of disciplined action which might otherwise provide folks with the relevant value of optional or contrasting perspectives, the public has only the actions of the Morbidly Inept from which to Barter and let’s be perfectly honest with one another, this is not what I would call an enticing buffet of clarity from which one might be compelled to dine and from this, we do indeed get the very best of the worst possible choices!
Case in point is to consider an event from this past week where several political and economic notables gathered for a face-to-face with would-be voters. First in the cue was Arizona Senator, John Kyl who was asked a fairly straight forward question; “…why should we trust the Republican approach to the budget?” Here are a few of the key points I’ve extracted from his response:
“We’ve got a big problem. Politicians are not being straight with the American people. Our government is broke…we’ve got to borrow forty-two cents of every dollar government spends…the economy is in the tank. I think the way to prosperity is to stop wasteful Washington spending….”
When asked by host Frank Luntz as to the exact turnaround strategy he would propose, the Senator offered the following response:
“Two things…the economy has to get better…(and) we need to work together so that the economy can recover.”
This is an active U.S. Senator who is also the “minority whip” for his party and presently holds a position on the very commission whose purposes is to chart a course for dealing with the federal debt and the longsuffering U.S. Economy. This may be a stretch but I must convey to you all that I find his comments not only typical for the political-regime mentality but universally feckless as well. True as it is that this comment is not necessarily intended to bludgeon the Senator personally and after all I did say it is a relatively universal state of mind however; is it unreasonable to expect that an individual of his standing should possess a higher degree of discernment than his comments might otherwise suggests? Whatever the case, his response is nonetheless typical of a politician’s testamentary deference toward a People who’ve been conditioned to accept philosophical mediocrity as a functional form of government.
“When crisis surrounds there is no value in offering the lie you want me to hear, the true value exists only in truth and that is what I need to know!”
As I continue my as-promised weekly series offering commentary relating to viable solutions for staging a national recovery, this week’s offering will be directed toward two key issues: Budget Deficit and Debt Ceiling. I will not attempt to present a comprehensive treatise I will instead focus only upon issues that are most important and covered least by most outlets. OnPoint fuel and associate commentary are as follows:
Budget Deficit:
- The Budget Deficit and Debt Ceiling issues are classically political by nature and subjects which only see the light of day when there is political chortling and advantage to be gained. Despite the present appearance of urgency I am of the opinion that the only reason they achieve the present level of attention is more likely related to a much greater plan whose intentions are one final push of the American System into the firm grip of the global banking regime. We are fast approaching the point of no return and heightened tensions are strategically useful in the process of accomplishing this ultimate ambition.
Comment: The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 automatically obligates the U.S. Government to any/all debt it creates and the moment Congress passes and the President signs a spending bill, the cycle is perfected with or without an approved debt-ceiling increase.
- The fact that the Deficit, and for that matter the size of the Budget when taken as a whole, exists in the extreme as it does is a testament to the dysfunction of the processes of government (Federal, State and Local) each of which have disfigured their fundamental role.
Comment: There is no fixing the problem without first addressing its cause and unless and until the public demands a structural repair to a politically motivated problem within twenty-four to thirty-six months, this nation will be unrecoverable for generations to come. Any move toward global debt consolidation will be proof of this statement and these efforts are well underway. (See: Frank-Dodd Bill and Anti-IMF Bailout Amendment)
- The problem with attempting to resolve the Deficit is akin to believing you can stay dry in a monsoon by stepping between drops of rain. A surgical response is completely irrelevant, what is required is a structural reformulation.
Comment: The U.S. Monetary Policy is built upon a Debt-Funded Wealth Model which intimates two distinct requirements: Perpetual Inflation and Debt-Funded Wealth Creation versus True Wealth Created by productive output of Transferable/Marketable Fungibles. It is important to grasp this critical point primarily for one simple reason: absent true wealth creation the only way one is able to pay off or settle debt is to create more debt and this reality (along with accruing interest) is why the current system is dysfunctional and why it can never be financially resolved. EVER! You might find it interesting to know that Global Government debt is nearing $40 Trillion (growing daily at $226 million just on interest accruals alone) 2/3rds of which is the U.S. and the E.U. If one considers that the current Productive Output of the U.S. Economy is a scant $3.3 Trillion, it should be clear to all that the comparison is less than inspiring.
Debt Ceiling:
- One of the single most sinister comments being offered on this subject is the U.S. will lose its AAA Credit rating if the ‘limit’ is not raised obfuscation.
