E-Newsletter No. 128           August 2024

During his campaign to be the Republican nominee for president, Vivek Ramaswamy put forward a list of Ten Truths–

 1.  God is real.

 2.  There are two genders.

 3.  Human flourishing requires fossil fuels.

 4.  Reverse racism is racism.

 5.  An open border is no border.

 6.  Parents determine the education of their children.

 7.  The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind.

 8.  Capitalism lifts people up from poverty.

 9.  There are three branches of the U.S. government, not four.  

10. The U.S. Constitution is the strongest guarantor of freedom in history.

For conservatives, we know exactly what each of these ten truths mean, and we accept these long-standing and (until recently) universally accepted truths.  Unfortunately, there are elements of these truths that are being rejected by the Left.  For purposes of this short newsletter, we will let the above truths stand “as is.”  However, to give the Left their fair amount of airtime, we have prepared an Addendum where we discuss what we have heard from certain Leftists as to why they do not agree with these truths. 

US Debt Clock – – July 1^st – $103,500 per citizen / August 1st – $104,200

Left vs Right – Ten Truths – Addendum

E-Newsletter No. 128-A          August 2024

 1. God is real.  Conservatives don’t really care if you are a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew, a Hindu, a Buddhist, or even a (non-Jihadist) Muslim.  Conservatives only care if you are a moral person.  John Adams once said “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”  Unfortunately, it has become apparent that for many on the Left, their religion has become Big Government.  Some Leftists regularly attempt to remove the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance and oftentimes are seen excluding these words when they recite “their” pledge.

  2. There are two genders.  The science is real – the combinations of X and Y chromosomes determine gender.  If you have XX chromosomes, you are a female.  If you have XY chromosomes, you are a male.  Gender dysphoria is a mental-health disorder. Unfortunately, some Leftists (including a recently appointed and confirmed Supreme Court Justice) reject this science and instead believe that gender is a “social construct.”  According to Wikipedia, some Leftists believe there are over 50 genders.  Sponsoring Drag Queen Story Hours in schools and sowing the seeds of gender confusion in a young child’s mind is immoral. 

 3.  Human flourishing requires fossil fuels.  Eight times as many people die from cold temperatures as warm ones.  In fact, climate-related deaths have dropped 98% over the last century.  This is due to both heating and air-conditioning, which are primarily powered by fossil fuels.  These facts are not reported by the mainstream media, which focuses on spreading fear about a theoretical increase in temperatures 100 years from now.  The Left continues to try to use the fear of Global Warming (now known as “Climate Change”) in their war against fossil fuels.  The adverse economic effects of this war – high gasoline prices and the resulting high inflation – are detrimental to all of us, but especially to the poor.  Regular (normal) weather events are now automatically tied to this doomsday narrative.  Contrary to the projection by Al Gore in the 2006 documentary entitled An Inconvenient Truth, a 20-foot increase in sea levels “in the near future” has not happened.  The number and intensity of hurricanes and tornadoes have also not increased as they were “predicted” to do.  The mainstream media has also failed to report on the disastrous environmental effects of forcing consumers to purchase EVs, starting with the mining of the rare earth minerals that are needed to produce the batteries.  And the subsequent environmental effects of disposing these batteries (along with the disposal of wind turbine blades and solar panels) once they reach the end of their useful life is not reported at all. 

 4. Reverse racism is racism.  It was the Republican party that ended slavery in the 1860s.  It was the Republican party that pushed for and passed the 1960s era civil rights legislation (overcoming the obstacles and obstruction from the Democrat party).  The Democrat party is now fixated on race, whereas conservatives couldn’t care less about the amount of melatonin in a person’s skin.  “Systemic racism” and “White Privilege” are simply false narratives being pushed by the Democrat party and their allies in the mainstream media.  The 1619 Project is an attempt to re-write American History and help promote the teaching of Critical Race Theory in public schools.  The real underlying narrative of the Democrat party is that blacks are victims, and they need reparations and government welfare programs.  Reliance on the government only leads to an increase in dependency.  Buying votes, instead of helping people escape poverty, appears to be one of the primary objectives of the Democrat party’s welfare programs. 

