Notorious DNC Shills Accuse Journalists on X of Trying to ‘Stir Up S**t’

Julianna Frieman
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Notorious DNC Shills Accuse Journalists on X of Trying to ‘Stir Up S**t’

(Julianna Frieman, Headline USA) As MSNBC hemorrhages viewers, Joe Scarborough launched a desperate attack against journalists on social media platforms like billionaire Elon Musk’s X, accusing them Monday of trying to “stir up s**t” rather than report the facts.

Morning Joe hosted Axios co-founder Jim VandeHei after he and co-founder Mike Allen were honored by the National Press Club.

In a speech he delivered after accepting the honor, VandeHei lashed out at Musk and X users who he claimed are not reporters.

Scarborough, whose show is notorious for prioritizing insults and spin of President-elect Donald Trump over the truth, echoed the Axios co-founder’s criticism of independent journalism on social media.

“Why this is so important right now more than ever is because critics of the press are feeling more empowered more than ever to lie more than ever,” the Morning Joe co-host began, seemingly unaware of the irony of his comments.

Scarborough blasted individuals overwhelmed by the news, suggesting those who look to websites like the Epoch Times—the name of which prompted an audible “Oh God” from wife and co-host Mika Brzezinski—are more prone to this reaction.

“Social media? People lying every day, every hour, every minute about the news. What. You. Do. Matters,” he lectured. “What the New York Times does matters. What the Wall Street Journal does matters. What Jonathan Lemire does matters. What the Financial Times does matters. What NBC News and MSNBC reporters do matters. It matters.”

Scarborough’s rant comes less than one week after Comcast, the parent company of NBCUniversal, announced that it would separate MSNBC, among other channels, from NBC News by offloading it into a new company.

VandeHei responded by acknowledging that reporters make mistakes, saying they have “no time to whine.”

“There is an information war out there, and there’s still tens of millions of people that depend on great reporting, and it’s our job to make sure we create viable businesses around it, and that we really do try to get to the closest approximation of the truth,” VandeHei said.

The Axios co-founder told Scarborough reporters should be “more curious than condescending” and “more fearless than foaming at the mouth.”

Scarborough said his viewers, which have rapidly declined following the election, were his “family.”

MSNBC averaged only 599,000 viewers on Nov. 13—the smallest Wednesday audience since June 29, 2016, according to Fox News, which averaged 2.3 million viewers on the same day.

“If somebody pops off on Twitter or some other social media and they lie, they made mistakes. You know what the cost of that is? Nothing. They do it again,” Scarborough ranted. “In fact, it helps them because algorithms are rigged so you stir up s**t, and the more you can get people angry, the more followers you get. But also, now, it’s monetized.”

Brzezinski quipped, “The more you hate, the more you make,” before Scarborough continued to complain about the social media “gutter.”

“There’s no cost for them lying to you,” he said. “But if Jim VandeHei has a reporter that gets it wrong, well, there are editors.”

He added that the legacy media will still sometimes get a story wrong.

“If the New York Times gets something wrong or the Wall Street Journal reporters get something wrong, there are editor after editor after editor. And they check it,” he continued. “And they make sure it’s right, they make sure it’s doubled and triple sourced. And still, sometimes, they get it wrong.”

Julianna Frieman is a freelance writer published by the Daily Caller, Headline USA, The Federalist, and The American Spectator. Follow her on Twitter at @JuliannaFrieman.

KFC Quickly Sells Out of Lickable Wrapping Paper

Jacob Bruns
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KFC Quickly Sells Out of Lickable Wrapping Paper

(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) The fast-food chicken chain Kentucky Fried Chicken has created, and quickly sold out of, a flavored and lickable wrapping paper, the U.S. Sun reported.

The wrapping paper reportedly has the aroma and taste of KFC’s chicken, but with a seasonal holiday twist.

