Quote:Spending America Into Ruin

by Eric Margolis

One of history’s most important lessons is that politicians should never be given a free hand to borrow money to cover the costs of wars, overseas adventures, or military spending.

More empires have been brought down by reckless spending than by invaders. The late Soviet Union, which wrecked its economy by buying too many tanks, is the most recent example. Now, the United States appears headed in the same direction.

Even so, President Barack Obama calls the US $3.8 trillion budget he just sent to Congress a major step in restoring America’s economic health.

In fact, it’s another potent fix given to a sick patient deeply addicted to the dangerous drug of debt.

Washington’s deficit (the difference between spending and income from taxes) will reach a vertiginous $1.6 trillion this year. The huge sum will be borrowed, mostly from China and Japan, which the US already owes $1.5 trillion. The United States has put its fate in the hands of two nations who bear it little good will.

Debt service will cost Washington $250 billion, and may reach over a third of the total Federal budget within the next decade. Washington is still paying for past wars while considering starting a new one against Iran.

To understand the immensity of one trillion dollars, one would have had to start spending $1 million daily soon after Rome was founded and continue for 2,738 years until today.

Obama’s total proposed annual military budget is nearly $1 trillion. This includes Pentagon spending of $880 billion. Add secret "black programs" (about $70 billion); military aid to foreign nations like Egypt, Israel and Pakistan (including bribes); 225,000 military "contractors" (mercenaries and workers); and veteran’s costs. Add $75 billion (nearly 2.5 times France’s total defense budget) for 16 poorly functioning intelligence agencies with 200,000 employees who keep tripping over one another.

The Afghanistan and Iraq wars ($1 trillion so far) will cost $200–250 billion more this year, including hidden and indirect expenses. Obama’s Afghan "surge" of 30,000 new troops will cost an additional $33 billion – more than Germany’s total defense budget.

These figures do not account for wear and tear on US military equipment, costs of reconfiguring the US military to wage colonial wars in the Third World, or the cost of replacing worn-out equipment. Pentagon bookkeeping is about as flexible as Enron’s bookkeeping.

No wonder US defense stocks rose after Peace Laureate Obama’s "austerity" budget.

Military and intelligence spending relentlessly increase as the official unemployment figure hovers near 10% and the economy bleeds red ink. Some estimates put real unemployment at over 20%.

America has become the Sick Man of the Western World, an economic cripple like the defunct Ottoman Empire whose inept financial management was legendary.

The Pentagon colossus now accounts for half of total world military spending. Add America’s rich NATO allies and Japan, and the figure reaches 75%.

China and Russia combined spend only a paltry 10% of US on defense.

There are 750 US military bases in 50 nations and 255,000 service members stationed abroad, 116,000 in Europe, nearly 100,000 in Japan and South Korea. President George W. Bush doubled military spending – much of which accrues to Republican states – to wage his faux war on terror.

Military spending gobbles up 19% of federal spending and at least 44% of tax revenues. America is on a permanent war footing. Many Americans believe the president’s primary role is as a war leader rather than chief executive of the republic.

Like Bush, President Barack Obama is paying for America’s wars through supplemental authorizations – i.e. putting them on the nation’s already maxed-out credit card. Wage war now – pay later. Future generations will be stuck with the bill.

This presidential and congressional jiggery-pokery is the height of public dishonesty.

America’s wars ought to be paid for through taxes, not bookkeeping fraud. If US taxpayers had to actually pay for the Afghan and Iraq wars, these conflicts would end in short order.

America needs a fair, honest war tax. But hardly any politicians – save the courageous and honest Rep. Ron Paul – dare admit this hard truth.

The US has clearly reached the point of imperial overreach. Military spending and debt servicing are cannibalizing the US economy, the real basis of its world power. Besides the late USSR, the US also increasingly resembles the dying British Empire in 1945, crushed by immense debts incurred to wage WWII, unable to continue financing or defending the imperium, yet still imbued with imperial pretensions.