5. An open border is no border.  It is shameful that we spend hundreds of billions of dollars in military aid to other countries, but we fail to protect our own southern border.  Illegal immigrants, human traffickers and fentanyl are crossing our open borders.  The Democrat party in many of the states they control is the party of failure, high taxes and increasing debt.  Citizens are fleeing those Blue states to move to Red states.  The Democrats need to re-fill their states with illegal aliens to maintain their seats in the US House of Representatives.  The apportionment of seats in the US House of Representatives should be based on the number of US citizens in each state, not the total number of people.  The Democrat party appears to be more interested in the welfare of illegal aliens instead of our country’s citizens.

6.  Parents determine the education of their children.  When Ralph Northam was governor of Virginia, he made the mistake of saying that the teachers unions and school administrators were the sole decision makers on what is taught in public schools.  Parents in Virginia said “I don’t think so” and voted him out of office.  Unfortunately, the Left will not stop in their efforts to indoctrinate our children via the public school system.  As Vladimir Lenin said, “Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.”  Parents know what is best for their kids.  The current monopoly that is run by the teachers unions and Democrat politicians needs to end and be replaced by school choice alternatives.

 7.  The nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to mankind.  Children in father-absent homes are almost four times more likely to be poor and twenty times more likely to end up in jail.  Nearly one-fourth of children in America don’t have a father in the home.  True “privilege” in our country is being raised in a stable family with two parents.  Until they removed this particular “plank” from their website, Black Lives Matter used to say “We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families… “  Obviously, conservatives do not agree with that particular recommendation.

8.  Capitalism lifts people up from poverty.  Capitalism has lifted more people up from poverty than any other economic system in the history of mankind.  Economic Socialism has never worked in any country where it has been tried, including Sweden and Denmark.  Capitalism is the only truly moral economic model that exists – it operates as a (non-coerced) exchange of goods and services between individuals who mutually benefit from the exchange.  Crony capitalism, which is the collusion between big businesses and big government is the economic model that the Democrat party is trying to advance.  Crony capitalism’s beneficiaries are the elites in those businesses and the government – at the expense of individuals.

9.  There are three branches of the U.S. government, not four.  The biggest open secret in modern America is that the people we elect don’t actually run the government.  The Administrative State is comprised of nonelected government officials who have no accountability to American citizens, only to the government itself, and oftentimes to the detriment of our country’s citizens.  The Founders never envisioned the massive size and scope of the current federal government.  Instead, they said in the Tenth Amendment that if something isn’t listed in the Constitution, it was a responsibility that was reserved to the States “or to the people.”  The amount of money wasted by the federal government is truly staggering, and the Democrat party regularly calls for more programs, more agencies, more taxes, and more spending.

10. The U.S. Constitution is the strongest guarantor of freedom in history.  “Progressive” Leftists tout themselves as being the “champions of democracy,” and they want to fundamentally transform our country.  In many ways they constantly demonstrate how they reject the original intent of the Constitution, especially the Tenth Amendment.  Our country was established as a Constitutional Republic, not a Democracy, where 51% get to rule over the other 49%.  The Left’s desire for power has no limits.  On the other hand, conservatives want a government so small you can barely see it.  As government grows, the freedom and liberty of each and every individual American citizen diminishes.

E-Newsletter No. 127           July 2024

In our July 2019 newsletter, we included a link to a video on the American Trinity.  These three fundamental American values are stamped onto every coin and are printed on all of our country’s currency. 

https://www.prageru.com/video/the-american-trinity-the-three-values-that-make-america-great/

There is a growing divide between the Left and Right on each of these fundamental values.  Conservatives hold fast to these values that date back to our country’s Founding.  The growing divide in our country is entirely due to the fact that the “progressive” Left has drifted away from these fundamental values.

