US Budget Deficit Swindling Futurity

By: James_Quinn

“The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” ― Thomas Jefferson

Yesterday the government reported a “modest” August budget deficit of $108 billion. That’s one month folks. This is another example of how the government and their mainstream media mouthpieces portray horrifically bad, extremely abnormal financial data as normal and expected. They pretend everything that has happened since 2008 is just standard operating procedure. They follow the Big Lie theory to the extreme. The masses have been so dumbed down, desensitized, and taught to believe delusions, they can’t distinguish the abnormal from the normal.

Those in power pretend near zero interest rates eight years after the recession was supposedly over is normal. They pretend $500 billion to $1.4 trillion annual deficits are normal. They pretend 20% unemployment is really 4.4%. They pretend the stock market is at all-time highs due to an improving economy rather than central bank easy money and corporate stock buybacks. They pretend $20 trillion of debt and $200 trillion of unfunded welfare promises is no problem. We are living in the grand delusion.

The $108 billion August deficit brought the year to date deficit to $674 billion. With one month left in the fiscal year, the deficit will end at approximately $750 billion. Does that strike you as normal? The propaganda media will spin this dreadful result as positive by saying it is down from $1.4 trillion in 2009. They won’t mention it is up 70% from the 2015 deficit and the highest since 2012. No one ever mentions the annual deficit in 2007 was “only” $161 billion. As a cherry on top of this mass deception, the total budget deficits reported since 2002 totaled $9.4 trillion, while the national debt rose by $13.8 trillion. Just a slight $4.4 trillion accounting discrepancy among friends.

The chart below reveals some fascinating insights into the depths of debt depravity we’ve descended. With interest rates near record low levels, interest on the debt of $275 billion exceeds the total receipts from corporate income taxes. The Fed will never willingly normalize interest rates because allowing rates to go back to 2007 levels would blow the budget deficit sky high. Even an Ivy League academic can figure that out.

The supposedly fiscally responsible Republicans hold both houses in Congress and the White House. But there is no fiscal constraint being practiced by anyone in Washington D.C. Social Security, Medicare, Interest, and Obamacare are on automatic pilot accelerating rapidly. Congress just increased the war budget by $100 billion, because war is our main racket. Tax cuts for corporations and an infrastructure boondoggle are on the way. And providing tens of billions in hurricane relief funds is a given. This pretty much guarantees a $1 trillion deficit next year.

Total government revenues (aka taxes) are only up 2% over last year. Something seems amiss. The relentless narrative spewed by Trump, government bureaucrats and the corporate mainstream media is we have added 1.5 million new jobs in the last year and corporate profits are at all time highs. If the economy was booming wouldn’t individual income taxes, Social Security taxes and corporate income taxes be booming? Shouldn’t they be pouring into the US Treasury’s coffers? Somebody must be lying. Can you guess?

We know they are lying. We know the $20 trillion debt will reach $24 trillion by the end of Trump’s first term. We know the $200 trillion of promises will not be honored. We know entitlement spending will skyrocket as Boomers retire en mass. We know the tremendously overvalued stock market, bond market and housing market will crash, ushering in part 2 of this financial crisis and triggering the worst phase of this Fourth Turning. We know war is in our future. We know our leaders are corrupt, self serving, sociopathic liars working on behalf of their Deep State masters. We know we’re screwed. But we pretend everything is normal, because doing something about it is too hard.

The fake narrative of a strong economy must be flogged by those in power as they continue to rape and pillage the wealth of the middle class through the extraction of taxes, fees, tolls, premiums, co-pays, deductibles, and rigged market gains. The chart below is a truth bomb obliterating the narrative. More than one in three households has $0 of savings, with 57% having less than $1,000. A major car repair can easily reach $1,000. A new hot water heater is $3,000. With insurance deductibles in the thousands, a medical issue exceeding $1,000 is common. This may explain why credit card debt has reached new all-time highs. Families are surviving on credit card debt. Sounds positive.

Retail and restaurant sales are stagnant at best. Retail store closings and bankruptcies are on track to exceed levels reached in 2009. If you recall, that was the worst recession since the 1930s. The average American has not experienced an economic recovery. The false appearance of recovery has been achieved through excessive money printing by a Federal Reserve working on behalf of criminal Wall Street banks. The fat cats are richer than ever. This farce is not sustainable. Our entire economic recovery is nothing but a Potemkin Village erected by Yellen, Wall Street, spineless politicians, corrupt government apparatchiks, and fake news media corporations. It will not end well.

“There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.” – Ludwig von Mises

Join me at www.TheBurningPlatform.com to discuss truth and the future of our country.

By James Quinn

quinnadvisors@comcast.net

James Quinn is a senior director of strategic planning for a major university. James has held financial positions with a retailer, homebuilder and university in his 22-year career. Those positions included treasurer, controller, and head of strategic planning. He is married with three boys and is writing these articles because he cares about their future. He earned a BS in accounting from Drexel University and an MBA from Villanova University. He is a certified public accountant and a certified cash manager.

These articles reflect the personal views of James Quinn. They do not necessarily represent the views of his employer, and are not sponsored or endorsed by his employer.

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