Great Graphic Showing National Debt as a Household Budget

 

America's ever-growing debt crisis is in the trillions -- more than $14 trillion, give or take a few billion.

That's a lot of zeros, numbers so large they're sure to make Americans numb when trying to get their arms around what it means to them.

But what would the federal debt crisis look like if you set it up as a household budget?

A heck of a lot simpler, according to new figures from one Tea Party group, which estimates the government "household" spends nearly twice as much as it takes in every year, has a credit card bill nearly seven times annual income and cuts back less than 2 percent of that spending in an effort to control the debt.

"We had discussed about how any citizen needs to understand what the proposed cuts mean," said Laurie Newsom, president of the Gainesville, Fla., Tea Party. "One of our members had figured it out and put it in terms of a household budget. If you ran a household with these numbers, you would see that it's simply not enough."

The group looked at some key figures, mainly tax revenue, the current federal budget, debt and budget cuts, and divided each figure by $100 million, in an effort to break it down into simple terms that most Americans can comprehend. The group posted its findings online and came up with a household with an average family income of $21,700. But that "family" spent nearly twice that -- $38,200 -- and has an existing credit card balance of a whopping $142,710.

"Everyone tries to keep things extremely simple for these things meant for general public consumption and of course there's a give-and-take with that," said Seth Rabinowitz, a partner with Silicon Associates, an economics-focused management consulting firm based in California. "I would make it clearer for the layman.They used the line 'Money the family spent'...but really that means, 'Money the family spent (last year and intends to spend this year again).' "

"However, when you remove those eight zeros, the $385 spending cuts obviously aren't even visible. They don't even make a dent," he said.

The bottom line, according to Newsom: "Cuts won't take care of it. You need business growth, which we wouldn't have in a regulatory environment."

Article by Perry Chiaramonte, Fox News

Federal Judge Overturns Marine Base Commander Who Sides With Muslims Over Ex-Marine On Free Speech

The US Marine Corps exemplifies our country's military power, honor, and resolve. The Few, The Proud, The Marines. Yet one Marine base commander who erred on the side of political correctness had to be put in his place by a Federal Judge because he sided with anti-Islamic sentiment over one of his own. To that commander we say you are one of the few…the few who don’t make us proud. Hopefully, the days of siding with extremism over US interests are nearing an end.

Semper Fi!

Federal Judge Permits Father of Serviceman Killed on USS Cole to Express Opposition to Islamic Terrorism Over Objections of Marine Base Commander!

ANN ARBOR, MI – Jesse Nieto is one of those many unsung patriotic Americans. He served 25 years in the Marine Corps, including two combat tours in Vietnam . His youngest son, Marc, and 16 of Marc’s shipmates were killed on October 12, 2000, by Islamic terrorists who bombed the USS Cole. Nieto has worked as a civilian employee at Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base in North Carolina since 1994.

Yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Malcolm J. Howard delivered good news to Mr.. Nieto. He ruled that Camp Lejeune officials violated his free speech rights when they ordered him to remove decals attacking Muslim terrorists from his vehicle. Judge Howard enjoined Marine officials from further enforcing the ban against Nieto.

Beginning in 2001, to show his anger toward the Muslim terrorists who killed his son, Nieto displayed various decals on his vehicle expressing anti-terrorist sentiments, such as "Remember the Cole, 12 Oct 2000, " "Islam=Terrorism, " and "We Died, They Rejoiced." Based on a complaint from a Marine who is married to a Muslim, on July 31, 2008, two military police officers (MPs) issued Nieto a ticket for displaying "offensive material."

After Nieto refused to remove the "offending" decals from his vehicle, the Base Magistrate issued Nieto a written order, ordering him to remove his vehicle from the base until all decals were removed and banning his vehicle from all other federal installations. The order in effect prevented Nieto from driving his vehicle to Arlington National Cemetery (a federal installation) to visit the grave marker of his fallen son.

