Thats a ton of money–to put it lightly.  But, unfortunately for your wallet, it didnt end there.

Bloomberg recently reported that “[t]he U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have spent, lent or committed $12.8 trillion” over the past 20 months.  “The money works out to $42,105 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. and 14 times the $899.8 billion of currency in circulation. The nation’s gross domestic product was $14.2 trillion in 2008.”

This means that in the past 20 months, the government has committed about 90% of our country’s GDP to bailouts and “stimulus.”  [emphasis added by me] Roughly 1/3 of this money has already been spent, while the remaining 2/3 has been committed but not yet spent.

The article breaks the spending by category.  This is pretty scary stuff.  Please pass this along to your friends and family.  Also, get involved.  There are Tea Parties coming up across the country on April 15th.  The Facebook group representing the Tea Parties has over 24,000 members.  We are expecting between 5,000 and 10,000 protesters in Atlanta for next weeks event.  These protests are being held in cities, both large and small all across the country.  Here is a map listing the locations of many of them.  Join the struggle before they spend another $42,105 of your money!

Americanly Yours,

Phred Barnet

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“President Barack Obama’s budget would produce $9.3 trillion in deficits over the next decade, more than four times the deficits of Republican George W. Bush’s presidency.” Remember that Mr. Obama criticized President Bush for sharply increasing the deficit which Mr. Obama inherited.  Well, Mr. Obama’s ambitious plans will leave his successor with a much much larger debt to inherit.

President Obama inherited a deficit of about $1,000,000,000,000 [$1 trillion] from President Bush’s administration–and the Democratic Congress.  He then added another $800,000,000,000 [$800 billion] to the budget by passing his gargantuan “stimulus” plan.

Mr. Obama did inherit a large annual deficit from the Bush administration, however, trillion dollar deficits were by no means emblematic of the Bush administration’s record.  President Bush’s deficits peaked at $412,700,000,000 [$417 billion] in 2004, but dropped down to $162,000,000,000 [$162 billion] by 2007– a drop of over 60% from its peak.  In 2008, the deficit did soar to record heights, however this was mainly due to the massive stimulus bill that sent every working American a check and was championed by President Bush and the Democratic Congress.  However 2008′s record deficit is still 1/4 of the size of this year’s deficit and less than half of the projected average annual deficit for the next decade!

And, the $9,300,000,000,000 [$9.3 trillion] in deficits projected by the CBO is $2,300,000,000,000 [$2.3 trillion] higher than the total deficits projected by President Obama back in February.  As you may recall, I previously wrote about Mr. Obama’s plans to “cut the deficit in half” by 2013 and criticized that statement as a distortion of the facts.  However, the CBO is now projecting that Mr. Obama’s deficit for that year will be $139,000,000,000 [$139 billion] higher than the numbers that he announced in February!  “Obama’s budget promises to cut the deficit to $533 billion in five years. The CBO says the red ink for that year will total $672 billion.” And, following that year, the deficits will begin to climb again, ageraging just under $1,000,000,000,000 [$1 trillion] each year for the next ten years!!!

The avergae deficit for the next ten years will be as large or larger than the one that President Obama criticized President Bush for leaving behind.

The large increases in spending in 2008 and 2009 have been justified by Presidents Bush and Obama and Congress as temporary measures that are “necessary to end the recession and stabilize the economy.”  But economists, the Foderal Reserve, and the CBO are all saying that the recession will end in late 2009 or early 2010.  Why then is the President proposing budgets that continue to promote reckless deficit spending after the crisis has ended?

Americanly Yours,

Phred Barnet

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This is quite an amazing plan, especially for a retailer that is derided by critics for under compensating its employees.  Despite the recession, this bonus is over 10% higher than last year’s employee bonus.

This is not an executive bonus plan; these bonuses will benefit Wal-Mart’s (literally) blue collar employees–the cashiers, customer service representatives, and stockers.  Wal-Mart’s generous bonus will hand these employees an average of $933.60 per person, with over half of that paid out to employees yesterday!

Now, lets contrast this bonus with Mr. Obama’s “stimulus” plan:

Mr. Obama’s “stimulus” plan pays each worker $400 through a “tax cut.”

Wal-Mart is paying each worker an average of $933.60.

