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Memo to Snyder: Don’t stop the radical reforms now!Is America going to make it? Are you sure?
August 10th, 2011 | 
Author: 
Dan Calabrese
I’m actually starting to wonder if the United States of America is going to survive.
I’m starting to wonder if a breakup like that which befell the Soviet Union in 1991 could ultimately prove to be our fate, and I’m not talking all that far down the road.
It’s not because of Standard and Poor’s downgrade. Anyone who seriously thinks the United States is a AAA credit risk has to be a heroin addict. I’m convinced the only reason the rating agencies have maintained the gold-plated-rating fantasy all these years was political pressure. S&P just became a little less willing to indulge the delusion.
The reason for my burgeoning fear is the way the political class reacted to the news. David Axelrod and John Kerry were telling everyone who would listen over the past weekend that this is the “tea party downgrade.” I guess that’s because tea party types precipitated the debt ceiling showdown in the first place by insisting that conditions be placed on letting the government borrow more money.
Republicans, of course, wanted to make sure everyone knew this was the Obama downgrade.
And of course, those sympathetic to the president have declared all-out war on S&P, which is certainly a flawed organization in many ways — as are the other rating agencies — but what did S&P do here? It said what everyone with a brain in their head understands, which is that America’s spending and borrowing is way, way, way out of control, and there can be no pretending that an entity that behaves like this is a good credit risk.
Seriously, that’s controversial?
I fear for this nation’s future because the political class appears entirely incapable of dealing seriously with this problem. I feel like a broken record reciting these numbers again and again:
The national debt: $14 trillion (our entire GDP is only $14.3 trillion);
Projected new debt by 2021: $8 trillion to $10 trillion;
Unfunded entitlement obligations: $58 trillion to $70 trillion.
Where on Earth are we going to get all that money? I’ll save you the trouble of thinking about it. Nowhere. There isn’t that much money on the face of the Earth.
Communist China, which we are begging to keep buying our government-backed securities, is now lecturing us about how much we’re spending on social welfare and the military. Meanwhile, the dignitaries in Washington act like they deserve battle pay because they just had a fight to the death over whether to reduce the accumulation of new debt by 20 percent or 30 percent. And yet they have the energy to engage in rhetorical exchanges over the labeling of the downgrade.
People. Please. Do you understand the seriousness of this problem?
I’m probably asking the wrong people the wrong question, because serious problems require serious problem-solvers — people who can define a task, an objective and the action steps necessary to achieve the objective.
The maddening thing is that this problem is solvable. You look at the numbers. You look at the long-term commitments that produced the numbers. My point here is not to get into the details of what should be done, because that’s a subject for another column. The point, though, is that there are people who know how to solve problems like this. In the business world there are turnaround specialists who are asked to take over failing companies. They make difficult but necessary decisions, and often the companies are saved.
But to be effective, a turnaround specialist has to be serious about the task. When was the last time you saw a turnaround specialist who had taken over CEO Bob Smith’s company, go on TV and declare, “This company’s failure is the Bob Smith Failure!”
That’s not his job. His job is to fix it.
I know there are some exceptions, but as a general proposition, America’s political class is not serious about solving this problem. It is only interested in rhetorical nonsense. It doesn’t matter whether this is the tea party downgrade or the Obama downgrade. It matters what the hell you’re going to do about it.
These clowns don’t have the slightest idea. They think exploding the debt a little less than they were originally planning is actually progress.
But that alone is not the entire reason I fear for America’s future. I fear for it because the electorate has not yet demonstrated its understanding of the problem, or of the fact that, with leaders like this, we are finished.
If we’re as unserious about the debt explosion in 10 years as we appear to be now, why should any number of states — especially those rich in natural resources but not able to extract them because of federal restrictions — stay in the union and accept their share of the debt obligations Washington presumes to impose on them?
I’m sure this sounds like extreme speculation, but the federal government cannot keep embracing this kind of fantasy economics without reaching the point where the people will no longer assent to be governed in such a manner.
What I’m envisioning is far less absurd than what our leaders are doing today.
Posted in Dan Calabrese
14 Responses to “Is America going to make it? Are you sure?”
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You better believe we in natural resource rich states are thinking of leaving. We in Texas do not benefit from being in the Union. We can easily supply all our needs, even defense. Good luck to the rest of you poor saps.
[...] more: Is America going to make it? Are you sure? Tags: dan [...]
Good column, Dan. Franklin was right! We have a Republic, if we can keep it.
It’s refreshing to know I’m not the only one that feels this way. I don’t really need to be governed anyways!
Great article! Glad to know that somebody else is thinking like this! I could care less which party is in power or whose downgrade it is as long as somebody starts focusing on logically solving the problems soon.
“Good luck to the rest of you poor saps.”
There is a movement in Vermont, where I live, to leave as well. Neither Texas, Vermont, or any other state will leave, though at times I really do wish Canada would annex Vermont and that we would say yes and go like we almost did back in the revolutionary days. This is one of those times. But that was settled in 1861-65.