As a result of the Marine Corps’ unlawful action, the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, filed a federal lawsuit against the Camp Lejeune Commanding Officer and the Base Magistrate on behalf of Nieto in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. The civil rights lawsuit challenged the constitutionality of the military’s ban on Nieto’s speech.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, commented, "Political correctness is destroying our military. 9/11 was caused by Islamic terrorists, and our troops are being killed by Islamic terrorists overseas and on our very own military bases; yet, our commanders are more concerned about ‘diversity’ and not offending the Muslim community. And here, the military re-victimized a father anguishing over the murder of his son by Islamic terrorists because they don’t want to offend Muslims." During sworn testimony taken in the case, Marine officials admitted they would allow speech that favored Islam, but not Nieto’s speech because they considered it "extremist, indecent, and offensive."

In his opinion, Judge Howard responded to the government’s argument as follows: "Defendants argue that the regulation is reasonable and necessary because it is aimed at preventing speech the sole intention of which is to inflame the passion of those within the Base command. However, defendants fail to recognize that pro Islamic messages, such as ‘Islam is Peace, ’ and ‘Islam is Love, ’ may be just as incendiary to individuals like plaintiff as anti-Islamic messages are to the individual who complained about plaintiff’s decals."

Robert Muise, Senior Trial Counsel for the Law Center who handled the case, commented, "As Judge Howard’s well-reasoned opinion makes plain, political correctness and ‘diversity’ do not justify violating the Constitution. As a former Marine, I am ashamed at the way the Marine Corps treated this grieving father and war veteran. When I told him of the good news yesterday, he was elated. He plans to be back on base with his vehicle early next week."

The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes America ’s Christian heritage and moral values, including the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life. It supports a strong national defense and an independent and sovereign United States of America . The Law Center accomplishes its mission through litigation, education, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization.

Trader: "The Governments Don't Rule the World, Goldman Sachs Rules the World." (Video)

We've been saying it for years. Goldman Sachs is EVIL!

Wake Up America!

Goldman Sachs rules the world and the Euro zone is poised to crash, according to trader Alessio Rastani.

"This is not a time right now for wishful thinking that governments are going to sort things out," Rastani said on an interview with BBC on Monday morning. "The governments don't rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world."

The statement came towards the end of an almost three and a half minute interview in which Rastani warned viewers to "get prepared" for the inevitable: "The savings of millions of people are going to vanish" in less than a year, he said.

"This economic crisis is like a cancer, if you just wait and wait thinking this will go away, just like a cancer it's going to grow and it's going to be too late," he continued.'

Fear over the fragility of the European economy has become pronounced in recent weeks. Prompted in part by concerns that the region could enter recession and affect the global economy, stocks composing the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered their worst week since 2008 last week, according to Reuters.

In spite of statements like Rastani's, Euro policymakers continue to press ahead with possible reforms. Currently, they are working to bolster their 440 billion-euro rescue fund, after being criticized by leaders from both China and the U.S. for letting Greece's debt crisis already wreak havoc on global stocks, according to Reuters.

But the crash will be good news for traders, Rastani told the stunned BBC anchors.

"For most traders we don't really care about having a fixed economy, having a fixed situation, our job is to make money from it," he said. "Personally, I've been dreaming of this moment for three years. I go to bed every night and I dream of another recession."

Rastani said traders aren't the only ones who can benefit from the crisis.

"When the market crashes... if you know what to do, if you have the right plan set up, you can make a lot of money from this."

Article by Jillian Berman, Huffington Post

France Bans Cash Sales Of Gold & Silver Over $600. Is US next?

On April 5, 1933, President Roosevelt Signed Executive Order 6102 "..forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates within the continental United States". The pretense was that "hoarding" gold was stalling economic growth and making the depression worse. The reality is: The government did not want its citizens to have any currency options other than those which the Federal Reserve printed. 

Don't let this same crime happen again.

Wake Up America!

Central banks are presumably so frightened that a growing number of citizens are abandoning rapidly devaluing paper currencies and preserving their wealth through precious metals that governments are now cracking down on the anonymous purchase of gold and silver.

Following the Austrian government’s announcement that it was restricting the sales of precious metals to $20,000 a time, an amount which would purchase just 11 ounces, the French authorities have followed suit with an equally draconian new measure to deter people from buying gold and silver.

A recently amended French law states (translation), “Any transaction on the retail purchase of ferrous and non ferrous (metals) is made by crossed check, bank or postal transfer or by credit card, not the total amount of the transaction may not exceed a ceiling set by decree. Failure to comply with this requirement is punishable by a ticket for the fifth class,” going on to confirm that any amount over €450 euros or $600 US dollars “must be paid by bank transfer”.

