Kakistocracy: We are Ruled by Charlatans, Knaves, and Fools, Part V

Kakistocracy is a system of government run by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state!  This series confirms that.

By Rich Kozlovich  

(Editor's Note:  This is Part V in this ongoing series.  Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV.  You may wish to view my entire kakistocracy file, which will include the five articles from this series, and twelve more.  More are on the way. RK)

 

We've just had a major shakeup in the Republican House forcing Speaker of the House McCarthy out of the Speakers Chair.  As time has gone by it's become more than obvious everything the  said about him was true. And what was the first thing McCarthy did when he lost? He said he wasn't going to honor his obligations to his party, or his constituents and finish out his term.  He decided to take his marble and go home to pout.   

However, the problem that caused all that trouble hasn't gone away, and it's never going to go away.  The Budget!

Now we have Speaker Johnson, and he's also finding this whole process difficult, although I've got to give him credit for style.  He seem unflappable, in spite of calls for is removal over the budget negotiations.  I'll tell you what, we'll come back to that.

The fact is America has a  $34 trillion dollar national debt, which in just one year that debt soared to over three trillion dollars more.  As Thaddeus G. McCotter notes in this article:

 

The political truism remains valid: politicians spend other people’s money to get votes.  Unless and until the citizenry decides to vote against such candidates, the spending spree will proceed.

 

This side step to the Constitution, which requires Congress to pass an annual budget, called a Continuing Resolution has been a problem since it's unconstitutional conception.  Now we have a Johnson/Pelosi/Schumer continuing resolution creating a short-term spending extension.

The House passed a short-term spending extension only hours after the bill cleared the Senate, pushing the next shutdown threat to March and surrendering Republican leverage on enacting a border security package. The continuing resolution (CR) passed 314-108, extending spending levels and priorities set by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in December 2022 during a lame-duck session of Congress.

 

Although Johnson manged to get 16 billion dollars cut from discretionary spending, against 34 trillion in debt, and 1.75 million in extra spending, that's not that impressive.  Since this is the kind of stuff they ousted McCarthy for we find Marjorie Taylor Greene is threatening to oust Speaker Mike Johnson over this deal.  I'll tell you what, we'll come back to that.  

Let's not delude ourselves, 34 trillion dollars is a lot of darned money, 

 

“The federal debt starts the new year at a level that is hard to grasp: $34 trillion,”........…federal deficits now look scarier.”........“Unsustainable,” Marc Goldwein, senior vice president at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, told the Washington Post while describing the situation.  “Dangerous… a truly depressing ‘achievement,’” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, in a CNN interview.  “Pretty grim,” Loyola Marymount University economics professor Sung Won Sohn told the Associated Press.  That legacy media are no longer shrugging off concerns about the federal debt is encouraging, if long overdue.  After all, it doesn’t take a PhD in economics to realize that racking up $34 trillion in debt — an amount 20 percent higher than the nation’s GDP, with a debt-to-GDP ratio higher than during World War II — is a serious problem. 

 

Chip Roy: Why Are We Giving Money to Mayorkas While Talking About Impeaching? ...........“Look, it’s not about just restoring Trump policies,” he continued. “We actually need to enforce existing law and make sure the law is very clear so that it cannot be violated like it’s currently being violated. So, you ensure you will detain, you will remove, or you will stay in Mexico. That’s what we did in H.R.2. It’s not complicated. As long as you release people — Mayorkas has released 85 to 90 percent of all the people they’re encountering. We know those are not true asylum seekers...........

Betrayed AGAIN: Here Are the Republicans Who Voted to Fund Bribery Biden’s Corrupt Runaway Spending - It’s a Democrat CR bill being brought up by a Republican House Speaker and passed by the UniParty. Almost half of the Republicans voted against it (106), while just 2 Democrats voted no. The DC UniParty in its full glory.

And what do we find on the left?  According to another economist in the above article, Stephanie Kelton, a professor of economics at Stony Brook University, says we have little to fear.  She calls this "keeping track of our savings".  "The idea that debt is just “keeping track of our savings” is peculiar. But Kelton is a peddler of strange ideas."  But how do you reason with people who are so obviously and blatantly strange, including these politicians who apparently agree with her.