Comment: The irony is that if we consider the financial health of the U.S. Monetary System alone then one should wonder as to the validity of a rating system that failed to downgraded U.S. creditworthiness in 1971 when the Nixon Administration removed gold settlement standards (a de facto default) on international obligations. Strange as well is that the Rating Agencies where quite inconspicuous in the arena of dubious financial market activities which triggered the so-called financial crisis of 2008 and which persist. The use of the movie-house-fire alarm approach is simply another mechanism of the global banking regime to force the U.S. toward systemic financial capitulation.
- I believe the most stunning acts of defiance would simply be to not raise the Debt Ceiling at all. I would go so far as to propose legislation that freezes the ceiling in perpetuity. As the Federal Reserve owns 51% of the Public Debt, why not simply cancel this component of the $14.3 Trillion portfolio? After all, haven’t we been told that it is money we owe to ourselves? Strange how deception turns against itself.
Comment: The only reason why the monetary policy persists as it does is due largely because the public and to an even greater extent, the politicians, have been told that there is no other choice and I whole heartedly disagree. It is true that the political process has happily conformed to the wholesale disembowelment of the U.S. Economy (by design) and having done so effectively boxed the American System in to a most unfortunate corner however; one should have little faith that government will muster the political courage required for challenging the Global Banking Regime.
- Tying the Debt Ceiling issue to Government Spending and/or Budget Plans such as the Ryan Plan is for the most part a strategic failure in understanding market-based economics, the government entitlement/budgetary system and the metrics of both components. As mentioned above, the Budget and Debt Ceiling issues originate because of a failure of government policy and not on the metrics of market-based economics. In fact, it is the former (the government) that has disabled the latter and not the reverse. I commend the theoretical intention of Congressmen Ryan however to attempt to compose a remedy through the very mechanism that has created the problem is nothing short of a comedic-tragedy.
Comment: With an economy in a sure free-fall and along with it the projected revenue streams, for one to even consider projecting a budget remedy of this magnitude and under these circumstances is purely pyrrhic in nature. With each successive attempt at bridging the gap between expected revenues and projected outlays, the distance between the two grows exponentially. This is precisely why it is a mathematically unsustainable system and not solvable in the present regime of thought and practice.
Do consider that there are two distinct components to the discussion of Deficit and Debt Ceiling issues; one is a political component and the other is a structural component and I assure you there are no painless ways to address either. Though try as they might, these simply cannot be dealt with as separate issues, they can only be dealt with (effectively) unilaterally. The structural component mostly deals with tax regulations and economic reformulation and I will address each of these in series.
Within the politically structural component lies the entitlement narrative which is a perpetually explosive economic burden and purely political in its origins and economic unsustainability. To resolve the issue of unsustainability in both Debt Ceiling and Budget issues the political regime that supports their existence is going to have to get real and so will the entitlement-addicted public.
The truth of the matter is that Social Security (by 1958), Medicaid, Medicare and the recent buffoonery that is ObamaCare where never economically viable and have historically enjoyed the appearance of sustainability largely from creative accounting and budgetary mechanisms. To believe they can be repaired is to ignore the inherent defects in their design and operational mandate as well as their management and funding routines. The same belief that suggests you can debt-spend a nation in to economic prosperity is the very same Achilles Heel metaphor applying to all government sponsored entitlement programs; you cannot fund success with a flawed routine particularly when its government managed and the reason for this is simply because government programs possess no native operational efficiency mandate primarily because there is no price for failure. If one doubt the authenticity of this statement then I challenge one to name a successful self-sustaining government program.
What are the fixes for the Debt Ceiling and Budgetary Boondoggle? Here are a few to consider:
- Ideally, prevent government from borrowing except for in the case of national emergency. At the very least, limit spending to actual revenue generation and prohibit funding and program/benefits distributions based on projections.
- Ideally, prohibit government management of programs with revenue collection features as well as those with distributive benefits. Rescind all Prevailing Wage Laws and encourage the States to do the same as well. Disarm the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by removing from it all enforcement facilities and mandate Right to Work mechanisms at the Federal level and encourage the States as well to do the same. Most Politicians are far too vulnerable to be capable of avoiding the temptation of using benefit/entitlement programs as vote capturing mechanisms and as in the case with the major entitlement programs, the funds collected for these programs are far too easily redirected to other programs.
- Cancel the Medicaid/Medicare programs and consolidate all Federal programs in to a market-driven program not unlike those discussed in Volume III of the Blind-Vision Series: Valor in Prosperity. This one single program is supremely elegant in its design and efficiency and proven near fail-safe in form and function. Again, there is no fixing a flawed system by tinkering with its systemic failure.