“According to independent reports the law was passed to curb the illegal sale of stolen metals like copper, steel, etc. Given the rampant rise in thefts of these metals from telephone poles, construction sites and businesses here in the United States, we can certainly see this as a reasonable assessment for why the French passed this law,” writes Mark Slavo.

“However, the fact that no exception was made for gold and silver simply cannot be ignored. The new law effectively makes it illegal to purchase even a single Troy ounce of gold or around 18 ounces of silver in cash.”

$600 USD isn’t even enough to purchase a half ounce of gold. This guarantees that citizens who are trying to transfer their savings over to precious metals will be known to the authorities, leaving them vulnerable to government confiscation of their gold and silver later on down the line, as happened in 1933 under FDR.

Why are central banks and governments in Europe so eager to make it as difficult as possible for citizens to buy precious metals? It’s largely because unlike every other financial commodity, they don’t have the market completely under their control, and cannot tolerate the idea of people having true power over their own economic destiny.

Secondly it’s because the great foundation stone of the globalists’ plan to create a federalized European superstate and the template for a future world currency – the euro – is crumbling amidst the debt crisis that has engulfed the continent. With eurozone members already preparing to abandon the single currency, the last thing the EU wants to see is European citizens of key member states like France doing the same thing by exchanging their euros for gold and silver.

The bottom line is that the central banks which run the world don’t like the slaves owning anything that they can’t manipulate the value of – it undermines their power monopoly.

In a related development, the London Gold Exchange, an international digital currency trader which has over 100,000 members, announced today that it is “permanently closed for business” due to operational difficulties.

The LGE provided a service whereby it exchanged fiat money for digital currencies stored in online user accounts, including c-gold, Liberty Reserve, Pecunix and v-money.

Article by Paul Joseph Watson, Prison Planet

Federal Loans Fund Big-Ticket Energy Projects of Non-US Firms. Taxpayers Will Pay Billions for Another Administration Boondoggle

Among the biggest recipients on the Department of Energy's controversial list of loans to renewable energy companies like the failed Solyndra Inc. are a number of non-U.S. firms whose big-ticket energy projects will cost taxpayers billions of dollars -- but will generate no more than a few hundred permanent U.S. jobs.

Some of the companies employ complex solar technologies that cost more than twice as much as any other land-based renewable system, including nuclear.

The huge cost and relatively low long-term employment payoff for the investments could cast doubt on the Obama administration's claims that big investments in new green technologies will lead the U.S. to innovative parity with countries like China, and also create significant long-term employment gains for the U.S. economy.

As recently as July, for example, President Obama declared in a radio address that "we're accelerating the transition to a clean energy economy and doubling our use of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power -- steps that have the potential to create whole new industries and hundreds of thousands of new jobs in America."

A case in point is Abengoa Solar, Inc., a Spanish-owned firm that has received more than $2.6 billion in federal loan guarantees from DoE for two power-generating complexes, with the most recent $1.2 billion guarantee closing just this month. Abengoa's press releases tout the thousands of construction and other jobs that will be result from the projects, one in the Mojave Desert in California, the other southwest of Phoenix.

Nonetheless, the DoE's own website reveals that the two projects will permanently employ no more than 130 people after completion.

Abengoa's entire staff worldwide, according to its 2010 annual report, was 526 employees.

The Solyndra scandal erupted at the end of August, when the company filed for bankruptcy about two years after it was given a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy for nearly $530 million, followed by a loan for the guaranteed amount from the Federal Financing Bank.

Loan guarantees under DoE's so-called 1703 program are given for "innovative clean energy technologies that are typically unable to obtain conventional private financing due to high technology risks."

In the case of at least one Abengoa property, its Mojave Desert project, the administration's involvement apparently goes well beyond a loan guarantee. In its 2010 annual report, the Spanish company reports that it was subsequently able to obtain a loan from the U.S. Treasury’s Federal Financing Bank, which according to its website has "statutory authority to purchase any obligation issued, sold, or guaranteed by a federal agency to ensure that fully guaranteed obligations are financed efficiently."