E Pluribus Unum means Out of Many, One.  A standard Marxist tactic is to divide a country’s citizens into a variety of subgroups and then pit those groups against each other.  The examples are too numerous to list them all, but here is a sampling – Bourgeoise vs Proletariat, Rich vs Poor, Black vs White, One Ethnicity vs another, Men vs Women, Urban vs Rural, Young vs Old, Heterosexual vs LGBTQ+, and so on.  Conservatives would like our country to return to those days when there was an emphasis on a single, shared common denominator – being proud to be an American citizen.  Part of the problem is that the “progressive” Left wants to fundamentally transform our country.

Liberty is highly prized by Conservatives, and any form of coercion by the government is met with resistance.  The Pledge of Allegiance calls for Liberty for All.  However, it appears that Liberty means very little to those on the Left, who seem to be OK with the government running virtually every aspect of their lives.  This includes being forced to buy an EV, giving up incandescent light bulbs for LEDs, being forced to give up their gas stoves, being forced to pay off someone else’s student loans, etc.  And then there is the issue of protecting our unalienable rights that are under constant attack by the Left, i.e., Freedom of Speech, Religious Liberties, the Right to Bear Arms, etc.

And what about the motto “In God We Trust”?  Karl Marx despised religion, calling religion the opium of the masses.  It can be said that the religion of the Left is Big Government (along with the associated coercion).  The attacks on Religious Liberties by Leftists are not limited to the US and are not limited to attacks on Christianity.  The Left is bringing back antisemitism in the US and in other countries around the world.  And by now, you have probably seen the “parody” of the Last Supper during the opening ceremony of the Olympics in France.  The parody included a woman wearing a silver, halo-like headdress who stood at the center of a long table, drag queens posing on either side of her, and a nearly naked man painted blue on a dinner plate.  Yes, we concede that the organizers of the Olympics have Freedom of Speech to produce their “art.”  Their justification was that it was an attempt to broaden diversity, community, and inclusion.  However, the parody was a despicable mockery of Christianity.  The good news is that the resulting loss of viewership of the Olympics has been one of the welcome side effects of the organizers’ poor decision.

US Debt Clock – – June 1^st – $103,300 per citizen / July 1st – $103,500

E-Newsletter No. 126           June 2024

Many of the differences between the Democrat party and the Republican party were on full display during the June 27, 2024, debate between president Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump. 

Donald Trump stressed safety and security issues and protecting the rights of our country’s citizens.  These are the legitimate and constitutional roles of the federal government, which are to the benefit of all citizens under the general welfare clause.

Joe Biden promised additional federal government spending on a growing list of programs that are to the benefit of specific subgroups of our country’s citizens.  These “progressive” priorities are the root cause of the growth in the size and scope (and intrusiveness) of the federal government.  None of this spending was ever contemplated by our country’s founders when they wrote the Constitution.  The role of the (limited) federal government is spelled out in Article 1, Section 8, and the Tenth Amendment says that the powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the States or to We the People. 

US Debt Clock – – May 1^st – $103,100 per citizen / June 1st – $103,300

E-Newsletter No. 125           May 2024

In our previous newsletters we have discussed the weaponization of various federal government agencies.  This month, we discuss the collusion between the federal government and the mainstream media.  We all know about the government’s use of the media to advance their various narratives – – i.e., the alleged collusion between the Trump campaign Russia (there was none), the “murder” of George Floyd (he was not), the 2020 summer of mostly peaceful protests (they were not), the “murder” of US Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick (he was not), the January 6^th “insurrection” (it was not), and that Hunter Biden’s laptop was a case of Russian disinformation (no, it was very real).  We also know about the government’s collusion with Big Tech firms to censor free speech on social media platforms, whereby a posting by an individual who disagrees with an established government narrative (primarily relating to the Covid pandemic and / or “vaccines”) would get their account suspended or revoked. 

