Our REAL State of the Union, 2008 (by the numbers)

[Col. Flagg]

http://www.ourfuture.org/real-state-union-2008-numbers

Worthy of note:

* Within the next 20 years, total unfunded liabilities for the U.S. government will be $53 trillion (this according to U.S. Comptroller General David Walker). That equates to approx. $450,000 per household.

* Eventually (within 25 years), the U.S. government will have so much debt and unfunded liabilities that it will only be able to afford to pay the interest on the national debt.

* Right now, the U.S. government is bankrupt and is only able to function by printing money and borrowing $1 billion per day from overseas banks and countries.

We cannot even begin to fathom the financial trouble this nation is in.

[SwissMrs&Pitchfire]

Why pay any of it? Why not just pull the plug now? That's what I would do if I were the gadiantons.

[Chip]

Why pay any of it? Why not just pull the plug now? That's what I would do if I were the gadiantons.

I wonder the same thing. It's not going to get paid, so what's the outcome going to be?

Someone out there suggested that we can solve this problem by shutting down the Fed, and then minting a single gold coin marked "$7 Trillion US Dollars" and depositing into the US Treasury.

[SwissMrs&Pitchfire]

That is what is referred to as repudiating our debt. We would face economic isolation and likely war. The UN would step in and be judge and jury. That really is the game over option.

The question then is how would the actual claims be paid? The answer is that the fed would have to print like crazy against the coin as security (Ie. hyperinflation). See Zimbabwe (or Wiemar) for the results of that action.

[CHH]

Last night on our TV show Joshua began with a paraphrase from Mark Twain.

"There are liars, damned liars and the State of the Union address."

We sure had fun bashing the GOP and Demorats last night.