The price of an Empire is the cost necessary to sustain it. The benefits of an Empire are economic growth and security. Without a strong military, an Empire may not retain its economic growth nor provide security for its people.
Is there a point, though, at which the cost of the military exceeds the ability to pay for it?
America may be testing those limits. The interest on debt payments in 2021 was $575 billion of which $392 billion was paid on debt held by the public. The total debt at the end of 2021 was ~$28 trillion. The US cannot sustain this level of spending and remain financially solvent. Is it sustainable when the debt servicing plus military spending exceeds $ 1.37 trillion a year? Of course not.
America Needs Financial Reform
America’s COVID-19 economic contraction is reflected in the ~30% change in the Debt-to-GDP ratio you see in this chart. The imploding devaluation of America’s stock market indicates the GDP will not soon return to pre-COVID levels. Reducing America’s debt and the cost of America’s military should now be the goal of every political party in America.
The two main political parties believe America should choose between 80+ social programs (social security, food stamps, healthcare, etc.) or the US military. Cutting social programs will increase the misery of many Americans. And using those cuts to support the already excessive US military budget is dishonorable.
Reserving the economic benefits of the Empire for wealthy Americans at the expense of the working-poor Americans is also unacceptable.
Debt servicing and the military budget need to be reduced rationally and reasonably.
Some political parties shout, “Taxation is confiscation” when asked to pay more to help the sick, the poor, and the disabled to live an honorable and decent life. They see the poor as permanently incapable of caring for themselves and therefore unworthy of support through taxes. Those Americans talk about Big Charity rather than Big Government social programs. Unfortunately, Big Charity is a trickle while the US government is a servant leadership firehose.
The Need for Sustainable Reform
One-half of America’s budget goes to military spending. Debt servicing approaches 1/3 of the US Operations budget. However, you will not find a slice in the White House pie chart for debt servicing. Why? Because these public pie charts are intended to show you operational expenses and not financial expenses. Just ask yourself why don’t interest payments on debt show on this pie chart? Because it is hidden in Treasury reports. The re-payment of debt needs to become visible to Americans, and America needs a debt reduction plan.
America requires:
a) sustainable approaches to ensure its social programs and military needs are met,
b) a debt reduction plan, and
c) citizens to support a Reform Party who will transform America from a debtor nation to a creditor nation.
The two parties who got us into this mess are not the parties who will get us out of this mess.
The Reform Party makes one more observation. The prestigious GAO Report this year echoes the call-to-arms that Ross Perot sounded in 1992. In its May 2022 report, the GAO uses many of the same words as the three-decade-old Reform Party uses: (italics added)
“An effective fiscal plan would support the difficult policy decisions needed to achieve a more sustainable fiscal policy, one where publicly-held debt is stable or declining relative to the size of the economy. Our work has identified several components of an effective fiscal plan:
Incorporate well-designed fiscal rules and targets to help manage debt by controlling factors such as spending and revenue.
Assess the drivers of the primary deficit, such as mandatory and discretionary spending and tax policy—including tax expenditures.
Consider alternative approaches to the debt limit; and
Address financing gaps for the Medicare Health Insurance and Social Security Old-Age Survivors Insurance trust funds, which are projected to be depleted by 2026 and 2033, respectively.”
The choice is ours, fellow citizens. Choose Reform at the polls this year. Choose the Reform Party USA.
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