Government Debt: A Fiscal Train Wreck

Episode 31 Show Notes- Government Debt: A Fiscal Train Wreck

Episode Description

With the new spending bill, Congress will spend $500 million taxpayer dollars to enhance border security. The only problem is that it is to secure the country of Jordan’s border, not the United States. While the advocacy news media, the pundits, and the people were being distracted with a weaponized political impeachment, our lawmakers, both Democrat and Republican, passed a monstrous spending bill that does a disservice to every hard-working taxpayer in the United States. Looking through the bill should make every American mad. Perhaps we shouldn’t blame the politicians. At what point do We the People have to take ownership. Our disengagement from the political process has allowed these same losers to continually take advantage of the people and lead us further into debt.

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Intro

Welcome everyone to another episode of The PAS Report Weekly Roundup Podcast. This is your host Nick Giordano.

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas and Happy Hanukkah.

For today’s episode, I want to briefly talk recap something from last week’s episode. I also want to quickly explore what Speaker Pelosi is up to by not delivering the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate.

But the bulk of the episode will be dedicated to exploring this massive spending bill while we were all distracted with the impeachment. This bill has received very little attention, but every American should be aware of what is in this bill. More importantly, we need to recognize that a fiscal disaster is in the not to far future if we continue to ignore our $23 trillion debt.

When I get into the details, you will be furious, and rightly so. But you may be surprised at who I am also blaming for Washington’s fiscal irresponsibility.

As always, if you want to see the show notes go to thepasreport.com. Also, don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.

Last Week’s Episode

Last week I warned those who worked under the weasel, James Comey, to watch out because it seems like he is getting ready to throw his subordinates under the bus. Comey is making it as if he wasn’t regularly involved in the day-to-day details in the Trump-Russia investigation.

I explained how that’s BS, and he is just trying to provide cover for himself. As I explained, in an investigation of this magnitude, he would have been briefed at least once a day, if not more. He was heavily involved. Also, it’s his signature on the FISA application, and by signing the applications, he is certifying that everything is accurate and correct. That the FBI is providing all relevant information to the FISA Court.

Sorry Jim, but karma is catching up to you, and I can only hope you are held accountable. In order to restore trust in the bureaucracy, we must see accountability.

He’s not the only weasel trying to distance himself from the Trump-Russia investigation. Now you have perhaps one of the most devious people in politics trying to distance himself. This disgrace of a person has been pushing false narratives for the last three years. This is a person that has stated unequivocally that the President was doing Putin’s bidding and that President Trump committed treason. I stated several weeks ago, that I would bet this person has ties to the so-called whistleblower that kicked off the Ukraine controversy and impeachment.

John Brennan himself, the former CIA Director, is now coming out and saying that “there were mistakes made” in the FISA applications, and he now believes the FBI was “overly aggressive.” He’s got some nerve coming out and making these statements. First of all, these were not mistakes, they were outright lies designed to mislead the FISA Court. I’m sick and tired of the wordsmithing, and we should all call them what they are.

Secondly, he, like Comey, is trying to make it like these were rank-and-file Special Agents handling this case. He states, “And I know that a lot of people attribute it to either to incompetence or politicization. Well, I might just attribute it to, these were FBI agents who were doing their level best to try to prevent Russia interference in the election.” (Fox News)

Sorry, that doesn’t fly. These were high ranking officials with years and years of experience. They should have known better and there are no excuses. If they wanted to prevent Russian interference, why did they fail to brief the Trump campaign, or at the very least, then-candidate Trump on what the Russians were trying to do.

Here’s my take. It appears the walls are closing in and here’s what’s really going on. The FISA Court has come out and issued a harsh rebuke of the FBI leadership. However, don’t get to excited that the FISA Court has come out to make a statement because apparently, the FISA Court was aware of these issues over a year ago.

The real fear these weasels have is the Durham investigation, and so the rats are beginning to abandon ship. The question is who will be the first to become a cooperating witness and try to seek a deal to sing like a canary. Will it be Comey, Brennan, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr, maybe Clapper. That’s who my money is on. Clapper seems like the weakest link. I put this question on Twitter, and thousands of people voted. Most say it’s going to be Comey or McCabe. I can see McCabe, but I think Comey is delusional. I think he is really starting to believe the BS he’s been peddling for the last 3 years.