“This is a festive treat that’s sure to be on everyone’s lips – literally. KFC has you covered this season with its limited edition, lickable wrapping paper,” said the KFC website, which had the paper listed as out of stock on Monday.

The site also said that with the limited edition wrapping paper, one can “savour the taste of KFC’s Original Recipe Chicken with a refreshing hit of cranberry sauce and aromatic pinch of sage from the sage and onion stuffing patty.”

The seasonal wrapping paper reportedly had patches on it, covered by stickers that can be removed, revealing the “lickable” section of the wrapping paper.

According to Phoebe Syms, Brand Manager at KFC U.K. and Ireland, the fast-food chain teamed up with a London-based artist to create the marketing gimmick.

“We’re so obsessed that we’ve literally put chicken to paper and teamed up with rising artist SOLDIER to ensure Christmas is all wrapped up, the KFC way!” Syms said, according to a Daily Mail report.

The brand manager noted that the limited edition wrapping paper is inspired by the limited edition sandwich, the Stuffing Stacker Burger.

“Introducing our first ever lickable wrapping paper. . . inspired by our epic limited-edition Stuffing Stacker Burger. Yes, it’s paper lickin’ good,” Syms added.

According to the designer, SOLDIER, the aim of the wrapping paper is to “distil various figures as a homage to KFC and the Christmas season down to their essential forms” by  “transforming them into symbolic shadows that evoke the essence of festivity and celebration.”

Naturally, the wrapping paper is “not intended for human consumption.”

Alleged ISIS Fighter Released from Home Arrest to Attend Craft Fair

Ken Silva
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Alleged ISIS Fighter Released from Home Arrest to Attend Craft Fair

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge Natasha Merle has modified the conditions of house arrest for an alleged ISIS fighter to allow her to attend a local craft fair.

Judge Merle’s Friday order came in the case of Halima Salman, who was caught in Syria by forces fighting ISIS in 2019. Salman and 10 other Americans, including five minors, were repatriated to the U.S. from Syria earlier this year, and Salman was released on $500,000 bond after being charged with receiving military-type training from a foreign terrorist organization.

Salman’s bond was signed by 11 sureties, and she was placed on home incarceration, which required the her to be restricted to her home at all times, except for attorney visits, court appearances, and necessary medical treatments.

However, on Friday, Salman asked Judge Merle for her conditions to be modified so she could attend a craft show the next day.

“Ms. Salman’s grandmother, who lives with Halima and serves as a third-party custodian on the bond, has been organizing this annual holiday craft fair at her local church for many years,” Salman’s lawyer, federal public defender Samuel Jacobsen, told Judge Merle.

“Ms. Salman’s grandmother needs help setting up the fair, and specifically requested that Halima—who is excited to participate—join her this year because of Halima’s talent and interest in handmade crafts.”

The DOJ’s prosecutors wrote to Judge Merle on the same day, opposing Salman’s request.

“Home incarceration does not and should permit modifications for socializing and selling goods at a fair,” they said.

However, Judge Merle sided with the defense, allowing Salman to attend the craft fair on Saturday. Merle did tell Salman that her “future requests to modify conditions of release must be made no fewer than three business days prior to relevant dates that are the subject of the request.”

According to the Justice Department’s criminal complaint, Salman received training regarding the handling and operation of an AK-47 in Syria around March 2018, when she was 17. She had travelled from New York to Turkey, and entered Syria from there. She was captured by forces fighting ISIS in 2019, charging documents state.

Salman was interviewed by the FBI in Syria last November, when she told agents that she did not attend any type of training, never owned a weapon, and was never involved in any ISIS activities.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

Cruz Says Biden ‘Rolling the Dice’ to Leave Trump with the Fallout

Julianna Frieman
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Cruz Says Biden ‘Rolling the Dice’ to Leave Trump with the Fallout

(Julianna Frieman, Headline USA) Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said President Joe Biden is “rolling the dice” to leave President-elect Donald Trump with the fallout on Monday’s episode of his podcast.

