AMERICA'S ECONOMIC PROBLEMS BEGAN LONG BEFORE THE GOVERNMENT CLOSURE

Government Shutdown: the ‘Height of Irresponsibility’
October 15, 2013 • From theTrumpet.com
America’s economic problems began long before the government closure.

By Sam Livingston

Two days prior to the government shutdown, President Barack Obama warned that “a shutdown will have a very real economic impact on a lot of people right away .… The idea of putting people’s hard-earned progress at risk is the height of irresponsibility, and it does not have to happen.”

The shutdown has put many government employees out of work. Because of the economic uncertainty it is creating, it also has impacted other sectors of the economy. But this crisis was destined to strike America because of the irresponsible policies of this and past administrations. It was only just a matter of time.

Consider the national debt. It is rapidly approaching $17 trillion. That puts it at over 100 percent of gdp (gross domestic product)—a level the International Monetary Fund and other organizations have warned is dangerous. This debt is a result of a government addicted to spending more than it takes in. Not once since 1960 has the government actually balanced its budget. If that isn’t the definition of irresponsibility, what is?

How about this: For the past three years, the federal government has not even passed a budget. That is a formula for budget problems and budget fights—even, eventually, economic collapse.

And the nation’s debt trajectory is worsening. In 2008, the national debt was a little under $10 trillion. By 2017, the debt is projected to approach $20 trillion. The debt added since Mr. Obama took office is more than the combined total of what every U.S. president has borrowed from the founding of this nation until 2002.

Where is all the money going? There are plenty of bridges to nowhere, $600 toilet seats, $100 hammers and $14 muffins. But the lion’s share of American dollars (taxed, borrowed and printed) are going toward entitlements.

Consider what our leaders have done to Social Security. The government sold it to the public as a system that would pay for itself. Taxpayers would pay into a trust fund; then when it came time to retire, the fund would cover them. That was all well and good—except the government stole the money from the fund.

The Social Security “trust fund” is supposed to have $2.6 trillion in it. Instead of money, however, the government has filled the fund with ious, aka unmarketable government treasury bonds. These bonds cannot be sold, which means they are for all intents and purposes worthless. Essentially, they are accounting gimmicks. Isn’t that irresponsible?

Medicare is the fastest-increasing budget item and costs the government hundreds of billions of dollars each year. Did you know that when it was first established in 1966, the program cost the government $3 billion? Politicians said that by 1990 it would only cost $12 billion. However, in 1990, the actual price came in at a whopping $107 billion. Today, Medicare costs taxpayers a gargantuan $472 billion. Now analysts worry that the Affordable Care Act will likewise mushroom in cost.

When you add up all the government promises made to future retirees, the entitlement bill is astronomical: $86.8 trillion, according to the Wall Street Journal. There is no way the government can pay this bill.

To lead people to believe they can rely on these programs is beyond irresponsible. It should be criminal.

With all the bills piling up, the government has turned to the printing presses to cover its budget shortfalls. Taking a page out of Zimbabwe Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono’s playbook, the U.S. Federal Reserve is printing $85 billion a month to lend to the U.S. government and buy mortgages.

It does not take an economist to realize that if the government continues on this trajectory, it will eventually collapse. To pretend otherwise is the real “height of irresponsibility.”

The government shutdown is causing untold damage to America, but more is going on behind the scenes. Request a copy of Gerald Flurry’s booklet America Under Attack to fully understand what is behind the dysfunction in Washington. When you do, you will realize that the crises facing the U.S. economic system are not merely a matter of irresponsibility, but something much more sinister. ▪