It is true that governments use the media to advance their established narratives. Nazi Germany in the 1930s is a well-known example of a government’s use of propaganda.   Unfortunately, in many cases, the established narratives have subsequently been found to be false (see the list above).  But the weaponization of the media continues to occur.  A case in point is the shifting narrative on “Global Warming” (now known as “Climate Change”) and the ongoing war against fossil fuels and the government’s attempts to advance The Green New Deal. 

Another issue is the mainstream media’s abandonment of its primary responsibility to investigate and objectively report facts that come to light from their investigations.  It could very well be that the last best examples of journalists who fulfilled that obligation were Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein who covered the Watergate scandal back in 1972 and 1973.  (“Follow the money”).  Other than a committee of the US House of Representatives, who in the media is investigating and reporting on the flow of funds from foreign governments to members of the Biden family?

Fortunately, there continues to be a few (non-mainstream) media companies that continue to investigate and report on important issues of the day.  The following link is to a documentary on the Weapons of Mass Migration – 

Weapons of Mass Migration | NEW Documentary              MassMigrationFilm.com/share

Have we heard about any of these facts from the mainstream media?

US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito recently delivered a commencement address at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, a Catholic college in Ohio.  In his remarks about freedom of speech, he stated that “troubled waters are slamming against some of our most fundamental principles… Support for freedom of speech is declining dangerously.” A college campus should be a place where the exchange of ideas should be most protected, but very few colleges live up to that ideal.

Freedom of speech and an unfettered and objective media have been a vital part of our country’s heritage.  The citizens of our country are in danger of losing that legacy due to the federal government’s weaponization of the mainstream media.

US Debt Clock – – April 1^st – $102,900 per citizen / May 1st – $103,100

E-Newsletter No. 124            April 2024

A two-tiered justice system – An inequitable (unequal) system whereby some people face harsh punishment, while powerful people who commit crimes enjoy immunity.

Lawfare – Legal action(s) undertaken as part of a hostile campaign against a group of people or an individual.

Anyone who has studied history probably has developed a basic understanding of how wars are fought.  Military campaigns are conducted using a variety of weapons. 

Political campaigns are conducted by conveying messages – messages about policy issues, values and principles, and goals and objectives.  The messages are delivered at rallies and during interviews, and (in a perfect world) are covered objectively by a media that doesn’t insert their own bias into the reporting.

A growing number of voters on both the Left and the Right are beginning to realize that over the past several years, our country is moving towards a two-tiered justice system.  Many on the Left are just as concerned about this development as are conservatives, because they realize an unequal legal system is a danger to the future of our country. 

Unfortunately, some people either deny the evidence or are OK with this development, because to achieve their objectives, the ends they seek to achieve are justified by any means necessary.  Some political campaigns include a tactic to suppress their opponents’ messages.  More on that next month. 

–     –     –     –     –     –     –

This month the US Congress passed a $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine and Israel.  Unfortunately, the legislation did not include any funding to protect our country’s citizens from the invasion that is occurring on our southern border.

US Debt Clock – – March 1^st – $102,350 per citizen / April 1st – $102,900

E-Newsletter No. 123            March 2024

The list is long, and we don’t have enough space this month to go into a detailed discussion about these incidents, but we are providing a partial list of some of the federal government’s recent transgressions:  Lois Lerner and the IRS targeted conservative groups by screening for key words such as “patriot” or “tea party” when processing the groups’ applications for Not for Profit status; the FBI (at the behest of the teachers unions) labeled parents who protested at school board meetings as being domestic terrorists; the FBI characterized Catholics with a devotion to the Traditional Latin Mass as possible domestic threats; and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), the Office of the US Surgeon General, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the FBI, and the White House colluded with Big Tech companies (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google, et al) to censor free speech that deviated from the Left’s narrative(s) about vaccines and the pandemic.

And let’s not forget the suppression of the New York Post’s reporting on the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop in the month prior to the 2020 election.