It is increasingly clear the president is either not in control of America’s runaway military juggernaut, or working with it.

Sixty years ago, the great President Dwight Eisenhower, whose portrait I keep by my desk, warned Americans to beware of the military-industrial complex. Six decades later, partisans of permanent war, fear-mongering, and world domination have joined Wall Street’s money lenders to put America into thrall.

Increasing numbers of Americans are rightly outraged and fearful of runaway deficits. But many do not understand their political leaders are also spending their nation into ruin through unnecessary foreign wars and a vainglorious attempt to control much of the globe – what neocons call "full spectrum dominance" – using the canard of terrorism to justify an imperial policy that often closely resembles that of the old British Empire.

If Obama were really serious about restoring America’s economic health, he would demand military spending be slashed, quickly end the Iraq and Afghan wars, and break up the nation’s five giant Frankenbanks that now control 40% of all deposits.

But the president won’t, of course, and neither will Congress. They would see the nation go over the financial falls rather than change course.

February 9, 2010

State governments are in debt too.

Vox Day has been said this is a harbringer of crisis. We shall see.

EVV-ERR-REE time I hear something about the:

*end of America,
*the death of America,
*the end of American power,
*spending America into ruin etc

I just see the ol' Uncle Sam muttering:

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"

Let me first say that I largely agree with the gist of the article. Government spending on socal programs, entitlements and the military-industrial complex is far, far too large.

But equating the American "empire" to the former British Empire (and USSR for that matter) isn't quite apples-to-apples, though the comparison is often made. America's presence in Germany and South Korea is fundamentally and obviously different than was Britain's India relationship.

But that's just a minor bone to pick. The article may or may not be on the alarmist side, but the core message is all too valid.

(02-09-2010 04:22 PM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  EVV-ERR-REE time I hear something about the:

*end of America,
*the death of America,
*the end of American power,
*spending America into ruin etc

I just see the ol' Uncle Sam muttering:

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"

You are way more optimistic than I am.

(02-09-2010 05:28 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(02-09-2010 04:22 PM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  EVV-ERR-REE time I hear something about the:

*end of America,
*the death of America,
*the end of American power,
*spending America into ruin etc

I just see the ol' Uncle Sam muttering:

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"

You are way more optimistic than I am.

Exactly.

Rome, Greece, the Persian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Ming Dynasty, etc., etc., etc., etc.

Yeah, no WAY can we end.

(02-09-2010 05:35 PM)Rebel Wrote:  

(02-09-2010 05:28 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(02-09-2010 04:22 PM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  EVV-ERR-REE time I hear something about the:

*end of America,
*the death of America,
*the end of American power,
*spending America into ruin etc

I just see the ol' Uncle Sam muttering:

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"

You are way more optimistic than I am.

Exactly.

Rome, Greece, the Persian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Ming Dynasty, etc., etc., etc., etc.

Yeah, no WAY can we end.

Roman Empire - 1500 years
Persian Empire - 220 years
Ottoman Empire - 650 years
Ming Dynasty - 276 years

Current "American Empire" 1940's to 2010 = 70 years.

Optimistic, yes. Partly because I've been around the world enough to know that there is probably no other country remotely capable of empire. The USA can lose a lot more strength, however that is calculated, before we're third rate. Looking at the state of globe, we'd be empire by default at 50% of what we have today.

I didn't say empire would never end, I said the claims of the death of America are greatly exaggerated.

That doesn't mean its a good idea to overspend by 50% of what we take in today

You (generically, not Stanley) realize that spending hasn't decreased ONCE since at least 1970?? NOT ONCE.

Is that how things have worked in YOUR house?

This is the 21st century. Everything happens more quickly now. Might decline happen more quickly, too? Absolutely.

I think we are starting the downward trend--and doing precisely the kinds of things that will accelerate us downward. How long it takes us to hit bottom--who knows? What is bottom? Argentina? Zimbabwe? Again, who knows?