On Verdict, Cruz suggested that Biden was inviting a surge of illegal migrants into the U.S. while provoking foreign conflicts because as a lame duck, the Democrat president will not have to clean up the consequences.

“Joe Biden is in the process of opening up the borders, trying to accelerate the invasion, trying to make Donald Trump and the new administration’s lives and jobs more difficult,” the GOP senator said. “He’s not just doing it at home with opening up the borders, but he’s also doing it abroad.”

Cruz said he believes Biden wants World War III.

“He’s doing, I think, everything he can to accelerate and to make worse, the war in Ukraine that is dangerous, World War III,” he said. “It seems like he’s rolling the dice and hoping whoever comes in next has to deal with the consequences.”

Cruz criticized Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, who said he would go to jail to keep illegal migrants in his city after calling his planned opposition of Trump’s mass deportations “a Tiananmen Square moment.”

The senator called for Republican governors to send illegal migrants in their states to Denver.

“So, the mayor of Denver has said, ‘We want illegal immigrants in our city. We will fight to keep illegal immigrants in our city. I don’t care that the voters don’t want it. I don’t care what Federal law says. I don’t care about the women being murdered, the women being raped, the children being assaulted,’” Cruz said. “I’m going to call right now for Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, for Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, for any other red governor, to start sending buses to Denver, Colorado.”

The senator suggested neither Biden nor Vice President Kamala Harris were behind the administration’s last-ditch moves to make Trump’s transition difficult.

“I got to say, I’m not convinced that either Biden or Harris are the decision makers here. I think Kamala is on a beach somewhere in Hawaii, and I have no indication that she is engaged in anything,” he said. “And Joe Biden, who the hell knows what he knows.”

Cruz said he thinks former President Barack Obama was really in charge.

“I think this is the bitter partisans in the White House. I think this is the young apparatchiks who’ve been running the federal government for four years anyway. I think this is Obama lashing out,” he said. “And I think this is this team and his team, and I think they’re deliberately I think it is brazenly irresponsible. It’s called sabotage, and that is what they are trying to do on the way out.”

Cruz likened the Democrat White House’s dying gasp to setting dog poop ablaze.

“It is the equivalent of taking a pile of dog manure, putting it in a paper bag, lighting it on fire, sticking it on someone’s front door and ringing the doorbell,” Cruz said. “That’s what they’re trying to do to the incoming administration.”

Julianna Frieman is a freelance writer published by the Daily Caller, Headline USA, The Federalist, and The American Spectator. Follow her on Twitter at @JuliannaFrieman.

Michael Moore Rips into Biden: ‘What Have You Been Doing?’

Maire Clayton
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Michael Moore Rips into Biden: ‘What Have You Been Doing?’

(Maire Clayton, Headline USA) Left-wing activist and filmmaker Michael Moore tore into President Joe Biden in a lengthy Saturday post on his website.

“What have you been doing?” Moore began.

He quickly attacked the viral video of Biden appearing to wander into the Amazon rainforest.

“I loved how at the end you just turned away and walked into the jungle as if never to be seen from again,” he wrote. “All Presidencies should end this way.”

Moore cited a previously letter he sent the lame-duck president on ideas of what he should do before he leaves office.

It included forgiving all student debt, medical debt and to stop funding the war in Israel.

He blasted Biden for doing very little with his last couple of months in office.

“Instead of using your precious little time left to do something to HELP THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, your first action after Trump won was to fast track the delivery of over $6 Billion in weapons to Ukraine,” he wrote.

He also criticized Biden for allowing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to start firing long range ballistic missiles into Russia.

“You on the other hand seem to be trying to cement your legacy as a war monger—doubling down on some of your worst mistakes and worst impulses,” Moore added.

In addition, he questioned why Biden allowed Ukraine to use antipersonnel land mines in Russia.

“This is how you want to go out? In a blaze of horror?” Moore said. “Like, if Joe’s gotta go, we all gotta go with him… right into World War III?”