Our unalienable rights are under attack by the Left.  It is oftentimes said that the Second Amendment is necessary to provide protection for a person’s life as well as their unalienable rights.  We will go into a further discussion about the federal government’s attacks on freedom of speech, religious liberties, and the right to peaceably assemble in next month’s newsletter.

During a recent session of the US Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson made a comment that the First Amendment “hamstrings” the federal government.  Yep.  Our Founders were very wise when they listed these unalienable rights that need protection from the overreach of government (because that is what governments eventually attempt to do).  Either she is incredibly ignorant about the reasons behind the Bill of Rights, or she doesn’t care about our citizens’ rights.  Should we expect more of someone who sits on the country’s top court?  Absolutely, yes.   Unfortunately, this is what you get when it’s more important to fulfill DEI quotas rather than choose someone who respects the oath of office they take to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

_     _    _     _     _     _

Well, the federal government’s budget for the fiscal year that began last October 1^st has finally been passed by Congress.  This year, we didn’t suffer from Congress passing an Omnibus spending bill.  Instead, we got two “minibus” bills.  Could it have been worse?  Without a doubt.  Many of the Left’s spending requests were eventually denied.  Could it have been better?  Absolutely.  We have included a link to Rand Paul’s 14-minute speech on the Senate floor about earmarks and pork barrel spending.  More importantly, he reinforced the fundamental concepts espoused by our country’s Founders in the US Constitution, and he clarified the meaning of the General Welfare clause, which has been perverted by the Left. 

Sen. Rand Paul exposes shocking pork barrel spending

Special interest spending is not for the general welfare of the country. This unconstitutional spending leads to generalized inflation, and inflation is a general punishment on our country’s citizens.  The resulting deficit and the growing debt problem are an immoral punishment that is being inflicted upon our children and grandchildren.

It just so happens that on Monday, March 11^th, the Biden administration released its proposed $7.3 trillion spending plan and budget for fiscal 2025.  The $1.5 trillion deficit projected for the current year is projected to rise to $1.8 trillion next year.  The ten-year projection foresees no discernable decrease in the amount of the annual deficit, because there is no change in the Democrat party’s desire to buy more votes and further bankrupt our country. 

US Debt Clock – – February 1^st – $101,640 per citizen / March 1st – $102,350

E-Newsletter No. 122            February 2024

Tyranny – Cruel, unreasonable, or arbitrary use of power or control.

Tyranny has always existed in history.  In the mid- to late 1700s, the source of tyranny in America was King George.  Over half of the text of The Declaration of Independence was a list of grievances, documenting the tyranny the colonists were experiencing. 

In today’s world, tyranny can emanate from a wide variety of sources – – the federal government’s Administrative State, from state legislative bodies, and even from a “democratic” majority that wishes to exercise its power over other people’s lives.  A companion word that accompanies tyranny is coercion – the use of power to achieve a result that other individuals oppose.

Let’s start with the Second Amendment.  The government’s desire to restrict our citizens’ rights to keep and bear arms emanates from the Democrat party and its leadership in the federal government.  The Left was able to pass a federal “assault weapons” ban in 1994, which subsequently expired in 2004.  Subsequent studies on the effectiveness of the ban, including a congressionally mandated study, a 2014 study published in a book by the Oxford University Press and a 2020 Rand Corporation review, concluded there was no compelling evidence the ban saved lives.

However, the Left’s desire to impose its will on our country’s citizens has not abated.  Another tactic of the Left is to pass legislation at the state level, in the hope that a state law will help set a precedent that can then be applied in other jurisdictions.  Fortunately, these laws have consistently been overturned by the US Supreme Court, which has the responsibility to follow the original intent of the US Constitution to protect our citizens’ unalienable rights.

History has many examples of what tragically happens when citizens’ unalienable rights are violated.  The list is long, but we will only mention one of the most tragic examples.  In November 1938, the Verordnung gegen den Waffenbesitz der Juden prohibited the possession of firearms and bladed weapons by Jews.  We all know what happened to the Jews in Germany in the subsequent years. 

