Forget The Debt Ceiling, See the Big Picture

Too often left out of the conversation on why America has reached the debt ceiling in the first place is the fact that the government has been forking over trillions (thousands of billions) to the wealthiest people and corporations in the country:  Billions in subsidies for Exxon Mobil, Monsanto, and GE. Billions “missing”(embezzled) in Iraq. Billions for failing auto companies. Trillions for the banks that caused the financial crisis in 2008.

Meanwhile, according to Mother Jones, the biggest cause for concern in the budget, even amidst the billions for billionaires, is the rising cost of Medicare. Of course, we could afford even the rising cost of Medicare had we not spent  $847 billion on national defense in 2010. “For 2012, the Pentagon budget request was $554 billion, the 14th year in a row that this budget has increased. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are ‘off-budget.’ For next year, Obama has requested an additional $117 billion to continue both wars. Iraq alone has cost an estimated $3 trillion.”

Neither the bulk of Republicans nor Democrats were fighting to reduce war spending. Besides saving trillions, cutting defense spending would also reduce the 320,000 barrels of oil a day officially consumed by the military, a number that ignores fuel consumed by defense contractors and weapons manufacturers. Instead, Congress was busy extracting more revenue from “elderly retirees and broke-ass students” while fighting to preserve “a slew of tax loopholes for the rich, including the carried-interest tax break that allows hedge fund billionaires to pay about half the tax rate of most Americans.”

Rather than obsess over the made-up debt ceiling and cut social programs to fit under it, we could just have “the Federal Reserve Board destroy the $1.6 trillion in government bonds it now holds,” increasing U.S. borrowing capacity under the current debt ceiling and greatly reducing the government’s interest burden over the coming decades.  Or we could demanding damages for corporate pollution and cut spending by bringing home the most harmful and expensive polluters of all, the U.S. Military.

So what’s the real issue?  Ostensibly, most of the Republicans were fighting to have billions in social programs cut to reduce government spending, but the Democrats and Republicans were reportedly 99% in agreement before they reached a deal. When the health care debate was center stage it was the Democrats, not the Republicans, that took single-payer health care off the table. Most of Congress actually agrees on the issues of the day because politicians on both sides of the aisle are profiting from bilking the people.  Bankrupting the United States seems to be on the agenda, though it’s a losing proposition in the long run. Alan Greenspan said recently the U.S. will never default because it can always print more money. Printing trillions of dollars would make the dollar worth-less, which is why the price of gold has been rising.

So what will change all of this? Take action! Start telling everyone you know and everyone you don’t know (but can approach in a normal fashion) the facts. Hand them a flyer so they can read about it. Link your website to the flyer. Run for office yourself.  Spread the word, because the media isn’t going to do it for you. At the moment, they are your opponent. And we can beat them. The Government is afraid of YOU telling people the truth, which is why they have been monitoring Facebook for protests about the Federal Reserve. Truth prevails over all.

httpv://youtu.be/vsNx6K7T-Kk