Moore was not the only one to believe America could be heading into World War III.

Podcaster Joe Rogan accused Biden and Zelenskyy of trying to start a new World War in a Friday episode of his podcast, according to the New York Post.

“How are you allowed to do that when you’re on your way out?” Rogan said about Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to fire missiles.

Elon Musk Targets the Fed

Money Metals News Service
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Elon Musk Targets the Fed

(Clint Siegner, Money Metals News Service) Elon Musk offered to include Ron Paul in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – a presidential advisory commission headed by Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

DOGE is tasked with finding waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government and making recommendations for how to eliminate it.

Although he has always railed against excessive government spending, Ron Paul may be most remembered for his efforts to do away with the Federal Reserve. “End the Fed” was a signature issue in his 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns.

“End the Fed” went viral on X shortly after Musk publicized his interest in working with Ron Paul. Eliminating the central bank just might be the single greatest blow reformers could strike in the effort to restore limited government.

For starters, the Fed facilitates the unrestrained growth in government.

Multi-trillion-dollar federal deficits are only possible year after year when the central bank can beam infinite quantities of Federal Reserve Note dollars into existence.

Prior to lifting the final constraint imposed by the nation’s gold standard in 1971, total federal expenditures totaled just over $195 billion, and government spending as a percentage of the nation’s overall GDP was 18.8%.

Federal expenditures this year are estimated at roughly $829 billion in 1971-adjusted dollars. The size of government, as measured by real spending, has more than quadrupled. The federal government now represents more than 24% of GDP.

Prior to the creation of the Fed in 1913, federal spending was less than 4% of GDP.

Meanwhile, the national debt has continued on an exponential curve higher and currently sits at just over $36 trillion.

The Fed is also an important tool wielded by elites to enrich themselves at the expense of the poor and middle class. The Fed and its fiat dollar have been a nightmare for the bottom 90% of Americans.

This group has lost about $2.5 trillion per year to elites in the top 10% of wealth over the past 5 decades, according to the Rand Corporation.

Fed-sponsored bank bailouts are just one of the ways this wealth transfer occurs.

Take the 2008 bailouts, for example. The Fed used freshly printed dollars to purchase failing mortgage-backed securities and other toxic assets at 100 cents on the dollar from struggling banks. In all, The Fed’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) represented a gift of $700 billion to the nation’s largest banks and their shareholders.

The nation’s central bank is a black box when it comes to its finances. For more than 100 years, the Fed has resisted all attempts to audit its books and be accountable for its actual spending. Fed officials simply talk about how important it is for the central bank to maintain “independence.”

Too Big to Jail

The Fed has also been a complete and utter failure at the mission for which it was created and sold to the public. The dual mandate imposed on the Fed at its creation included preserving the value of the U.S. dollar and fostering full employment.

The Federal Reserve’s version of the dollar has given up more than 97% of its purchasing power since 1913. What’s more, Fed officials have the gall to insist it’s a good thing for average Americans if dollars buy less every year. They openly promote a “target” inflation rate of about 2%.

Price inflation has made it nearly impossible for many households to get by on a single income. Much of that gap has been filled instead by welfare and other government assistance programs.

Since its creation, the Federal Reserve has taken on a third mandate. It is the chief regulator for U.S. banks.

Too Big to Jail

The nation’s largest private banks are the real owners of the Federal Reserve, though most Americans assume, given its name, that the central bank is owned by the federal government. Its role as primary regulator is also not widely known outside of Washington DC and Wall Street.

It will, therefore, be a surprise to many to learn the Fed is in charge of enforcing the rules governing the very banks that own it.

No large bank has ever lost its license to operate, regardless of the crimes committed. These include money laundering for drug and sex traffickers, rigging markets, and more. A visit to WallStreetonParade.com is worthwhile for anyone interested in looking at the rap sheets.