Alright. Enough about this. See I say I’m going to talk about something briefly, then I go on a rant.

Impeachment

But I want to move on to impeachment because Speaker Pelosi has decided of taking the unusual step of not turning over the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate, and the Senate trial cannot begin until this is done. So, what’s the Speaker’s thinking here.

We’ve been told for the last three months that the President has committed such serious abuses that he needs to be removed immediately. This was the whole reason the Democrats fast-tracked this. This was the reason that Democrats stated they couldn’t go to the Courts to enforce their subpoenas because the legal process takes to long. And now, she doesn’t want to turn over the Articles of Impeachment which only prolongs the process.

The hypocrisy is truly stunning. I told you before, the political establishment thinks the people are dumb and we don’t see through their phoniness. They call the President an existential threat to the United States, which I hate that word, existential, and it’s completely meaningless. But now you have powerful Democrats saying they would never turn them over to the Senate because they don’t want the Senate to vindicate President Trump.

There can only be a couple of things going here. We can take Speaker Pelosi at her word that she wants to strengthen the Democrat’s hand in the Senate and negotiate to give Democrats leverage during a trial. But this is laughable. Democrats made sure this was a political impeachment. They made sure not to include Republicans in the House. They made sure the President could not send a lawyer to the Intelligence Committee and cross-examine the witnesses. They selectively leaked information from transcripts. They would not allow Republicans to call witnesses.

Now they are saying they want a fair process. Democrats in the House made sure that this was the most partisan political impeachment. What the hell did they expect was going to happen in the Senate. Did they expect the Senate Majority Leader to say, “Okay. You made this a highly partisan process from the beginning and excluded Republicans, but I will make sure the Democrats have equal power in the Senate even though Republicans have the majority.”

How dumb are these people? I warned Democrats that if you make it partisan in the house, it will naturally be partisan in the Senate where Republicans have the majority. I warned that when one party weaponizes the process, the other party will do the same.

Senate Majority Leader McConnell may be boring at times, but the guy knows what he is doing, and he is not going to let the Speaker of the House to dictate how the Senate conducts its business, just like the Speaker would never let Majority Leader McConnell dictate House affairs. Speaker Pelosi knows this so what is she up to?

I believe it’s two-fold. One, Speaker Pelosi knows that they handed the Senate a weak case. She also doesn’t have anyone that will be effective in arguing the House case. Who are the House lawyers going to be- Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler- good luck with that. Democrats rushed it through and now they have to own it. A Senate dismissal will be swift, and then Americans will ask why such time was wasted in the first place.

Which brings us to the second reason. Speaker Pelosi doesn’t want the Senate to dismiss the Articles of Impeachment because it will allow the President to say the Senate vindicated him. It’s a form of spite. Once again, rather than try to work together, Democrats have chosen to operate through emotions that never end well in politics. The Speaker believes that if she withholds the Articles, it will hang like an albatross around the President’s neck.

I think this is a dumb strategy. Democrats should want to get this behind them. They overplayed their hand and it was an epic fail. The longer it goes on, the more it will hurt Democrats. And by not turning over the Articles, it makes the Democrats look petty.

If they don’t turn over the Articles, impeachment will still be the top story and will receive the most coverage. The Democrat candidates will continually be questioned about it, and they will continue to receive minimal coverage. Everything I said when the Speaker first announced the impeachment inquiry has happened. I warned that candidates would no longer receive exposure, and those without name recognition would be driven out of the race. I warned it would damage Joe Biden, and it has. I warned there was no there, there, and if Democrats couldn’t clearly and articulately explain why they are impeaching the President in 1-2 sentences, the public will turn against impeachment, and that’s happened.

These people really need to hire smarter advisors.

The Omnibus Disaster

But while Americans were so distracted with impeachment, something dangerous happened. Something approved by both Democrats and Republicans. Something the President signed into law.

I’m talking about the disaster of the Omnibus spending bill that was pushed through Congress. Our national debt is $23 trillion dollars. Our deficits continue to grow year after year. And so what does our Congress do, they decided to an enormous spending bill wasting our hard-earned taxpayer dollars on many useless programs that will only add to our staggering debt.