Are there alternatives?  Here's one offered by Chris Talgo in this American Thinker article, “CPI-X: A Novel Method to Decrease Spending and the National Debt,” saying"

 

........ economist Darren Brady Nelson provides a blueprint for an objective and politically feasible plan to reduce federal spending back to 2008 levels.   In a nutshell, CPI-X would tether federal spending to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), using the CPI as a baseline, and accomplishing actual spending cuts via the “X” in the equation. The X-factors in CPI-X are derived from benchmarking the spending of the U.S. federal government, states, and other countries along 10 basic policy areas, such as defense, health, education, etc.........CPI-X can deliver that much-needed and long-overdue overhaul to the federal budget. But time is of the essence, for the longer we wait to implement these spending cuts, the worse it will get.

 

Sounds impressive, and here's another solution, and the one I like. Let the government shut down, and let it shut down for as long as it takes to force a balanced budget.  

As long as the Republicans fear a shutdown, and understandably so since every time it's happened the Democrats, with massive corrupt support from the media, has managed to put the blame on Republicans.   And they buckle every time.  The no guts no glory invertebracy in the Republican party is legendary.  Their cowardice is foundational to their failure to putting up the dogged and brutal fight necessary to win.   And the Democrats know it. 

So, now that brings Johnson's Speakership into question, and the Democrats are willing to help, for a price:

• Democrats Promise to Bail out Speaker Johnson if He Backs Immigration Plot
• Democrats Offer to Help Mike Johnson Keep Speakership — at a Price

So, all Speaker Johnson has to do is sell out the nation and he can stay Speaker.   Well, before there's any sell out, or any budget deal, perhaps they may wish to look at the amount of government waste in one year. 

 

In 2021, your federal government spent $6 million every single minute.  That’s $9 billion every day, almost $3 trillion per year.  For just a glimpse of that insanity, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a part of the enormous Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS), has 27 Institutes and Centers (I.C.s), and in fiscal year 2020 had a budget of $41.6 billion (plus a separate $3.6 billion for COVID-19 that year).  

 

President Biden’s request for fiscal year 2023 was almost $49 billion...plus the new “mandatory” budget items ($5 billion for a new Advanced Research Projects Agency — Health, $12.5 billion for Pandemic Preparedness, and $1.2 billion for PHS Program Evaluation, etc.), which runs the total to over $62 billion.  All 27 I.C.s asked for more money; last year, the Office of the Director was the only unit that took a “cut,” from $2.521 billion to $2.519 billion.  It asked for $2.728 billion for next year.

Waste and corruption galore, and we're to assume they're unaware of all that?  If so, then we can demonstrably show just how fiscally irresponsible they are, and more justification for a long shutdown.  

Not everyone is as stupid as the CEO of World’s Largest Bank Hints at Historic Crash:

The world’s most powerful CEO just issued a grave warning to Americans:

“This may be the most dangerous time the world has seen in decades.”

His comment sent a wave of anxiety rippling through the investing world. Why? Because as the CEO of JPMorgan, the world’s largest bank, Jamie Dimon has access to more financial information than anyone. And he didn’t rise to power as a hot-head or doom-and-gloomer. He is calm, calculating, and knows the gravity of his words.  So, if he believes political instability is reaching a boiling point – one that could even hurt the world’s largest bank – smart investors take evasive action. Dimon later got more specific when he said, “The danger is government debt and inflation.” He’s right. Our $34 trillion federal debt is a ticking time bomb.

For those who keep touting insane leftist schemes, try this. Cuba's economy is running on fumes, without tourists bringing in foreign currency, the country can't afford enough fuel.

Government subsidies, a hallmark of the communist regime, are finally facing real cuts. For years, Havana took small steps to reform the economy, careful not to undermine regime stability. But things are getting desperate. For example, the government said Monday that 29 fuel stations would accept only dollars, a move that it hopes will raise more foreign currency and support fuel imports.

Is Cuba of today the America of tomorrow?  I've said this in the past, and I will say it in the future. My grandfather, a coal miner and farmer, was one of the world's great economist. He said if you spend more than you make, you'll go broke.  

That's "The Inevitability Factor: When Reality Reaches It's Apex!"