It is oftentimes said that one of the primary reasons for the Second Amendment is to protect our citizens’ rights listed in the First Amendment.  That is the discussion for next month’s newsletter.

_     _    _     _     _     _

BTW – As you may recall, Congress “punted” (yet again) on the federal government’s budget for the year that began last October 1^st.  The new targeted date for some of those appropriation bills is now March 1^st and is March 8^th for the other appropriation bills.  Let’s see what they’ll do (or not do).      

US Debt Clock – – January 1^st – $101,230 per citizen / February 1st – $101,640

E-Newsletter No. 121            January 2024

What is “the Administrative State”?  The simple textbook answer is – – The Administrative State is part of the Executive Branch and is comprised of the various agencies that have been established to perform the functions of the federal government.  It is oftentimes referred to as the “Fourth Branch” of the government.  On our website, we have an original Conversation Piece from October 2013 that lists those various agencies.

What-The-Government-Should-and-Should-Not-Do.pdf (f2ppr.org)

Set aside for a moment that the annual spending amounts shown in that Conversation Piece are from ten years ago, along with the fact that the current annual deficit amount is now a multiple of what it was back then.  We also need to momentarily set aside the issue that most of these departments and agencies are a violation of the Tenth Amendment, and this spending and the resulting deficit that arises is a direct result of the “progressive” movement. 

You will notice that at the top of the list is the Social Security Administration, which is a socialist concept that if left unaltered will eventually lead to the financial ruin of future generations.  Back in October 2013, we indicated that if the functions of several of these “non-constitutional” agencies were to be handled by the states and civil society groups, the spending of the federal government could be reduced by over 48 percent.  And that reduction didn’t even include any cuts for Social Security, which we subsequently addressed a few years later in The 2020 Initiative. We recommend slowly systematically transforming the Social Security program into a means-tested welfare benefit.

In conservative circles, the Administrative State is oftentimes referred to as The Swamp, rife with all sorts of fraud and abuse.  In its most corrupt state, it is also referred to as The Deep State – – agencies run by unelected bureaucrats with their own self-interests, with no accountability, and pursuing their own (oftentimes hidden) objectives, rather than providing for the general welfare of the country as a whole.  In recent years, one of the most troubling aspects of The Deep State is how those agencies are being weaponized against We-The-People.  That is the topic for next month’s newsletter.       

US Debt Clock – – December 1^st – $100,710 per citizen / January 1st – $101,230

E-Newsletter No. 120            December 2023

Article I of the US Constitution sets out the structure and the responsibilities of the Legislative Branch of the federal government.  Our October and November newsletters discussed our country’s dysfunctional Congress and its lack of fiscal responsibility.  This month we will address Article II and the Executive Branch. 

Article II states that the executive power of the federal government shall be vested in the President of the United States.  Under the system of checks and balances laid out by our country’s Founders, the Legislature writes laws, the Executive Branch executes those laws, and the Judiciary has the responsibility to address all cases, in law and equity, under the Constitution.  Article II requires that the President “shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” and it states that the President shall also be the Commander in Chief of the various branches of our country’s military.

Let’s first address military matters, because one of the most important responsibilities of the federal government is to protect our country from foreign adversaries.  The Legislature appropriates the funds that are needed by our military and (on paper) has the sole power to declare war.  However, the last war that was formally declared by Congress under the provisions of the Constitution was our country’s involvement in World War II.  All other military engagements since WW2 have been conducted under the direction of the President as Commander in Chief.  Regardless of how these military engagements are initiated, the successes and failures of these engagements (which include the disastrous withdrawal of our forces from Afghanistan in August 2021) is the responsibility of the Commander in Chief.

As noted above, Article II requires that “the laws be faithfully executed.“  Unfortunately, our country’s immigration laws are not being faithfully executed.  As a matter of fact, the disastrous situation that has been occurring on our southern border for the past several years is a direct result of refusing to execute the laws that have been passed by Congress.  The term “illegal alien” is well documented in our country’s statutes.  However, the preferred term now being used by the current administration is “undocumented migrant.”  Illegal aliens are committing a crime by entering our country in violation of our country’s laws.  The primary problem is that our country’s laws are not being faithfully executed.

