The Daily Bail

Video: Kids speak out -- It's Not My Debt

Videos are in sequence. Just hit play and they will play one after another. After the first clip, the remaining clips run 5 seconds each.

---

Scene: Basement of the Washington Cathedral, the nightly Alcoholics Anonymous (Deficit Hawks Anonymous) meeting has just begun, and I'm about to speak.

Me: Hi my name is DB. I'm 44 years old and I'm a deficit hawk.

Other Alcoholics: Hi DB.

Me: I've been a deficit hawk since 1987. So 23 years give or take. Basically since Reagan got us started spending beyond our means. I hate, loathe, despise the fiscally and generationally irresponsible leadership of both political parties, and consider both to be of equal blame for our current mess.

Other Alcoholics: Boo, hiss. It's the Republicans fault. Clinton got us to a surplus and Bush destroyed it with the wars and tax cuts. (MODERATOR: The part about Bush is true, but the Clinton surplus was a mirage and would have disappeared no matter who became the next President. Remember the tech bubble -- federal and state tax receipts were grossly inflated as Mom and Pop daytraders rode SkyMall, Etoys and Stamps.com to riches.)

Still Other Alcoholics: It's the Democrats fault. They've never met an appropriations bill they didn't want to suckle and nurture. They've held the majority in Congress since the 1960s (except for 2002-2006), and their only act of fiscal discipline has been to raise the debt ceiling every 9 months so. MODERATOR: Bush might have complained about Congressional spending, but he started 2 expensive and illegal wars, and signed every appropriations bill the Democrats sent him.

Me: Shut the F*** up. Both sides. You are idiots. You have been fighting back and forth for 3 decades about deficits and nothing has been done. Nothing! Ross Perot warned you in 1992 that this day of unfunded entitlement reckoning was on its way. You came close, once, so exasperatingly close (1 vote shy---1 lousy vote) to an agreement (the Penny-Kasich Deficit Reduction Bill of 1993) that would have solved this problem. But alas, you failed. So on behalf of the American people, who balance their budgets every month (except for this couple), and on behalf of kids who have absolutely no say in their indebted futures, JUST STOP. Stop the fighting and blaming. Solve the problem.

---

Back to reality:

Quick question and I want a quick answer. Right now and for the foreseeable future, how many cents, of every federal dollar, are borrowed?

Answer: 43 cents, 43 cents, 43 cents, 43 cents. And as far as Treasury projects, it remains approximately 43 cents.

Given the incessant daily whining, from Keynesians Krugman, Reich, Romer and Delong, that deficit hawks will destroy the recovery, a cogent response from our side is needed. And it's simple.

You can NOT solve a problem of too much debt, with more debt. At least not when you're starting from our already elevated level of of debt to GDP. Clarke & Dawes explained it magnificently well. In fact, in 90 seconds, they explain the problem more succinctly than anyone ever has. Check it out (watch the first clip).

When Obama took office in 2009, total federal debt stood just short of $11 trillion. We are at $13.1 trillion today (increasing by $5 billion every day), and according to new projections from his Treasury department released Friday, we will add $6.5 trillion to that total over the next 4 1/2 years. That means he and Congress will have spent $9 trillion of future prosperity, stolen from your children, in just 7 years.

Again for the record, both parties (of more accurately the 1 corporate party -- the Washington Spending Machine) is to blame. Republicans have proven equally adept at stealing from your children. So none of my comments are politically based. If McPalin were running the show, and they were projecting these kinds of numbers, I would be spitting fire in their direction with equal psi.

Did I mention that we borrow 43 cents of every federal dollar spent? If we were borrowing 23 cents per buck, or even 13 cents, it would be unsustainable, and you should be pissed. But 43 cents. That is almost within the realm of the unconscionable. And yet Krugman and Delong are begging for more. And there are no plans, (absolutely none according to Bernanke) to reduce that number over the next decade.

A deeper look behind the numbers shows an extremely rosy scenario for economic growth is built into Treasury's assumptions -- north of 3% annually. If the growth doesn't materialize, which is possible, and some would say likely, then the debt/deficit numbers actually get much worse.