Ending the Fed would be a blessing for rank-and-file Americans. Here’s hoping the movement can make a comeback.

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Ex-Federal Reserve Official Pleads Guilty to Insider Trading

Ken Silva
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Ex-Federal Reserve Official Pleads Guilty to Insider Trading

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A former official for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond pled guilty last week to insider trading, after he was caught misappropriating confidential information to execute trades.

The defendant, Robert Brian Thompson, 43, of Mosley, worked as a bank examiner and senior manager with supervisory duties for the Federal Reserve—giving him access to confidential information about financial institutions under the Fed’s supervision, including confidential supervisory information.

According to the Justice Department, Thompson used confidential information from his workplace to execute 69 trades in seven different publicly traded financial institutions for a total of $771,678 from October 2020 through February 2024.

To conceal the scheme, Thompson lied on his “Form D”—which, among other things, requires employees to disclose if they have any assets, including any equity interest in any banks that are members of the Federal Reserve system.

“Thompson falsely represented on the FRBR’s Form D that he had no assets,” the DOJ said last Tuesday in a press release.

Thompson pled guilty to one count of insider trading and one count of making false statements. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 19, and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the insider trading count—as well as five years in prison on the false statements count.

The Securities and Exchange Commission also filed a complaint against Thompson earlier this month, alleging that he bought $678,000 worth of a bank’s stock hours before the bank was scheduled to make a positive earnings announcement. Thompson’s insider trading netted him roughly $79,346 in ill-gotten profits, according to the SEC.

“The SEC’s complaint further alleges that, in January 2024, Thompson learned that a different bank in his supervisory portfolio would be disclosing unexpected loan losses worth hundreds of millions of dollars as part of an upcoming earnings announcement,” the SEC said earlier this month in a press release.

“Thompson allegedly leveraged that material nonpublic information to buy thousands of options on the bank’s stock two days before the scheduled announcement, which led to $505,527 of ill-gotten profits.”

Thompson has entered a settlement with the SEC in that case, which requires him to disgorge his ill-gotten gains. The settlement is subject to the approval of a judge.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

2nd Failed Trump Assassin Was Talking to UK-Trained Afghan Commando in Iran Days before Attack

Ken Silva
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2nd Failed Trump Assassin Was Talking to UK-Trained Afghan Commando in Iran Days before Attack

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) It’s been widely reported that the second failed Trump assassin had previously travelled to Ukraine in early 2022 to protest Russia’s invasion, and that he later started recruiting foreign fighters for the war.

And according to a Sunday report from The Independent, the alleged gunman, Ryan Routh, was attempting to recruit fighters up to days within his Sept. 15 assassination attempt. According to The Independent, Routh was communicating with British-trained Afghan commandos who were abandoned there after Kabul fell in 2021, and who are now living in Iran.

“One former special forces soldier, Hafizullah, who is living in Iran, ended up communicating with Routh’s Whatsapp about potentially going to help Ukraine. Hafizullah served for eight years in a specialist unit known as Commando Force 333, which was set up and run by the British,” The Independent reported.

“Screen shots Hafizullah provided of his WhatsApp communication show Routh apparently encouraging him to send him a CV on 12 September—three days before he was arrested near Trump’s Florida golf course,” the outlet wrote.

“Hafizullah, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, said that he had been in contact with Routh on and off for two years. He said a friend of his, a former commander in the Afghan military, had passed on his number to Routh.”

The Independent said it corroborated the communications by matching the number the Afghan commando was using with Routh’s “Fight for Ukraine” website. The Whatsapp profile also matches the profile Routh was reportedly using.

Last year, Routh told the New York Times in an interview last year that he was seeking recruits for Ukraine from among Afghan soldiers who had fled the Taliban.

“He said he planned to move them, in some cases illegally, from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine,” the Times reported in September, after Routh’s failed attempt on Trump’s life.

“He said he planned to move them, in some cases illegally, from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine. He said dozens had expressed interest.”