What Ross Perot said in 1992 (and I was saying before then, just quoting Perot to clarify that this is not something that I got from Fox news, since that seems to be the left's favorite way to deal with unflattering information) is that in the future economic power will be more important than military power. I think the old Soviet Union tried to use military power to hide its economic weakness during the Cold War, and eventually that economic weakness undermined that military power. I see grave danger that we are falling into the same trap today. We cannot survive long as the world's dominant power at the same time we are the world's largest debtor.

China has imperial ambitions. China is moving toward economic domination of Africa. China is starting to make significant economic inroads into South America. We are becoming deeper in debt to China every day. I'm not saying that's absolutely an imminent disaster scenario, but that woudn't be against the run of play.

(02-09-2010 06:22 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  You (generically, not Stanley) realize that spending hasn't decreased ONCE since at least 1970?? NOT ONCE.

The last decrease was FY 1965, before that FYs 1954 and 1955, before that FYs 1946 and 1947. I think there were wars winding down in a few of those years.

(02-09-2010 06:22 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  That doesn't mean its a good idea to overspend by 50% of what we take in today

You (generically, not Stanley) realize that spending hasn't decreased ONCE since at least 1970?? NOT ONCE.

Is that how things have worked in YOUR house?

You are Married, aren't you?

(02-09-2010 05:35 PM)Rebel Wrote:  

(02-09-2010 05:28 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(02-09-2010 04:22 PM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  EVV-ERR-REE time I hear something about the:

*end of America,
*the death of America,
*the end of American power,
*spending America into ruin etc

I just see the ol' Uncle Sam muttering:

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"

You are way more optimistic than I am.

Exactly.

Rome, Greece, the Persian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Ming Dynasty, etc., etc., etc., etc.

Yeah, no WAY can we end.

As the Romans.... I fear we have crossed the Rubicon and have no idea that it is too late to turn back.

Paraphrasing Lysander Spooner..."The Constitution has either sanctioned the growth of government or has been powerless to prevent it."

I must agree...As good as an attempt as it was...it has failed in its goals.

....It has allowed and sanctioned shackles to be welded upon the wrists of the free market through steady..incremental interference and has fostered a mentality among it citizens that "all things must come from government" instead of allowing the marketplace to solve problems through competition and choice.
....It has allowed and sanctioned a massive governmental structure that sucks the lifeblood from the citizens like a parasite.. to pay for things that most of them do NOT use or WANT.
....It has allowed and sanctioned the development of a "empire-like" attitude that has put assets into vast regions of the world with little or zero return on investment.
....It has allowed and sanctioned an entitlement mentality among its citizens through the growth and expansion of social programs originally designed to "help" those in the most dire circumstances.
....It has allowed and sanctioned the "dumbing down" of America through the propagation of a failed public school system that focuses it effort on the "lowest common denominator" instead of teaching excellence.
....It has allowed and sanctioned the "mortgaging" of the fruits of the labor of the UNBORN to finance the stupidity and foolishness of the living, leaving the next generations mere slaves to pay the debts.

Every American should be ashamed that we have allowed those in power to get us into this mess by constantly disregarding the "true intent" of the Constitution by bending and distorting it to suit our agendas. Both Liberals and Conservatives are EQUALLY guilty in the bastardization of our founding document. The END is approaching....ready yourself my friends.

Barry is going to borrow our way back to prosperity!!! Funny thing I'm hearing that eastern European countries are being criticized for deficits over 10% the US deficit of $1trillion has to be over 50% why no criticism.

(02-09-2010 05:35 PM)Rebel Wrote:  

(02-09-2010 05:28 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(02-09-2010 04:22 PM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  EVV-ERR-REE time I hear something about the:

*end of America,
*the death of America,
*the end of American power,
*spending America into ruin etc

I just see the ol' Uncle Sam muttering:

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"

You are way more optimistic than I am.

Exactly.

Rome, Greece, the Persian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Ming Dynasty, etc., etc., etc., etc.

Yeah, no WAY can we end.