So that everyone is aware of the real budget process in the United States, Congress is supposed to debate 12 budget bills. Each year, our government has to pass a budget. The normal order of the budgeting process is to develop 12 different spending bills to cover each of our Departments. These bills will encompass the cabinet-level departments, as well as the independent government agencies like NASA, the NSA, the CIA, etc.

When introduced at the subcommittee levels, they go through rigorous debate. They then go to the respective committees for debate, then finally a full vote on the floor of the House and the Senate. (Congressional Research Services)

It’s a difficult process for sure, but it was intended to be difficult. Our founding father’s encouraged debate and compromise. They encouraged fiscal sanity and warned about strapping debt.

However, because the Establishment loves the gravy train, and because the American people don’t pay attention to the budget (because let’s face it, it’s boring), Congress rarely passes budgets through normal order.

Circumventing the normal Process

Instead, they choose to pass these massive spending bills that are designed to limit debate and quickly pass the House and the Senate. They do this because they can push through controversial measures that they want to hide from the public. They know their media allies will aid them.

But here at The PAS Report, we call these people out. I don’t care which political party they come from. The spending habits of Washington are reckless and dangerous. They talk about President Trump is a clear and present danger. Well, how about a $23 trillion debt, and another $127 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities? How about the fact that we spend $375 billion dollars a year just to service the debt which consumes 7.5% of our budget? And how many of you are aware that in the next several years, interest payments alone will consume 15% of our annual budget, and we will spend more on interest than defense spending, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Welfare programs, and every other program imaginable. (U.S. Debt Clock)

Getting back to last week, while we were all busy discussing impeachment, Congress passed the $1.4 trillion dollar Omnibus spending package that takes us to June of 2020. This legislation H.R. 1158 passed with bipartisan support. In the House, 150 Democrats and 130 Republicans supported the measure, 81 Senators approved the measure, and the President approved this measure. This bill continues to mortgage future generations and saddle them with an enormous amount of debt that continues to build to unsustainable levels. (H.R. 1158) (Amendments)

Now I readily admit, I have not gone through the nearly 2,300-page monstrosity when you combine the Bill and the Amendment portion, but here are some nuggets that should outrage every American

On page 43 of the main bill, the Department of Homeland Security can increase H-2B unskilled seasonal worker visas.

On page 152, we will be providing up to $500,000,000 to enhancements for border security. Sounds good right? Don’t get excited. The money is being provided to the country of Jordan to secure their border. So you the American people don’t deserve a secure border, but the people of Jordan do. I didn’t realize I elected officials to represent people from another country.

On page 131, we will be providing $4 billion for the Afghanistan Security Forces Fund. Juxtapose that with the $1.9-billion being provided to Customs and Border Patrol.

In Section 704, on page 397, discusses federal employment and includes a provision that states, “is a person who owes allegiance to the United States.” What the hell does that mean? If you read the section, it sounds as if someone illegally here can obtain federal employment as long as he/she signs an affidavit pledging allegiance. Sorry, but shouldn’t American citizens get preference? Shouldn’t those who took the time, did the paperwork, and followed all the rules to become lawful permanent residents get preference?

On page 1,492 of the main bill, the federal government raises the age to buy tobacco to 21. While that may be a good policy and no one should smoke, it is not the federal government’s responsibility to do this. According to the 10^th Amendment, anything not listed in the Constitution is left up to the States to decide. Well, I don’t ever recall seeing tobacco in the Constitution, and Congress cannot claim it falls under national security like illegal narcotics. This is clearly a federal overstep on States rights.

We will now be providing nearly $6-billion dollars to bail out private pension systems. While private companies scammed their employees by not setting aside enough money, should the U.S. taxpayer be responsible, or should the private companies and pension managers be responsible? There is an estimated $640-billion in unfunded pensions. Shouldn’t Congress pass a law to make sure any public or private pension plan has to be fully funded and make it illegal to use the funds for anything else? This makes more sense instead of saddling taxpayers with bad choices.