Chelsea Walsh, a nurse who had several encounters with Routh in Kyiv, reported him to Customs and Border Protection in June 2022—telling agents that “Routh was among the most dangerous Americans she met during her month-and-a-half-long stint in Ukraine.”

Walsh again reported him to the FBI and Interpol last year, after she heard that was attempting to recruit Syrian refugees to fight in Ukraine.

“She filed an online report with the FBI and Interpol outlining her concerns about Routh and others, she said. Neither Customs nor the FBI followed up with her,” the Wall Street Journal reported in September.

“But after the apparent attempt on Trump’s life Sunday, she called the FBI tip line and reported her concerns about Routh again in a 22-minute conversation.”

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

CNN’s Stelter Frets that Musk’s MSNBC Buyout Could Make Media Favorable to Trump

Julianna Frieman
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CNN’s Stelter Frets that Musk’s MSNBC Buyout Could Make Media Favorable to Trump

(Julianna Frieman, Headline USA) CNN’s Brian Stelter said Sunday that fear about billionaire Elon Musk buying MSNBC and making the cable news network favorable to President-elect Donald Trump is on the rise.

After Comcast announced its plans to separate NBC News from MSNBC by spinning off the Trump-bashing network into a new company, Musk entertained X users Friday by teasing his potential acquisition of struggling MSNBC.

Stelter speculated that Musk’s posts about a potential MSNBC buyout were attempts at trolling the Left.

However, Stelter and the CNN anchor did note Musk questioned how much MSNBC cost, harking back to the casual interaction that catapulted his acquisition of Twitter, rebranded as X.

“It seems he’s just trying to troll, Comcast is not making MSNBC up for sale right now, but maybe something will change in a few years,” Stelter said. “But those tweets, those posts from Musk, those memes that he’s posting, it just speaks to his power, his center of power throughout this incoming administration.”

Some MSNBC insiders are worried about Musk buying the network, Stelter revealed.

“Some inside MSNBC are taking Musk’s comments seriously, whether he’s trolling or not,” he told the CNN anchor.

Stelter compared a potential buyout of MSNBC by Musk to countries that have seen “democratic backslide” commandeering the media.

“An ally of the leader like Musk comes in and buys a media outlet that is viewed as oppositional, and then he turns the content and makes it more friendly to the person in power,” he said. “That has happened before in other countries. That’s part of the concern, even if Elon Musk is just joking. That’s part of the concern here when it comes to MSNBC.”

Comcast’s move to spin off MSNBC will take approximately one year to complete, according to Stelter. He reiterated that an immediate sale of MSNBC is not planned.

“But the idea that Musk talks about it. He likes to say, ‘The most ironic outcome is the most likely.’ And in this case, it would be pretty ironic if he controlled MSNBC,” Stelter said.

Julianna Frieman is a freelance writer published by the Daily Caller, Headline USA, The Federalist, and The American Spectator. Follow her on Twitter at @JuliannaFrieman.

Another Ominous Milestone: U.S. National Debt Blows Past $36 Trillion

Money Metals News Service
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Another Ominous Milestone: U.S. National Debt Blows Past $36 Trillion

(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) It took 118 days to add another trillion dollars to the national debt. That’s just under 16 weeks.

On Thursday, Nov. 21, the national debt officially blew past $36 trillion.

To be exact, it hit $36,034,994,586,981.97.

You might be thinking, “Didn’t we just eclipse $35 trillion?

Yes.

It was on July 26, just under four months ago.

The growth of the national debt is actually accelerating. It took almost six months to grow it from $34 trillion to $35 trillion.

Going back a little further, when Congress effectively eliminated the debt ceiling on June 5, 2023, the national debt stood at $31.46 trillion. Since then, the Biden administration has added $4.54 trillion to the national debt. That’s in just 18 months for those of you keeping track at home.