A growing Constitutional problem is the President’s use of Executive Orders.  All laws are supposed to be passed by the Legislature.  The Executive Branch should not write laws (nor unilaterally forgive student loan indebtedness in defiance of Nancy Pelosi and the Supreme Court).  In his first year in office, President Barack Obama issued 39 Executive Orders.  In his first year in office, President Donald Trump issued 55 Executive Orders (many of which were to reverse Executive Orders issued by President Obama).  In his first year in office, President Joe Biden issued 77 Executive Orders (many of which were to reverse Executive Orders issued by President Trump).  Our Editorial Board believes that every Executive Order should be voted on by the House of Representative and Senate, and if a majority of both houses agree, it would be OK for that Executive Order to take effect.

Next month, we will address “the Administrative State” (aka “the Swamp”) which has resulted in a massive increase in the size and scope of the federal government.  Many of these departments are outside the scope of the US Constitution (our Founders would not approve) and unfortunately, many of these departments in effect both write the rules and regulations (the laws) and then interpret and adjudicate any issues that arise.      

US Debt Clock – – November 1^st – $100,350 per citizen / December 1st – $100,710

E-Newsletter No. 119            November 2023

We are deferring our discussion about the Executive Branch and our weaponized Administrative State (aka the Swamp) until next month.  This month’s newsletter will pick up on the ongoing dysfunction relating to the federal government’s lack of fiscal responsibility.

As you recall, when the federal government’s new fiscal year was about to begin on October 1^st and the required appropriation bills had not yet been passed, Congress chose to continue to follow “business as usual” and passed a short-term Continuing Resolution to provide authorization for continued spending at current spending levels through Friday November 17^th (right before Thanksgiving).  This ongoing dysfunction of failing to pass the required appropriation bills on a timely basis cost Kevin McCarthy his job as Speaker of the House, because his “deal” with House conservatives back in January was to not let this happen yet again.

Are things any better now that the House of Representatives has elected Mike Johnson as Speaker?  In our opinion, the answer is “Somewhat.”  On November 14th, the US House passed a “laddered” Continuing Resolution, which was subsequently approved by the Senate and signed by President Biden on November 16^th.  This temporarily averted a government shut down, as the can was again successfully kicked down the road.  Spending at current levels under four of the appropriations can continue until January 19^th and can continue for the other eight appropriations until February 2^nd.

While all of this was going on this past month, a significant and unprecedented event happened, which received close to zero coverage by the corrupt mainstream media.  The amount of the federal government’s “on book” debt owed on behalf of every citizen (every man, woman, retiree and minor child) is now officially over $100,000 each.  How we got to this unprecedented level of debt is easy to discern.  The issue is not due to a “government revenue” problem – – the taxes that taxpayers pay is burdensome enough.  The debt problem continues to grow due to unchecked spending by the government.  As we discussed last month, the unfortunate truth is that the largest portion of this spending is for the Socialist programs known as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and welfare, along with interest on the constantly growing debt.  The government is putting this spending on its “credit card” and is pushing the obligation onto future generations.  It’s no wonder that the government’s credit rating was recently downgraded.

This month, we added a new Conversation Piece to our website.  Fiscally responsible individuals need to “manage their checkbook.”  Unfortunately, the federal government’s financing is upside down (basically, the checkbook balance is zero) so the government finds itself (mis)managing its “debt book.”  We didn’t go all the way back to the start of the government’s debt book, but the link below takes you to a table that shows the progression of the government’s debt amount (which is driven by the spending requests of the Progressive Left) since January 1, 2014.  This “debt book” balance has grown to $33.7 trillion as of November 1, 2023.

www.f2ppr.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/The-Federal-Governments-Debt-Book.xls  

US Debt Clock – – October 1^st – $98,800 per citizen / November 1st – $100,350