By: Ron Paul
The national debt has reached 35 trillion dollars, a mere seven months after the debt reached 34 trillion dollars. To put this in perspective, the national debt first reached one trillion dollars in October of 1981, almost 200 years after the Constitution’s ratification!
The fact that the government was adding one trillion dollars in debt in little over half a year was not deemed worthy of comment by President Biden, Vice President Harris, and most other US politicians. This is not surprising since the national debt has not been a central issue in DC since the days of the Tea Party movement. The Tea Party’s efforts to focus attention on the debt resulted in a bipartisan deal that made minuscule spending cuts. In fact, most of the cuts were not real cuts. They were just reductions in the “projected rate of spending increase,” meaning the spending still increased but just by not as much as originally planned.
This was not the first time that apparent spending limits consisted of smoke and mirrors. For example, the budget “surpluses” of the 1990s were due to the government’s practice of counting the social security trust fund as both a liability and an asset, not because of bipartisan budget deals.
The Donald Trump-inspired rise of “populist nationalist conservatism” that does not emphasize the national debt means Republicans have less incentive to even talk about the debt — aside from making justifiable, though hypocritical, attacks on President Biden and congressional Democrats’ excessive spending. Similarly, the rise of a Bernie Sanders-influenced “new left” has led even centrist Democrats to stop giving lip service to the cause of deficit reduction.
Many Democrats, including those who have embraced Modern Monetary Theory, agree with former Vice President Dick Cheney that “deficits don’t matter.” Modern Monetary Theory asserts that as long as the central bank can monetize federal debt and keep interest rates low the government can endlessly increase the amount of debt. This is not really modern, as the Federal Reserve has long been acting as the “great enabler” of the federal debt.
Those who pretend deficits don’t matter ignore the fact that interest on the national debt will soon be the largest item in the federal budget, consuming as much as 40 percent of federal revenue. This is unsustainable. The devaluation of the dollar resulting from the Federal Reserve’s efforts to stimulate the economy and monetize federal debt, combined with increasing resistance to US hyper-interventionist foreign policy, will lead to a rejection of the dollar’s world reserve currency status. When that occurs, there will be a major economic crisis unlike anything this country has seen since the Great Depression.
This crisis could lead to increased support for authoritarianism in both the left and the right. The result will be even greater restrictions on economic and civil liberties and even more belligerent foreign policy, scapegoating those who reject the dollar’s reserve currency status for the country’s economic problems.
However, the economic crisis also can be followed by a society with minimal government and more liberty. The liberty movement is still growing. Those who understand the philosophy of liberty and sound economics must continue to spread the truth about the dangers of fiat money and the growth of government power and government debt. They must also communicate the benefits of the free market, personal liberty, sound money, and peace.
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This article (America Reaches a Sad Milestone) was originally created and published by the Ron Paul Institute and is republished with permission and attribution to the author Ron Paul and the website ronpaulinstitute.org.
Image Credit: In-Article image (added by TLB Staff)- Pixabay License.
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Also by this Author:
Supreme Court Takes Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
Republican Platform Ignores Real Causes of Inflation
Why We’ll Never Know What Really Happened in Butler, PA
The Debate Should Be a Wake-Up Call For Americans
We Spent a Billion Dollars Fighting the Houthis … and Lost
Anti-Liberty Conservatives Want More Theft
The Trump Trial and Our Injustice System
Biden’s Tariffs Are Another Nail in the Dollar’s Coffin
The Vietnamization of Ukraine
Will the Fed Lose Control?
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The First and Ninth Amendments to The Bill of Rights Guarantees to Every Citizen THE UNALIENABLE (GOD GIVEN) Human RIGHT To Hold Our Public servants Accountable To Each And Every Principle, Prohibition, Restriction and Declaration of The Declaration of Independence, Constitution And Bill of Rights For The United States of America.
FIRST AMENDMENT PETITION FOR REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES (12/20/11)
Relating to Violations of the United States Constitution
This Also Includes The Alleged Debt We Owe China – Trade Deals With Our Enemies And Allowing Our Enemies To Purchase Our Land Is ‘AIDING & ABETTING’ & A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT = TREASON.
FIRST AMENDMENT PETITION FOR REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES (12/20/11)
PUBLIC DEBT
WE THE FREE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, by and through the Unalienable, Individual Rights Guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution for the United States of America, hereby Petition the President of the United States and the members of the House of Representatives and Senate of the United States Congress for Redress of Our Grievances, to Honor their Oaths or Affirmations of Office and their Constitutional Obligations by responding to this Petition within forty (40) days, providing a formal acknowledgement of its receipt with a rebuttal of its legal arguments and statement of facts, or demonstrating a good faith effort to comply with its remedial instructions.
