The Brokest Nation (America is history's brokest nation and we have one last chance to fix it)

American Thinker ^ | 09/29/2012 | Jon N. Hall

[SeekAndFind]

Remember how alarmed we were toward the end of 2008, when we realized that Congress for the first time in history was going to run a deficit of a trillion dollars?

Congress had never run a deficit even half that size, and some speculated that the deficit for fiscal 2009 could even approach $2T. Luckily, our first trillion-dollar deficit came in at only $1.4T. But now that the feds have run four back-to-back deficits of more than $1T, Americans seem to have become inured -- a trillion bucks? no big deal; we'll just "print" it.

During the Democratic National Convention, America hit another milestone on her express train to economic ruin -- the total national debt passed the $16T mark. There was little talk about debt and deficits during the Democrats' convention. At $16T, the national debt is larger than the gross domestic product. But the "official" national debt, that $16T, is not the figure that folks should worry about. What folks should be concerned about is the debt held by the public, which on September 20 was more than $11.253T.

The debt held by the public was $6.3T on the day Pres. Obama took office. So in exactly 3 years and 8 months, the real debt went up by nearly $5T, a growth rate of more than 10 percent each year, while GDP is plodding along at an annualized rate of 1.3 percent.

In May of 2010, I reported that the EU thinks a nation faces danger when its public debt exceeds 60 percent of its GDP. At the time, Greece's public debt was 113 percent of its GDP, and America's was 52 percent. If we round America's current GDP up to an even $16T, our public debt is now 70+ percent of our GDP.

[MulberryDraw]

(America is history's brokest nation and we have one last chance to fix it)

So what's the fix? Note, the entitlement stuff like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid will require about 222 trillion on its present path. Anybody think that will be paid?

[muawiyah]

We are not 'the brokest' ~ we may well run through our credit worthiness, and maybe even our foreign reserves and gold, but we still have enormous assets ~ incomparable assets.

One example is our carrier fleet ~ we can pull up next to and lay down fire anywhere we wish ~ and collect tribute if necessary.

Did you ever stop and think about how much tribute we could take ~ it's enormous. That national debt ain't no thang compared to what we can simply ask for.

Then there are the public lands ~ 30% of USA landmass ~ and the 200 mile economic zones offshore, and what a shore ~ ! WOW ! ~ we own thousands of Pacific Islands ~ and every one of them has that economic zone. Whatever is out there is ours.

Remember, when your assets more than equal your debts you are not broke ~ you might be "Land Poor" but you're not broke.

[Diogenesis]

"Deficit? We will pay it off by burying you and your families
through ObamaCARE. IT DOES NOT APPLY TO US."

[blueunicorn6]

The private sector has to start picking up and Mitt Romney is the candidate who will get the private sector going. Obama has proven to be incapable of setting the conditions that will allow the private sector to flourish. The private sector provides the tax money which funds the public sector. Borrowing money to fund the public sector is unsustainable. Obama is good for no one but a few make-believe pig farmers and the hard core environmentalists. Obama has proven himself to be a failure. Why would anyone vote for a known failure? It’s time to send Obama back home where he can stroke his chin and muse on the dictatorship of the proletariat with his other egg head buddies.

[PLMerite]

“...one last chance to fix it.”

I don’t think we can really fix it; I’m just hoping to kick the can down the road far enough to finish prepping and get the heck away from Zombie Ground Zero.

[central_va]

These global economic crashes always end in World War. Then the cycle starts over.

[jennings2004]

But, but, Hillary is giving 45 million to the Syrian rebels and 300 million to some Palestinian group...we couldn’t be broke if we are passing out money like it was water at a spring, could we? We could? Who knew?

[captmar-vell]

We’re not broke, we’ve been robbed,

[KC Burke]

Good distinction

[GOPJ]

If we round America's current GDP up to an even $16T, our public debt is now 70+ percent of our GDP.

We are sooooooo screwed.

[GOPJ]

One example is our carrier fleet ~ we can pull up next to and lay down fire anywhere we wish ~ and collect tribute if necessary.

Gimme an example of who we could collect 'tribute' from... someone who has the money - maybe Russia or China? They might fight back...

Remember - we're the people who give money to Egypt... and a few hundred other equally charming places... A better solution than collecting tribute might be to stop giving away our treasure in the first place...

[muawiyah]

you can’t be squeamish now. when you start collecting tribute you have to be fair ~ everybody out there gets a chance to pay ~ rich, poor, primitive, advanced ~ they all got something worth taking be it food, hides, minerals, fuel ~ you just do it.