Yet, Dan has a point. The last time that our Federal guv (set up to be dysfunctional in the first place) was this dysfunctional it led to the deaths of 600,000 Americans in something called the civil war. The worst thing about this mess is that it is deliberate. It is almost a deliberate immolation. The same people that are doing it voted to raise the debt ceiling almost regularly. a few years ago, but because a black guy is in the white house, who is a liberal, it is like the KKK nightriders and we may never recover. Maybe we will just splinter apart. Canada’s looking good.
[...] Dan Calabrese of The North Star National asks “Is America Going to Make It? Are You Sure?” As long as we have liberals in control, the [...]
i would have to agree with whatever’s been said in this article…. and frankly, im a little scared too.
Current economic conditions call for bold moves to boost and supercharge this economy. If we are in an economic recovery as the administration claims, this economy is still 6 million jobs below the worst recovery since the Great Depression. The latest evidence shows that we are still in economic decline.
Current economic conditions call for bold moves to boost and supercharge this economy. If we are in an economic recovery as the administration claims, this economy is still 6 million jobs below the worst recovery since the Great Depression.
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Lower all taxes while we still have a United States of America.
When this Old World starts getting you down. From Pollution the cost of OIL, Heating Fuel,The Fuel you put in your Vehicles, You Electric Bills from
cooling air conditioners and lights not to speak of the Evil. The TAX that all Governments Federal, State, County and City put on everything they can thing of.
They are supposed to serve us. Not put a burden on its people. That they are elected to serve all the people you, not their own Pocket Books.
The Wicked keep putting higher taxes on everything. Making it a Heavy Burden on many that are already struggling just to put food on the table.
Too many Americans have lost their home to the tax collector or to foreclosures from the unjust bankers greed. More are out of work and lost their homes then in the GREAT DEPRESSION, in the last ten years. All Americans and many Nations need good jobs and more of them. Not more TAXES.
All Taxes need to be lowered now while there is still time to save America.
There is a Industry that will employ workers and is growing by more then 50% every year. There is a clear way for all up on the roof the Sun Light is free fuel from GOD. Some wicked in Government have been backing Coal, Oil, Gas and the Nuclear industries for too many years.
These kickbacks to them were called Subsidizing Industry Technology. Most all Wise Men and smart Economist and Environmentalists call this padding their pockets and subsidizing back to the
Stone Age.
The best deal would be to lower Taxes for all this is not the Roman Empire.
The Chinese Know Renewable Energy is a good thing. Most of the rest of the World is still a slave to Oil, Coal and Nuclear Power. All the Governments of the World now know it is wise to use Renewable Energy it is the Local Governments that are a little slow to learn what is best for all not just there pocket book.
They fear people going off the grid all that tax money they will no longer be able to take from you. Wind and Solar Farms are growing all over the Earth. This could have happened years ago if the greedy wicked were stopped by the Real Good.
The Freedom to get your own Power from the Wind and Sun, Solar Energy has been there for years. Are Libraries and Schools should have been the first to have gone Solar and Renewable Energy. And why are they not? Churches are all over the Planet. They are going to Solar Energy.
Thank GOD for the Pioneers like John Schaeffer that Started Real Goods The first and Best catalog for Renewable Energy and Scientist Bill Young at the FSEC Florida Solar Energy Center and Monica D. Key Lindbergh for many years wrote to our legislators promoting Solar and Renewable Energy and many others.
These Pioneers helped put Wind, Solar And Renewable Energy in the Spotlight for all the World to see.
The Great Scientist Albert Einstein Stared it with a Dream that the day would come that all the World would use Solar Energy. His discovery of the law of the Photoelectric Effect won him the Nobel Prize in Physics. We still do not teach this to our young.
GOD Bless all that help tell this to the World
All Taxes need to be lowered cut in half or there will be a lot more Poor and needy and not in just other countries. This coming year the World will see hunger like never before. More then 100 million will be sick from malnutrition going with out food. Taxing the poor and taking there Land away from them is Wicked.
Lower taxes for all Americans will create more JOBS. Only the wicked look to tax everything.
Very soon the Rich will become the Poor.
If your Legislature will not lower Taxes vote them out of office and VOTE in someone that will Lower your Taxes.
United We Stand
In God We Will Always Trust
True American Patriots
GOD Bless
The Lord’s Little Helper
Paul Felix Schott
PS
Earthquake Details
* This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.
Magnitude 5.9
Date-Time
* Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 17:51:04 UTC
* Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 01:51:04 PM at epicenter
Location 37.881°N, 77.952°W
Depth 0.1 km (~0.1 mile) (poorly constrained)
Region VIRGINIA
Distances
* 14 km (9 miles) SSW (195°) from Mineral, VA
* 17 km (10 miles) SSE (165°) from Louisa, VA
* 23 km (14 miles) NE (52°) from Columbia, VA
* 58 km (36 miles) NW (312°) from Richmond, VA
* 141 km (88 miles) SW (216°) from Washington, DC
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 2.3 km (1.4 miles); depth +/- 3.1 km (1.9 miles)
Parameters NST= 22, Nph= 23, Dmin=50 km, Rmss=0.44 sec, Gp= 79°,
M-type=centroid moment magnitude (Mw), Version=B
I agree with the views in this article… However, the predictions are a little grim.
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