All this talk of debt and deficits is deadly boring, but when you strip out all the math and BS, you get down to one very fascinating thing: The president of the United States is rolling the dice on America's future.
Right now, this country owes $13 trillion. We can't pay it back. The interest in December alone was more than $100 billion. $100 billion. About as much as New Zealand's entire economic output for a year.
Adding it up, the USA is paying out hundreds of billions in interest alone every year. That's staggering and dangerous. And Monday we learned that the budget next year, 2011, will add another $1.3 trillion to the national debt.
Really? This is unbelievable. The feds are spending $3.8 trillion in a year, and they can't pay for 35 percent of it. Are you kidding me?
Now President Obama says the budget is an investment in America's future because a lot of the money is going to so-called green projects that will change the way that energy is used, and the economy will rise. The president believes we must transition for future growth, and there is some validity to that.
Also, the massive spending will help rebuild infrastructure that has to be upgraded or bridges will start falling into the water. And then you add the incredible expenditures in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with all the War on Terror expense, and what we have is financial chaos.
But the Obama administration doesn't see it that way. It believes it can run up the massive debt and somehow pay for it all down the road, primarily by raising taxes. People like me will soon pay about 50 percent of their income in taxes, and corporations can get hit as well. But corporations can pass the tax expense on to you, and they will.
So in effect, everybody will pay more for nearly everything. Not good when the economy is stagnant.
In addition, the capital gains tax goes up five points to 20 percent. This will inhibit investment in America, another big risk.
As you may know, liberal philosophy holds that the federal government has a responsibility to redistribute income and level the playing field for all Americans, but the truth is we simply can't afford to do it. Not with 320 million people. Sweden can do it. They have nine million. But not us. And we have to fight the world's villains; Sweden does not.
"Talking Points" is afraid that the entire financial system in this country will collapse under the mountain of debt. If that happens, there will be no playing field to level. It's a scenario too frightening to think about.
Simply put, the feds need to stop spending. They need to cut across the board, get out of Iraq as fast as we can and stop the social engineering. But I don't expect President Obama to do any of that with the exception of Iraq.
So there's no question the huge federal spending is the president's biggest gamble. All of our lives will be affected by it.
And that's "The Memo."
Pinheads & Patriots
Prince Harry was recently vacationing in Barbados, a very nice Caribbean island, where he attended a charitable event for Haiti. He told the crowd if they donated $5,000 bucks, he would do this.
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(PRINCE HARRY DANCING)
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That goes for wild in the Windsor Castle. For that exposition, Prince Harry is a patriot.
Click here to watch "Pinheads & Patriots"!
On the pinhead front, apparently it is not easy training the Afghan army.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in foreign language.)
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Our tax dollars at work. I don't want to be cruel, but any healthy person who can't do a jumping jack is a pinhead.
— You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Pinheads & Patriots" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the FOX News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com
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