This isn’t shocking when you realize Uncle Sam is blowing through about half a trillion dollars every single month. The Biden administration just ran the third-largest budget deficit in history.

To be fair, this isn’t just a Biden problem. Every president since Calvin Coolidge has left the U.S. with a bigger national debt than when he took office.

Trump has at least talked about slashing the size of government, but he’s going to need to do better than he did during his first term.

The Trump administration almost hit the $1 trillion mark in 2019 and was on pace to run a trillion-dollar deficit in fiscal 2020 before the pandemic, even as the U.S. supposedly enjoyed the “best economy” ever. The economic catastrophe caused by the government’s response to COVID-19 gave policymakers an excuse to spend with no questions asked, and we saw record deficits in fiscal 2020 and 2021.

Even if the Trump administration manages to slash discretionary spending as promised, that only accounts for 27 percent of total spending. The vast majority is for entitlements, and there is little political will to take the scissors to Social Security or Medicare.

To put the debt into perspective, every American citizen would need to write a check for $106,647 to pay off the debt.

Of course, a lot of people don’t pay taxes. That means the taxpayer burden is much higher. Every U.S. taxpayer would have to write a check for $272,821 to wipe out the debt.  And that’s on top of the taxes we already pay!

To put it another way, $36 trillion is more than the total economies of China, Japan, Germany, and the UK combined.

The debt to GDP ratio has climbed to 122.85 percent. Studies have shown a debt-to-GDP ratio of over 90 percent retards economic growth by about 30 percent.

You will find some more perspective on the enormity of the debt HERE.

What’s the Big Deal?

I consistently report on budget deficits and the growth of the national debt, but the truth is most people don’t really care.

In fact, a lot of people are under the illusion that the debt doesn’t matter.

James Madison disagreed. He called public debt “a public curse, and in a Rep. Govt. a greater than in any other.

Thomas Jefferson also disagreed. He called public debt “the greatest of dangers to be feared.”

So did George Washington.

“No pecuniary consideration is more urgent than the regular redemption and discharge of the public debt. On none can delay be more injurious or an economy of time more valuable.”

But why does it matter?

At some point, the world will decide it’s no longer interested in financing the U.S. government’s borrowing and spending.

Sure, there is a healthy demand for U.S. Treasuries — for now. But it isn’t infinite.

Ultimately, a lack of confidence in the U.S. fiscal situation could also lower demand for U.S. debt. There are already signs this is happening.

In fiscal 2024, the U.S. government spent over $1 trillion just making interest payments on the debt. It was the second biggest spending category in 2024, bigger than national defense and bigger than Medicare. The only spending category that was bigger was Social Security.

As demand for Treasuries drops, interest rates must rise even higher to attract investors, exacerbating the interest payment problem.

The hope is the Fed’s pivot to rate cuts will relieve some of the interest pressure, but so far, that hasn’t happened.

It’s quite possible that the Fed won’t be able to lower federal borrowing costs with even with deeper interest rate cuts.

Ultimately, the federal government needs the Fed to step in and put its big fat thumb on the bond market. That would mean a return to quantitative easing (QE).

In QE operations, the central bank buys Treasuries on the open market. This increased (artificial) demand drives bond prices higher and puts downward pressure on yields. This would be an ideal scenario for the U.S. government. It needs all the help it can get to facilitate its borrow/spend addiction.

But the Fed runs QE operations with money created out of thin air. The new money gets injected into the monetary system and the economy. This is, by definition, inflation.

As the Bipartisan Policy Center points out, the growing national debt and the mounting fiscal irresponsibility undermine the dollar.

“Confidence in U.S. creditworthiness may be undermined by a rapidly deteriorating fiscal situation, an increasing concern with federal debt set to grow substantially in the coming years.”

This could lead to lower economic growth, higher unemployment, and less investment wealth.

The bottom line is just because the debt hasn’t caused a crisis doesn’t mean it won’t. After all, things happen slowly and then all at once.

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