—-

Mr. Obama’s tax cut comes in the form of a payroll tax deduction, averaging $13 per week for the rest of the year.

Wal-Mart’s bonus includes more money per worker up front than the total paid out by Mr. Obama’s plan.  It also includes various other benefits to be paid out in the future, including discounts, contributions to retirement funds, and increased ownership for workers in the company.

—-

Mr. Obama’s “tax cut”/”stimulus” is being financed with debt, and workers will have to pay back their “tax cuts” in the future.

Wal-Mart’s bonuses are being paid for with cash, coming from the company’s profits.  The workers get to keep their bonuses, and will not have to pay back the money in the future.

———

Which do you think is more generous benefit?  Mr. Obama’s “tax cut” that will have to be paid back in the future, or Wal-Mart’s cash payment and investment in their workers future livelihoods.  I know which I would prefer.

Americanly Yours,

Phred Barnet

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“. . . TBILLS at the lowest rates ever!  We can print money for nearly no intrest [sic]. . .”

I think that this is a common misconception among people.  Yes, the FED has a target rate of 0-1/4% for the Federal Funds Rate, but this rate is only the rate that banks charge each other for overnight loans.  This is not the rate for US Government bonds which are issued to fund government debt.  In fact, US government bonds have a much higher interest rate than the overnight fed funds rate.  Government bonds are largely traded on the open market which means that they are priced through supply and demand.  The current rate on a 10 year bond (about 3%) can be found here.

We have a large national debt that is growing every day.  Of the money that we owe, our debt to China is over $1,000,000,000,000 [$1 trillion].  To continue to fund ambitious “stimulus” bills, government bailouts, and large social welfare programs like medicare and the coming socialized health care scheme, we will have to continue to borrow funds from American citizens and foreign nations.

As we increase our money supply, our money becomes worth less.  As we increase our borrowing, we have to pay higher interest rates in order to entice countries and private citizens to loan money to us.  Both of these things are happening at the same time, and happening during a global recession.  This leads me to believe that interest rates on government bonds will be rising (if no one wants to loan us money and we want to keep running a deficit, we have to raise interest rates).

We have more than doubled our money supply in the last year!  If you dont believe me, see the chart below, or click here.

But, things dont end there.  China’s Premier, Wen Jiabao recently expressed worry about the value of the dollar.  He said “Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I’m a little bit worried.”  Apparently, there is even debate within China about whether or not to continue to invest so heavily in American bonds. And of course, this is coming at a time when China is dealing with their own economic problems.  China needs to have high levels of annual economic growth in order to pacify their increasingly restless (and violent) rural populations.

China just announced a stimulus of their own totaling over $500 billion.  The money being spent on that stimulus is money that cannot be loaned to the American government.

One thing that very few people are aware of is that President Obama’s anticipated budgets for his 8 years as president (assuming that he wins a second term) have the national debt doubling to over $20,000,000,000,000 [$20 trillion]!  In order to finance these massive budget deficits, we have to borrow this money from someone.  If China turns off the loans, it is going to be very hard to find the money to continue to fund massive national programs, while fighting two wars and bailing out American industries.  China has us right where they want us… and they know it.

Americanly Yours,

Phred Barnet

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According to this chart, the US Government has committed $8,800,000,000,000 [$8.8 trillion] to these bailouts.  Of this, the government has already spent about $2,000,000,000,000 [$2 trillion].

This is insane.  The $2,000,000,000,000 [$2 trillion] equals $6,666.66 per American.  $8,800,000,000,000 [$8.8 trillion] in total bailouts adds up to a total of $29,333 per citizen of this country!

But, this money doesnt even include the $152,000,000,000 [$152 billion] “stimulus” last year or the $787,000,000,000 [$787 billion] bailout recently passed.  If you add those two bills to the total, the total swells to $9,739,000,000,000 [$9.739 trillion].

This equals $32,463.33 per American!!!

This amounts to about 3/4 of the annual US GDP and is nearly enough to double the national debt.  And, as Mr. Obama and others have reminded us, there is no guarantee that this will work.

The government just cannot justify spending this much of its citizens’ money on bailouts and “stimulus” that has no guarantee of working.