How can you lose when you are making up all the rules.

(02-09-2010 08:27 PM)cb4029 Wrote:  

(02-09-2010 05:35 PM)Rebel Wrote:  

(02-09-2010 05:28 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(02-09-2010 04:22 PM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  EVV-ERR-REE time I hear something about the:

*end of America,
*the death of America,
*the end of American power,
*spending America into ruin etc

I just see the ol' Uncle Sam muttering:

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"

You are way more optimistic than I am.

Exactly.

Rome, Greece, the Persian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Ming Dynasty, etc., etc., etc., etc.

Yeah, no WAY can we end.

How can you lose when you are making up all the rules.

Rules?....."We don't need no stinking rules"

(02-09-2010 05:57 PM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  

(02-09-2010 05:35 PM)Rebel Wrote:  

(02-09-2010 05:28 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(02-09-2010 04:22 PM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  EVV-ERR-REE time I hear something about the:

*end of America,
*the death of America,
*the end of American power,
*spending America into ruin etc

I just see the ol' Uncle Sam muttering:

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"

You are way more optimistic than I am.

Exactly.

Rome, Greece, the Persian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Ming Dynasty, etc., etc., etc., etc.

Yeah, no WAY can we end.

Roman Empire - 1500 years
Persian Empire - 220 years
Ottoman Empire - 650 years
Ming Dynasty - 276 years

Current "American Empire" 1940's to 2010 = 70 years.

Optimistic, yes. Partly because I've been around the world enough to know that there is probably no other country remotely capable of empire. The USA can lose a lot more strength, however that is calculated, before we're third rate. Looking at the state of globe, we'd be empire by default at 50% of what we have today.

I didn't say empire would never end, I said the claims of the death of America are greatly exaggerated.

I don't think Rome as an empire was 1500 years.

I don't think claiming the US as a power or empire at 70 is accurate either. At the very least I'd say the Spanish American War put the US at that level.

(02-09-2010 10:01 PM)DrTorch Wrote:  I don't think Rome as an empire was 1500 years.

I don't think claiming the US as a power or empire at 70 is accurate either. At the very least I'd say the Spanish American War put the US at that level.

Well, certainly historic eras can be fluid, in respect to description.

I believe the Spanish American War is a bit early to claim certain American empire, but I do understand why one would claim so; I used the 40's as the beginning of American Empire as the USA emerged from WWII as the sole hegemon, as was so for a decade before the USSR gained prominence.

(02-09-2010 10:18 PM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  

(02-09-2010 10:01 PM)DrTorch Wrote:  I don't think Rome as an empire was 1500 years.

I don't think claiming the US as a power or empire at 70 is accurate either. At the very least I'd say the Spanish American War put the US at that level.

Well, certainly historic eras can be fluid, in respect to description.

I believe the Spanish Civil War is a bit early to claim certain American empire, but I do understand why one would claim so; I used the 40's as the beginning of American Empire as the USA emerged from WWII as the sole hegemon, as was so for a decade before the USSR gained prominence.

All you need today to create an empire is $$$$ and will. You dont even have to fire a shot to do it. China...the NEXT step in empirevolution.

(02-10-2010 12:23 AM)Fo Shizzle Wrote:  

(02-09-2010 10:18 PM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  

(02-09-2010 10:01 PM)DrTorch Wrote:  I don't think Rome as an empire was 1500 years.

I don't think claiming the US as a power or empire at 70 is accurate either. At the very least I'd say the Spanish American War put the US at that level.

Well, certainly historic eras can be fluid, in respect to description.

I believe the Spanish Civil War is a bit early to claim certain American empire, but I do understand why one would claim so; I used the 40's as the beginning of American Empire as the USA emerged from WWII as the sole hegemon, as was so for a decade before the USSR gained prominence.

All you need today to create an empire is $$$$ and will. You dont even have to fire a shot to do it. China...the NEXT step in empirevolution.

If India could get their stuff together they would definitely be one of the top. Some parts of Africa also.