And we're not even counting the potential trillions in liabilities for Fannie & Freddie, and the greater than $60 trillion in unfunded entitlement liabilities. Add it all up and the true number for federal debt looks even more gruesome -- $99 trillion according to Dallas Fed President and deficit hawk Richard Fisher.

---

Anyone hear the joke about the once great nation that borrowed it's way into oblivion? Me neither, because it's not a freaking joke.

---

As an aside to the outstanding Business Insider writer Vincent Fernando, who believes we are mis-calculating the federal debt numbers -- if the U.S. Treasury and Fed President Richard Fisher both count intragovernmental holdings as part of total debt, then so should you. Otherwise, we are no better than Enron, Citigroup and Lehman Brothers, utilizing off-balance sheet shenanigans (lies) to hide the truth.

And isn't that what got us into this mess in the first place. By not paying attention to the true costs and future liabilities for government promises made, we've dug ourselves an exceptionally large hole. When you don't count all the numbers, you are directly enabling politicians to continue their games of generational thievery. Moreover, as mentioned above, when the unfunded entitlement liabilities come into play (plus Fannie & Freddie madness) the numbers are astonishingly worse -- $99 trillion vs. $13 trillion vs. the $8 trillion cited.

So back to my message.

Earth to Congress -- I have a newsflash for you. As Daltrey and Townsend sang decades ago, The Kids Are All Right, but they won't be paying this debt.

I've been saying it since the day we launched the Bail. Generational theft, which has been going on for decades, would eventually breed a Generational War. And now that looks to be a certainty. The only question is when the backlash begins in earnest. And while we await its commencement, we can work to mitigate its eventual impact. Start fixing it now. In five years it will be too late.

Debt and Deficit Truths:

Federal debt increases by $5 billion borrowed bucks per day.

In the 2 hours it took me to write this stupid post, the debt increased by $400 million or so.

In the 2 minutes it took you to read this, the burden on your children grew by a cool $8 million.

It took us over 200 years as a nation (from 1776 thru 1983) to accumulate a TOTAL national debt of $1 trillion.

Now and for the foreseeable future we will be adding $1 trillion to the national debt roughly every 8 months.

One last comforting thought, which I will be covering in more detail in the next story, Chairman Bernanke says we have no plan to fix the problem. Not that we needed to hear it from him (of all people) for it to be true, but I suppose it doesn't hurt our case.

---

I Pledge Allegiance to the Debt, and to the Chinese Government That Lends Us Money

---

Email to a Friend >>

PLEASE email, facebook, re-tweet, share and take our stories with you when you leave. Our only weapon against the madness is GREATER AWARENESS. Just by sending this story to a few friends, you'll be contributing to the formation of an aggressive, educated voter base that understands the economic peril of our failed debt, deficit and spending policies. Thank you.

---

Video: The Who -- The Kids Are All Right -- 1965

---

From Reuters:

The U.S. debt will top $13.6 trillion this year and climb to an estimated $19.6 trillion by 2015, according to a Treasury Department report to Congress.

The report that was sent to lawmakers Friday night with no fanfare said the ratio of debt to the gross domestic product would rise to 102 percent by 2015 from 93 percent this year.

"The president's economic experts say a 1 percent increase in GDP can create almost 1 million jobs, and that 1 percent is what experts think we are losing because of the debt's massive drag on our economy," said Republican Representative Dave Camp, who publicized the report.

He was referring to recent testimony by University of Maryland Professor Carmen Reinhart to the bipartisan fiscal commission, which was created by President Barack Obama to recommend ways to reduce the deficit, which said debt topping 90 percent of GDP could slow economic growth.

The U.S. debt has grown rapidly with the economic downturn and government spending for the Wall Street bailout, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the economic stimulus. The rising debt is contributing to voter unrest ahead of the November congressional elections in which Republicans hope to regain control of Congress.

The total U.S. debt includes obligations to the Social Security retirement program and other government trust funds. The amount of debt held by investors, which include China and other countries as well as individuals and pension funds, will rise to an estimated $9.1 trillion this year from $7.5 trillion last year.

By 2015 the net public debt will rise to an estimated $14 trillion, with a ratio to GDP of 73 percent, the Treasury report said. (Reporting by Donna Smith; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

---