1
September 30, 2024
THE STAND
Subject: DEBT
THE INCREDIBLE AMERICAN DEBT
Owe no man nothing, says the scripture.
The fact remains, however, that every single American is in debt, EVERY ONE OF US.
Every day of every month, we owe someone something. That debt could be as normal
as a phone bill, electric bill, cell phone or cable bill, or currently repayable credit card
bills. But, we always owe something if we wish to live in any reasonable way in this
world.
What that debt admonition means is that we ought not to owe anything which we
cannot repay in the present in whole or in part. None of us could own a home unless
we were able to borrow a mortgage for 10, 20 or 30 years, and make the monthly
payments with interest thereon. If we can repay that 30-year debt on a monthly basis
and timely so, that is a manageable obligation and not the kind of debt proscribed by
scripture.
Debt, unpayable debt, and especially that debt which accumulates with interest,
sometimes as much or almost so as the debt principle itself is crushing. It is always
there, its presence a constant reminder that so much of the future has been mortgaged
and that our present spending endangers and preempts our options for the future.
Families are ruined by that kind of debt. So are marriages. Profligate businesses go
bankrupt and governments, nations and states which over-borrow and accumulate
crushing interest obligations sacrifice the future for the present. They kick the
financial can down the road.
And that, my fellow Americans, is the pathway and the financial condition of our
beloved America. Our once great country, operating on a current budget, the financial
envy of the world, the dollar the hallmark of financial stability, is now the unbelievable
debtor in the amount of:
$36 TRILLION DOLLARS.
$36 Trillion Dollars. As incredible, hard to believe, and frightening as that number is,
the interest America pays on those $36 trillion dollars of debt is now at or about:
$1.3 TRILLION DOLLARS ANNUALLY.
$1.3 Trillion dollars in interest alone!
2
That means, my fellow Americans, that every American household owes as much as
$275,000 of that debt. Or that also means that every tax paying person in America,
every citizen, owes the sum of approximately $110,000 to our creditors, foreigners and
foreign nations, and American business entities and individuals. $275,000 PER
HOUSEHOLD and $110,000 PER PERSON. That is the kind of debt with interest that
scripture so aggressively warns against. But we do nothing, our leaders do nothing to
stop the bleeding and solve the problem. The overwhelming debt problem. But some
day, we will have no choice but to deal with this horrendous financial reckoning.
Economists now believe that the nation’s debt of at or about $36 Trillion Dollars is
indeed an existential threat to our great country, and to us, we the people. The fact of
the matter is that America does not owe this debt, we do. WE, THE PEOPLE, the
citizens of this great country owe that $36 trillion dollars, with its unbelievable annual
interest burdens. WE OWE THAT MONEY! And someday, we will have to pay it. What
an unbelievable effect that will have on our lifestyles and our future. That existential
threat threatens our very existence!
But our Federal Government continues in its profligate way. It spends, and it spends
more. It never seems to care because it can postpone the debt, financing even more of
its spending, and it always has what it thinks is the fail-safe remedy, and that is:
TAXATION.
More taxation, more taxes, for we the people to pay.
And more bad financial news. Economists estimate that by the year 2034, a decade
from now, America will add $20 trillion dollars to its debt of $36 trillion dollars, which
would put our country in debt by the staggering sum of $56 trillion dollars, $56
TRILLION DOLLARS! And some economists think those estimates are conservative,
believing that the real debt will be as high as $60 trillion dollars or even more if
spending continues as is. That would also mean that the annual interest alone on that
staggering debt would be somewhere between $2 Trillion and $2.5 Trillion Dollars
Annually, and possibly more. In the year 2034, our total debt will be approximately
120% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). And hear these words carefully:
NO NATION HAS EVER CARRIED THAT KIND OF GOVERNMENT-DRIVEN
DEBT AND ESCAPED CALAMITY. NOT ONE GOVERNMENT IN THE
ENTIRE HISTORY OF MANKIND HAS EVER SPENT OR WILL SPEND WHAT
WE AMERICANS ARE AND ESCAPED ABSOLUTE AND TOTAL DISASTER
AND CALAMITY.
Not to worry, say the Democrats in charge and in power and seeking four more years
of spending privileges, assuming the election of Harris-Walz. We will simply tax the
rich more and more. Even if there is a sharp rise in the tax rates for the wealthy, that
meager amount of additional income would never begin to seriously pay down the debt
which our once fiscally responsible America now owes and will owe ten years from
now.
3
But that day of reckoning will come when we the people will pay an unbelievable price
for the profligate way our Federal Government spends our money and accumulates
this strangling, bankrupting debt.
Regarding the so-called rich, the top 1% of Americans in terms of earnings reported
26.3% of the country’s adjusted gross income and paid accordingly:
Almost 46% of total income taxes!
All the rest of America’s taxpayers, 99% of them, paid the grand total of 54% of all
taxes. But there is never any effort to tax more the 54% but only the so-called rich and
wealthy 46%. That is fiscal policy which leads to absolute disaster!
Even more interesting, the top 10% of all earners in America provided 76% of the total
revenue, tax revenue, and the other 90% of taxpayers provided 24% of tax revenue. If
you were not one of the so-called wealthy, you have really gotten off cheap by taxing
comparison.
Our great country, We The People, face the ever-present possibility of default in
payments to our creditors, now $36 trillion dollars and in 10 years to be some $60
trillion dollars. That default of any serious kind would set off a major depression and
fiscal revolution THE WORLD OVER. That economic crisis could well ruin the world.
There would also exist in America HYPERINFLATION. That is what occurred in
Germany where the German Mark was absolutely worthless. If those tragic and
calamitous conditions arise in America, our dollar will be just like that Mark and
virtually worthless itself.
That debt-caused disaster will produce incredible internal instability, even revolution,
and the very real potential of the destruction of law and order. It could also occasion
the rise of dictatorship, as the very same fiscal problems in Germany gave rise to Adolf
Hitler and it would undoubtedly be the end of our great democracy.
But, my fellow Americans, that debt and the problems it causes, are:
OUR FAULT.
Our responsibility. We the People allowed that debt to happen. We continue one
election after another to elect a president, a senate, a house of representatives which
do nothing, absolutely nothing about the problem, continue to spend, talk the talk but
never walk the walk, and again do absolutely nothing about this incredible end-ofAmerica problem, nothing but nothing. But the day of economic reckoning comes, and
we will pay, WE WILL PAY! Or, our children and grandchildren will pay. The life and
lifestyle which they hope for and work for will never materialize and the America we
now know will never be the America they will ever know. What America once was
fiscally and economically will be nothing more than an historical footnote.
Wake up, my fellow Americans, please wake up. You vote, you elect these politicians to
represent you. You allow them to spend your money, to tax you, to do as they please
4
with YOUR money but the one thing they never do is hold themselves accountable for
the way they spend your money, the fiscal problems they are causing, and the
insurmountable debt they are creating, which may very well never be repaid. That of
course would be the end of the democratic America we now love and enjoy. But again,
we have no one to blame but ourselves. We the People allow these reckless
economically indifferent or ignorant politicians to do what they please, spend our
money as we will, and we continue to do nothing:
NOTHING
about that spending or them. When this disaster, this calamity occurs, we will have no
one to blame but:
OURSELVES – WE THE PEOPLE!