This is money that has to be paid back.  It will be paid back by Americans in the future.  Including the current national debt and the money that will be added to the debt due to these new bailouts and “stimulus” bills, a child being born today is born saddled with approximately $65,000 in debt.

We are selling our children into slavery for bailouts and “stimulus” bills that may not even work.

Americanly Yours,

Phred Barnet

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Of course, even Mr. Obama has admitted that there is no guarantee that these plans will work.  Even more interesting, he has said that these plans will have little effect before 2010.  This is particularly interesting because the non-partisan CBO recently estimated that the recession will supposedly be over in mid 2009 even if these “stimulus” plans werent passed, meaning that Mr. Obama’s plans wouldnt even begin working until after the economy has already started to heal itself.

But, lets pretend that Mr. Obama’s boldest predictions are correct and that this plan will create 4 million new jobs (although he says it will create or save 3-4 million jobs).  Let us also assume that each of these jobs is a high paying job of $100,000 a year and that these jobs are permanent jobs that will never go away in the future, regardless of future circumstances.  According to both H&R Block’s tax calculator and the Heritage Foundation’s much simpler tax calculator, a single person earning $100,000 pays $19,472 in Federal taxes.  So, the 4 million jobs that we are pretending this plan will create will return $77.888 billion in taxes per year to the federal government.  Excluding any interest (which will likely be a hefty sum and will go countries like China), it will take the government about 35.5 years to recoup the money!

If, however, this plan still creates 4 million jobs but these jobs pay $50,000 per year instead of $100,000, the government will collect $6,606 in taxes per person totaling $26.424 billion in taxes per year.   Under these circumstances, it will take the government 113.5 years to recoup the money!

However, I made a little Excel spreadsheet assuming that the government would have to pay 3% interest on these new loans.  This is a generous assumption, considering that the average rate on treasury bills has been much higher.  I used both of the above jobs assumptions in my calculations and found that the government will actually never be able to recoup this money if interest is factored in! Check it out for yourself.

Americanly Yours,

Phred Barnet

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Only Congress would use this kind of backwards “logic.”

Americanly Yours,

Phred Barnet

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When Nikita Khrushchev was forced out of power in the Soviet Union he left his successor (Leonid Brezhnev) with two letters.  He told his successor to open the first letter when he came to his first major crisis and follow the instructions.   He was told that following the instructions would get him through the crisis.   He was also told that when a second major crisis stuck, he should open the second letter from Khrushchev and follow its instructions.

The inevitable crisis happened and Brezhnev became worried that the crisis could cause him to be removed from power.   He opened Khrushchev’s first letter which said “Blame everything on me.  The only way that you can stay in power is to blame everything on my poor leadership and announce that you have to reverse my policies in order to save the State.”

So, Brezhnev followed the instructions in the letter and things in the Soviet Union got better for a while.   However, after a few more years, the economy began to stagnate and Brezhnev once again became worried that he would lose power.  He realized that the advice from Khrushchev’s first letter had saved him once and that maybe it could do so again.

Brezhnev opened the second letter and it read “Sit down and write two letters.”

As I said above, this is not a true story.  It is however, a useful lesson on political survival.

I would argue that President Obama began reading his first letter during the campaign when he blamed everything wrong in the world on President Bush.  He has continued to beat up on President Bush’s record in a constant attempt to convince the public that the current crisis is not his fault.

He will likely continue to read from this letter for several years.

For example, if the situation in Iraq continues to improve and we can pull our troops out, Mr. Obama will undoubtedly take all of the credit, despite the fact that President Bush’s controversial Surge plan was a complete success and has effectively won us the war.  If on the other hand, the situation in Iraq deteriorates and we either do not leave within Mr. Obama’s promised 16 months or we end up leaving in disgrace, there can be no doubt that President Obama will blame Mr. Bush.

Similarly, if the economy turns around in the next year or two, Mr. Obama will take all of the credit.  If however, the situation worsens, the economy continues to contract, and unemployment approaches or reaches double digits, President Obama will claim that he inherited this mess.  In his speech last night President Obama said “I can’t tell you for sure that everything in this plan will work exactly as we hope, but I can tell you with complete confidence that a failure to act will only deepen this crisis as well as the pain felt by millions of Americans.  My administration inherited a deficit of over $1 trillion, but because we also inherited the most profound economic emergency since the Great Depression, doing a little or nothing at all will result in even greater deficits, even greater job loss, even greater loss of income, and even greater loss of confidence.” This was effectively Mr. Obama hedging his bet:  if the economy turns around, he can take credit, but if it doesnt work, he will say that things are still better than they would have been if the bill wasnt passed and besides, it is still President Bush’s fault.