The National Institute of Health gets a 7% increase in its budget to the tune of $42-billion. Let me just rehash some of the studies that the NIH has funded.
- National Institute of Health (NIH) awarded $181,406 in a grant called “Enhancement of Sexual Motivation” this year to a researcher at the University of Kentucky to study how cocaine enhances the sex drive of Japanese quail. The study isn’t intended merely to learn about birds, but about drug abuse and sexual habits of humans, that can lead to public health problems. (University of Kentucky)
- The National Institute of Health is spending $3.2 million to get monkeys to drink alcohol excessively to determine what effect it has long term on their body tissue. (The Washington Times)
- The National Institute of Health spent $387,000 providing Swedish massages to rabbits. The study concluded that other studies were right, and massage seemed to help in recovery. The rabbits were euthanized at the end of the study. (ABC News)
- The NIH spent $371,000 on researching women’s emotional state when they see their dog compared to seeing their child and if they are more emotionally attached to their pet over their children. (Politico)
- These are just a few examples. I could have provided more, but it would take too much time.

In fact, most government departments like Education, Health and Human Services, Transportation are seeing an increase in budgets, while agencies like ICE see no funding increases.

Closing

I want to remind everyone, this was passed by both Democrats and Republicans, and every one of them should be ashamed. But I’m getting tired of bashing Congress all the time.

At what point do we have to take some responsibility? At what point are we to blame for the fiscal recklessness of our government? We hardly vote. We don’t get involved, and we keep sending the same people back to Washington.

While I can easily blame the media, let’s be honest, most people would turn off the news if they started to breakdown the budgets.

Everyone agrees that we need to start tackling the debt, but when it comes to making the difficult choices of what type of spending cuts to make, if it affects us, then we say the program is too important.

Let’s be honest, you have two candidates running for office. Candidate A says that they will do across the board spending cuts. That every Department, agency, and program will have their budget cut by 15%, and every person will feel some pain in these sacrifices, but within a couple of years, we will adapt, and be more fiscally sound. Imagine what we can do if we begin to pay down the debt.

Then Candidate B comes along and tells you that Candidate A wants to make you suffer. He wants to make your life more difficult. The people are already struggling. He wants to cut education because he hates kids. He wants to cut military spending because he doesn’t want you to be safe or secure. He wants to take away benefits from poor people because he doesn’t like poor people. He wants you to drive on more potholes and make the skies unsafe for air travel. He wants to take us back to the stone age.

Well, as a Candidate, I’m going to make your life easier. I’m going to go to Washington and get more money for the schools. I’m going to increase spending on our military to make sure that we remain the most fearsome country in the world. I want to provide more benefits to those who are suffering or down on their luck. I want to improve our infrastructure and bring it into the 21^st century.

Be honest with yourself. Are you really going to vote for Candidate A that may make your life more difficult, but in the end takes the right course of action? Or are you going to vote for Candidate B that says he will make your life easier?

See, we have some tough decisions we are going to have to make. We either make small incremental cuts now, and everyone feels a little pain, but in the end, we become fiscally solvent. Or we wait and then we will have to gut entire programs. The pain felt throughout the country will be enormous.

I’m someone that believes government spending can be cut by 10% without anyone feeling any pain whatsoever due to the waste, fraud, and abuse that occurs.

I believe every program should be reviewed by independent auditors, and if it is not meeting its goals and objectives, or the program is deemed as wasteful, it should immediately be defunded.

I believe we should tie Congressional salaries to the budget. If Congress runs deficits, they have their salary reduced by 10% each year they run a deficit. If they generate a surplus and begin to pay down the debt, then Congress can get a 3% pay raise in that calendar year. Watch how fast they would move to get our fiscal house in order.

We need to start getting the States to stop relying on federal money. Federal funding to states is like giving crack to a drug addict. They only become more addicted. States need to become more responsible and stop relying on the federal government. On average, 25% of the states’ funding comes from the federal government, and this allows the federal government to bully states into adopting asinine programs.

More importantly, it blurs the concept of federalism, and the States aren’t really independent of the Federal government, rather, they are beholden to the feds.

It’s time we wake up and take an interest as to what’s really going on. We need to start exerting our power and influence.

As always if there is a topic or issue you would like me to focus on, send an email to podcast@pasreport.com, and take a moment and share this episode with others. Post it on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. Post it in any groups your in.

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