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The National Debt: Far Worse Than You Realize
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When Pompeo replaces Tillerson at the State Department
he faces challenges from North Korea, Syria and Iran
by By Reuel Marc Gerecht
{ foxnews.com } ~ President Trump’s announcement Tuesday that he has removed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and will nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo... to head the State Department will likely leave Pompeo spending most of his time in his new job dealing with three nations: North Korea, Syria and Iran. The easiest will be North Korea. The odds are microscopic that direct talks between President Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un will lead to an agreement for North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons. The proposed Trump-Kim meeting proves once again the enormous value that the possession of nuclear weapons and the rapid development of intercontinental ballistic missiles confers upon North Korea. Because of North Korea’s nuclear weapons, an American president says he is willing to meet an Orwellian dictator of a small, bankrupt state. Kim’s hold on power has depended upon nuclear blackmail, criminality, proliferation, the confiscation of wages paid to indentured North Korean laborers in other countries, and Chinese support....
Book Provides New Details About Major Steele Dossier Source
by CHUCK ROSS
{ dailycaller.com } ~ During the 2016 presidential campaign, the founder of the opposition research firm behind the Steele dossier tipped a major news network off to Sergei Millian... a Belarus-born businessman who has been identified as a source for the salacious claims made in the dossier. Glenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion GPS, provided the tip to ABC News despite having doubts about the veracity of Millian’s claims about President Donald Trump. That’s according to “Russian Roullette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump,” a book written by Michael Isikoff and David Corn that hit shelves on Tuesday... http://dailycaller.com/2018/03/13/russian-roullette-book-steele-dossier-source/ .
Blue States Prey On Poor And Minorities Using This ‘Tax’
by Nathan Cherry
{ finance.townhall.com } ~ The simplest way to understand the lottery is as a tax... It is a regressive tax on predominantly poor or lower income people. Essentially, the lottery is state/government sanctioned gambling. A state might outlaw back room gambling, or odds betting on sports and horses, but they gladly sanction gambling through the lottery and casinos because of the massive revenue stream they receive through the sale of lottery tickets. We quickly learn that states don't actually have a problem with gambling, they just want their cut of the profits. The lottery, then, is nothing less than another tax enacted by the government on sometimes unsuspecting people. And though the lottery is a voluntary tax, it is often pushed by media hype as the growing jackpot becomes a focal point of the news. And though studies have long-shown the financial damage caused by the lottery to lower-income people, this tax doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon. The government is not likely to end such a large revenue stream. So the preying goes on... https://finance.townhall.com/columnists/nathancherry/2018/03/14/blue-states-prey-on-poor-and-minorities-using-this-tax-n2460829?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl.
Kim Jong Un Let The World In
On A Secret That Could Change Everything
{ americanpatriotdaily.com } ~ “Kim Jong Un wants to sign a peace treaty after meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, South Korean media reported... reviving a long-held goal of the North Korean regime. Kim is likely to raise the possibility of a peace treaty, along with establishing diplomatic relations and nuclear disarmament, during a meeting with the U.S. leader, the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper said Monday, citing an unidentified senior official in South Korea’s presidential office. Trump last week agreed to meet Kim, although key details of the summit have yet to be decided. Koh Yu-hwan, who teaches North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul, said the regime has long sought a peace treaty to end the more than 60-year-old ceasefire between the two sides and help guarantee its safety. “There were agreements between the U.S. and North Korea to open up discussion on a peace treaty, but they never materialized,” Koh said, saying the conditions were key. “The U.S. wants a peace treaty at the end of the denuclearization process, while for the North, it’s the precondition for its denuclearization.”... http://www.americanpatriotdaily.com/featured/kim-jong-un-secret-could-change-everything/ .
Jim Mattis Defines Victory in Afghanistan:
‘Political Reconciliation’ Between Kabul and Taliban
by EDWIN MORA
{ breitbart.com } ~ The Trump administration is pushing for Afghan-led reconciliation between Taliban narco-jihadists and Kabul... as U.S. military and intelligence officials reportedly expressed concern that Afghanistan is teetering on the brink of providing haven to terrorists seeking to attack America. During a surprise visit to the country on Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis described victory in Afghanistan as facilitating the reconciliation between Taliban terrorists and Kabul rather than defeating the jihadists on the battlefield. Echoing U.S. Gen. John Nicholson, the top commander of American and NATO troops in Afghanistan, Mattis indicated that the Trump administration’s goal is to pressure Taliban jihadists to engage in peace talks by making them realize they cannot win on the battlefield, notes the Associated Press (AP)... http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2018/03/13/mattis-defines-victory-in-afghanistan-as-reconciliation-with-taliban-amid-concerns-of-terror-havens-increase/ .
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The National Debt: Far Worse Than You Realize
by Jordan Candler: You’ve heard the adage — if the government functioned like a home or corporation does, its balance sheet would be so convoluted and full of red ink that it would utterly fail. A person’s ability to keep a home or business afloat is entirely contingent on their financial literacy and managing proficiency. The federal government, however, is not bound by the same rules. Not only does it operate with deep and worsening deficits, but its true financial condition is disguised by shady and elusive accounting metrics. The headline national debt is nearing $21 trillion, but the truth is that this figure is significantly deflated. Citing new Treasury research, PJ Media reports:
If the national debt were officially calculated the way assets for private companies are calculated — by tallying assets, debts, liabilities, and obligations — the official federal debt would be $88.9 trillion, or $704,000 per household.
This represents no less than four times the projected national debt of roughly $20 trillion. The federal government uses accounting practices different from private companies, and so it can report a much smaller national debt than its true liabilities account for.
While the federal government reported a budget deficit of $666 billion for the 2017 fiscal year, a new comprehensive report from the U.S. Treasury showed that finances really deteriorated by $1,157 billion. The document explained that this difference comes from accrued costs that are not necessarily paid, such as estimated future costs of federal employee and veterans’ benefits.
This discrepancy is tied to what’s known as accrual accounting, a method utilized by the Treasury in its report. “Accrual accounting involves measuring the full spectrum of financial commitments,” according to PJ Media, “while cash accounting — the kind used to calculate the federal budget — only counts money as it flows in and out.”
The author points to worker’s pension benefits as an example. If the Treasury standard were applied, “an employee’s pension would be recorded as the employee earned it. Under cash accounting, this liability would not emerge as a cost until years or decades later, when it is actually paid.”
If we take off the rose-colored glasses, the reality is that taxpayers are $7.7 trillion in the hole when it comes to funding public-worker pensions and benefits. And that’s just one example. Social Security and Medicare together are $65 trillion in the hole. The DC Swamp, it turns out, is far deeper and wider than most people realize. And the catastrophe will be gradual until it’s sudden.
~The Patriot Post
https://patriotpost.us/articles/54687-the-national-debt-far-worse-than-you-realize
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