i’m such a fan of “coyote’s law” coined by longtime gatopal™ warren meyer of coyoteblog fame.
i shall paraphrase:
“before granting any new power or prerogative to the state, first imagine that power wielded by the politician you hate most, because one day it will be.”
I thinking about when I took the intermediate (level 2) acquisitions management course at Defense Acquisition University and the instructor at day one said that around 20% could be cut from a major acquisition program and it could still meet the Pentagon's requirements.
The Federal Reserve policies contributed to the federal debt to GDP ratio reaching the current level of 121%, whereas it was around 106% right before the COVID pandemic started.
And I read using Google Gemini AI that about $660 billion was spent on federal debt service in 2023, compared to
* $773 billion for the Pentagon * $887 billion for Medicaid * $302 billion for Veteran Affairs (about $151 billion of this went to VA disability and income security/pension payments)
Congressional Budget Office forecasts around $870 billion for federal debt service in 2024 which surpasses the Pentagon budget :-/
Trump added $8.4 trillion to the debt, and $4.8 trillion of that was due to non-COVID pandemic/crisis spending.
As of 21 June 2024, Biden added $4.3 trillion to the debt, and $2.2 trillion of that was due to non COVID spending.
Congressional Budget Office forecasts a $2 trillion deficit for 2024, and that $1.2 trillion (of that $2 trillion) has already been realized since end of May 2024.
The deficit was $1.7 trillion in 2023.
So Biden will add at least $5.1 trillion to the debt during his first term compared to Trump's $8.1 trillion.
But Trump was politically forced to sign bi-partisan spending bills to respond to the COVID crisis. Trump staved off a major economic depression because of all the COVID lockdowns.
patrick.net
An Antidote to Corporate Media
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