- Transfer the Social Security System and all government-run benefits programs (encouraging the States to do the same as well) out of direct government management using the mechanism as prescribed in Volume III: Valor in Prosperity. A remarkably intuitive system with cross-benefits aimed directly at resuscitating the U.S. Economy. As in the case with Medicaid/Medicare as well as all other government programs, the absence of economic efficiency mandate as well as a complete disconnect between contributions made and benefits received (often thought of as defined benefit programs) is the very reason why these programs are irreconcilable; absurd promises have been made far in excess of the resources provided and/or available to fund them and the arrogance on the part of the public possessing these expectations has been exceeded only by the ignorance and hubris of the politicians who’ve offered and/or endorsed the very same accommodations which made their existence possible.
- The Federal Reserve is going to have to be completely reorganized and among the most critical of the reorganizational mandates must, at the very minimum, possess the following: (1.) Remove “agent of the government” status. (2.) Limit actions to Banking System Management only. (3.) Contain Monetary Policy decisions and actions to direct government oversight and approval. (4.) Rescind Frank-Dodd Bill and all prior legislative actions that have either altered or disabled the Glass-Steagall Act. Confine Banking to the business of banking, Financial Services to the function of financial markets and enforce strict and punitive prohibitions for reckless and predatory practices. And lastly for our purposes herein, (5.) Tie currency creation directly to measured productive economic output. By now we should clearly be able to see what out-of-control monetary policy has done to a vital economic structure.
- Rescind all Trade Agreements. I find it defiantly characteristic of the Bartering with the Morbidly Inept notion that the Federal Government actually believes that Free-Trade can actually exist in an environment such as the one we find ourselves in; an economic system that has nothing of value equal to the dollar value of the commodities we import. For those who will suggest that this is protectionism my answer is: Absolutely! What greater purpose can there be for government than to protect your sovereign rights and economic interest? To consider otherwise is simply to sustain further degradation of the American economic system; what little there is left of it. The term protectionism is only used as a defense for sustaining ignorance or a position adverse to your sovereign rights and one has only to look at the WTO/GATT/NAFTA/CAFTA legislative process and subsequent domestic economic predation they’ve each fostered to find support for my comments.
- Federal and State Debt is not, necessarily, the huge problem it may appear to be if the issues previously referenced are resolved favorably. If the Federal Reserve, the Financial Services Industry and the Banking System are restored as suggested we can easily extinguish 53% of the Public Debt. Another 26% is owned by Foreign Central Banks and this debt can simply be exchanged for that which the Federal Reserve possesses specific to these very entities. The remaining 21% can then be easily managed, again, if the recommendations above are pursued.
In the end all of these comments are offered for the sole purpose of providing the American Public with discussion points that are not commonly offered and the reason for this is largely the result of political ineptitude and the greater likelihood that the system prefers to perpetuate the myth that you and your nation cannot exist without their preferred methods. I of course will tend to disagree and so should you. Moreover, when you find yourself in contact with folks who tend toward the status-quo or the politically inept response, please do challenge them. Force them to give specific and structurally sound responses. Then and only then will you know if they competent and/or suitably equipped to address the tasks at hand.
This is a very serious time in our Nation’s history and we need serious people capable of redirecting our present course toward one that is in line with our sovereign heritage and supportive of your inalienable rights.
“To remain silent and passive does not serve the processes required to protect and preserve a cause worth perfecting!”
Express your influence by equipping yourself with knowledge and a willingness to be a part of the process of reclaiming your sovereign rights. The beauty of truth is that it is unassailable and when armed with its attributes you are unstoppable when Bartering with the Morbidly Inept. Absent the ability to identify ineptness the public too often trends toward believing what they are being told and as you are discovering;
“Politicians will tell you whatever they deem necessary so long as they never have to account for what they say!”
The time for their method of accounting is over and the price for providing politicians perpetual employment is, like their programs, unsustainable. Have you had enough? I surely hope so!
If you want to hold office in this Country then you must walk the right walk and do the right thing none of which has anything to do with what side of the isle you’re on or what State you’re from; the American Ideal is what binds the Federal Government to the State Governments and the State Governments to the Consenting Governed. You may want to achieve this through a Political Process but the outcome must never be one that is politically motivated. In the instances where political motives prevail, you get what we’ve got; a form of governance that is singularly politically motivated and singular in its purpose to preserve the Morbidly Inept!
“Every nation is liable to be under whatever bubble, design, or delusion may puff up in moments when off their guard.” T. Jefferson
Curtis C. Greco, Founder
