Our current federal debt stands at nearly 37 trillion dollars. That’s more than a “37” with 12 zeroes behind it. It’s an amount of money which is nearly impossible for the human mind to grasp.
Fort Knox currently holds about $442 billion in gold bars. It would take the inventory of 83 Fort Knox’s to pay off the federal debt. That amount of gold would weigh more than 4 fully loaded Nimitz-class aircraft carriers. Unfortunately, that debt is still growing at an astronomical rate.
Whenever the federal government increases its spending, it mysteriously never declines again – not even when the increase was done for an emergency. According to CNBC, our post COVID government debt has been increasing by $1 trillion every 100 days.
“But don’t worry. DOGE is fixing it!” However, Elon Musk says he hopes to cut $1 trillion from the federal government – if DOGE isn’t stopped by the courts. That would be laudable, but our overspending is such that DOGE would need to cut nearly 4 times that amount, just to balance the budget.
Perhaps we’ll need the rich to “pay their fair share.” Elon Musk is the richest man in the world, and luckily, he’s also a U.S. citizen subject to our taxation. If we seized Musk’s entire net worth, we could make the federal government solvent for a whole … 35 days. If we added Donald Trump’s wealth, we could stretch that to 37 days. There are currently 801 billionaires in the United States, with a combined net worth of $6.22 trillion. If the IRS seized every penny from them (and we ignored the resulting unemployment and financial depression), the federal budget could be balanced for a mere 21 months.
Given the above math, tax increases will need to affect more than just the rich. But our overspending is such that to balance the budget, would require every citizen (man, woman, and child) to pay an additional $882 per month. That’s a monthly tax increase of $3,529 for a family of four – every month, forever, and in addition to the family’s current tax burden. Clearly, we may need to give up a few luxuries to support our government, like: home ownership, college for the kids, and a comfortable retirement.
Obviously, we’re not going to tax our way out of this crisis. Without serious spending cuts, the government will continue to rack up debt, and the resulting inflation will consume our family finances like the cancer that it is.
Even though we’ve been trying to ignore it, we’re already in crisis. Improving government efficiency isn’t going to fix it. Demanding that the rich cover the shortfall, fails to understand the magnitude of the problem. Unfortunately, forcing everyone to give up the “American dream” to preserve the federal government rather defeats the reason for being and American, no?
The only solution to this crisis is to reconsider what we expect from our government, and radically reduce its size. However, no chief executive can do that while activist judges stand ready to stop them, and no political party can do it legislatively – even if they were inclined to – without a filibuster proof Senate majority.
Only the states are currently empowered to resolve this crisis. Our founders understood that, and gave the states the tool needed to act – the second clause of Article V of the Constitution. Now it’s up to us to rescue our republic from this crisis … before it’s too late. The crisis is here and growing while we debate whether acting is riskier than not acting.