WHEREAS, by the terms and conditions of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution for the United States of America, We the People have expressly established a Republican Form of Government, empowering it to act only in certain ways, while purposely and patently restricting and prohibiting it from acting in certain other ways without Amendment, and
WHEREAS, the public debt is having a devastating, adverse impact on America’s economy and is contributing to the pauperization of Her People, and; WHEREAS, We the People are Entitled, By Right, to public debt that is Constitutionally valid, and;
WHEREAS, a portion of the debt of the United States was incurred in violation of the principle of Enumerated Powers, and in violation of Article I, Section 8, Clause 5 and Article I, Section 9, Clause 7 of the Constitution for the United States of America, and
WHEREAS, the First and Ninth Amendments to the Bill of Rights Guarantees to every American the Unalienable Right to hold the government (public servants) accountable to each and every principle, prohibition, restriction and mandate of The Declaration of Independence And Constitution for the United States of America, NOW THEREFORE:
WE THE PEOPLE hereby seek the following Remedies and Instruct the President and the members of Congress to respond to this First Amendment Petition for Redress of Grievances as follows:
1. Within forty (40) days following the service of this First Amendment Petition for Redress, the Congress of the United States, in the exercise of its power authorized by Article I, Section 7, Clause 1 of the Constitution for the United States of America, to originate “all bills for raising Revenue” and in the exercise of its power authorized by Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 of the Constitution for the United States of America “To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts…,” and in recognition of the prohibition in Article I, Section 9, Clause 6 of the Constitution for the United States of America that “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law,” and in recognition of the principle of “Enumerated Powers,” shall enact a statute:
(a) establishing a National Advisory Commission on the validity of the Public Debt,
and;
(b) calling upon each of the several States to establish their own State Advisory Commission on the validity of the Public Debt, and;
2. That the sole purpose of the said Advisory Commissions shall be to study, determine and quantify which part of the public debt is void and/or voidable under two principles of law, namely:
(i) Under the doctrine of the Supreme Court’s decision in Craig v. Missouri, 29 U.S. (4 Peters) 410 (1830), all contracts, agreements, or other arrangements in which any part of the consideration consists or consisted of the emission of unconstitutional “bills of credit” through or under the auspices of any Federal Reserve Bank, “member bank,” or “depositary institution” within the (privately owned) Federal Reserve System are void ab initio and unenforceable in any court of Law of the United States or of any State, and;
(ii) All alleged “public debts” of the United States, howsoever made and in whatever form, that have been incurred for the purpose of raising revenue to be expended from the general fund of the Treasury in payment of costs arising under a particular budget of the United States are void ab initio and unenforceable in any court of Law in the United States or of any State in the same percentage that the Unconstitutional programs, activities, or expenditures in that budget bear to the total programs, activities, or expenditures therein.
Furthermore, every lender is legally presumed to know, and must bear full and individual responsibility for, prior to such lending, having performed adequate due diligence and challenging, where appropriate, the intended use of such funds and the Constitutional Limits regarding the bona fide, lawful expenditures of money the general government borrows, to the same extent that every official of such government knows and is bound by Law and the Constitution to those same limitations and restrictions of public use, and;
Specially, if a lender extends a loan to public officials, knowing that his loan will be used for Unconstitutional purposes, or with willful blindness, reckless disregard or negligence regarding the Unconstitutionality of those purposes, the lender has thereby established himself as a participant in a fraud against the American People.
For the repayment of the fraudulent portions of such loans, there is NO LAWFUL RECOURSE, and the American People cannot be held liable for such repayment in any court of Law.
3. That said Advisory Commission shall be made up of persons selected by a Committee composed of: Dr. Edwin Vieira, Dr. Lawrence M. Parks, Judge Andrew Napolitano, G. Edward Griffin, Ronald Mann and William Bergman, and;
4. That, within ninety (90) days from the effective date of the said statute, the National Advisory Commission shall submit to Congress a report containing complete and specific drafts of all such legislation as may be necessary and proper for Congress to enact in order to achieve the goals set out in Paragraph 2, ante, for the Government of the United States, and;
5. That, within sixty (60) days of its receipt of the National Advisory Commission’s report pursuant to Paragraph 5, ante, Congress shall enact such legislation as will achieve the goals set out in Paragraph 2, ante, for the Government of the United States, and;
6. The President shall cooperate with and assist the Congress and the National Advisory
Commission in the performance of Paragraphs 1-5 above.
ALSO: The Supreme Court Committed Treason when they ruled Our Public servants do not have to respond to Our First Amendment Petitions of Grievances That Hold them Accountable.