This is why President Obama still sounds like his is running for President, rather than holding the office.  It is safe to say that President Obama was not elected to office based any past accomplishments that he had.   He was also not elected based on any future plans that he had.  Rather, he was elected because the American public was (and still is) fed up with President Bush.  The fact that Mr. Obama was elected President is really only an externality of the perceived failure of the Bush Administration.  Mr. Obama really didnt run against John McCain; he really ran against President Bush. How many times did you hear Mr. Obama refer to “8 years of failed policies?”   Because Mr. Obama was elected as an opposition candidate–a reactive candidate rather than a proactive candidate– he is likely to continue this course of acton.  Expect him to continue to beat up on President Bush’s record.  Furthermore, you can expect him to denounce Republicans who vote against his programs (in a manner that will probably become much more hostile in the near future).

The problem is that Mr. Obama cannot continue on this course for too long.  The American people are fickle and grow tired of things quickly.  Remember that when the War in Iraq started Bush (who was cheered on to war by the American public as well as the media) had an approval rating of near 70%.  At some point, the American public will grow tired of hearing Mr. Obama blame all of the country’s problems on the previous administration–especially if things get worse.  The people want solutions and when President Obama realizes that he cannot deliver them, he may have to reach for that second letter.

Americanly Yours,

Phred Barnet

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The big news is the “stimulus” package that is about to be passed whether or not the American people want it to.

My friend Art sent me this article from the Wall Street Journal which talks about what all is included in the “stimulus.”  It is pretty ridiculous.

But on top of this, there are are some truly outrageous things in the bill.  Under the terms of the bill, illegal immigrants who have been working in this country illegally will be able to get a tax rebate check of $500 per person.  Seriously.

This bill also gives money to dairy farmers to take their dairy cows out of production in order to raise the price of milk and create a greater profit for the dairy industry.  This type of government intervention is not only wrong, it is very dangerous.  Remember that less that a year ago, there was a global “food crisis” going on in which hundreds of millions (if not billions) of people were on the verge of starving.  By paying farmers to not produce food and drink, our government is playing a very dangerous game.  But this is not a game.  This is real life.  If government intervention causes the price of food to go up, people could actually die.

Here is an interesting article from CNN that was sent to me by two of my friends, Squeak and Hawk (yes, I have a friend named Squeak and a friend named Hawk).  This talks about solutions that Libertarians have come up with to address the current [government manufactured] crisis.  I dont support all of them and there are at least two that I completely disagree with, but they are all better than what we are going to end up spending the money on.

I want to write more, but this is getting to be too long.  Ill have an article for yall tomorrow.

Americanly Yours,

Phred Barnet

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I want to begin by talking about the “stimulus” that Obama is pushing and has passed both the House and the Senate in different versions.

Less than a week after President Obama declared an end to partisan bickering, he failed to get even a single Republican vote on his “stimulus” bill.  Even 11 Democrats voted against the hyper-expensive $819 BILLION bill.  To put that in perspective, $819 billion is more than the total amount of US currency in circulation!  The $819 billion also exceeds the cost of the Iraq War by over $200 billion dollars.

Apparently, Democrats and Republicans are negotiating a compromise that will cost around $900 billion dollars (thats a cost of $3000 for every single American man, woman, and child).

On top of this, Obama has requested $350 billion from the second half of the TARP program.

And Obama’s administration is considering requesting an additional $1-2 Trillion for a similar bank and mortgage bailout program.  Meanwhile, New York Senator Charles Schumer who is vice chairman of the Joint Economic Committee says that the government may need $3-4 Trillion for this program.

Lets add up the “worst case scenarios.”  $900 billion for this new “stimulus,” $350 billion in additional TARP funding, and $4 trillion for this new program being proposed and we have a total of $5.25 trillion!  This would increase the size of the national debt by 50% and cost $17,500 per person.

And of course none of this has any guarantee of working.

Americanly Yours,

Phred Barnet

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