It may also be debatable whether Abengoa should be able to get federal financing guarantees for its projects purely on the grounds that its technology is so innovative that private sector funding would not be forthcoming. According to its annual report, the use of cutting edge high technology in marketing and creating solar energy facilities is one of the key elements of Abengoa's business model, and a part of its global competitive advantage in solar energy construction.

"This proprietary technology development and a strategy of continued investment in R&D preserves Abengoa Solar's leadership position," the report says. It gives the company "a competitive advantage in an industry where technological change happens quickly, a better chance to offer competitive technologies in the future, as well as an adaptable portfolio of solutions and components for each project or market."

Click here for the annual report

Several efforts by Fox News to contact Abengoa executives to discuss the company's U.S. projects prior to this article's publication were unsuccessful.

In its annual report, Abengoa says it is successfully building plants using similar or related technology in Abu Dhabi, Algeria and multiple locations in Spain -- where expansive subsidies for solar power inaugurated by the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero were cut back dramatically in 2008, as the country entered its current deep financial crisis.

In the case of its Mojave Desert plant, located about 100 miles south-east of Los Angeles, Abengoa has announced that it has begun building foundations in time to qualify for a 30 percent federal cash grant.

When the Mojave Desert plant is complete -- currently anticipated for 2013 -- it will sell energy to Pacific Gas and Electric, a California utility that is subject to dramatically increased mandates for renewable energy signed earlier this year by California Gov. Jerry Brown, and described in various reports as the most aggressive in the country.

Under the new mandates, California must get 33 percent of its energy from renewable resources -- solar, wind, biofuels -- by the end of 2020. That is a 65 percent increase over the previous mandate, which called for 20 percent renewable by the same deadline.

Critics of the new mandate have said that they will hike already steep electricity prices in the Golden State by an additional 19 percent.

Abengoa's Arizona solar energy plant, which was dubbed the largest solar energy facility in the world when the contract was announced in 2008, is now under construction. It will deliver energy to the Arizona Public Service Company, a state utility, under an Arizona renewable mandate that calls for 15 percent renewable energy generation by 2025.

The Arizona utility has announced that it will hike consumer energy bills by about 6.6 percent to meet the mandate.

In addition to "thousands" of temporary construction jobs on the project, and 60 permanent jobs tallied by the Department of Energy on its website, Abengoa has said that an additional 180 permanent jobs will be produced in Arizona in a factory that will make specialized mirrors for the project.

Both Abengoa projects make use of specialized "solar thermal" power rather than the photovoltaic sun-to-electricity panels familiar to most homeowners and consumers. Solar thermal power generation involves the construction of huge arrays of curved solar mirrors to focus the sun's energy on a tower containing water or another fluid medium, which is superheated and ultimately powers an electricity-producing turbine. Retaining and using heat when the sun is down adds to the expense and complexity of the system.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), such solar thermal power is far and away the most expensive option that it considered in projecting the cost of new electricity technologies over the next four years.

Using a complex calculation known as "levelized cost," EIA says that solar thermal energy will weigh in at $311.60 per megawatt/hour, vs. $210.70 for more conventional solar paneling, and $113.90 for "advanced nuclear."

Click here for the EIA cost estimates

Compared to more conventional energy sources, solar thermal is even pricier -- much pricier. The EIA says that natural gas-fueled energy plants, even using advanced techniques to remove carbon from their emissions, would cost $89.3 per megawatt/hour, while ordinary gas fueled natural gas generation would cost $66.10.

A conventional coal-fired electrical plant -- anathema in green circles -- would provide energy at $94.80 per megawatt/hour, and one equipped with "clean" coal technology and sequestration of carbon emissions would provide electricity at a cost of $136.20 per megawatt/hour.

The second-most pricey option on the EIA list, after solar thermal, is energy from wind turbines placed in the ocean, which comes in at $243.20 per megawatt/hour.

In other words, even that difficult and costly-to-produce energy source is projected to cost only three-quarters as much.

Article by George Russell, Fox News

In God We Trust? California Couple Fined $300 for Holding Home Bible Studies

This also happens in Communist China folks...however home gatherings for Bible Studies are punishable by imprisonment. Is that the direction we're heading?

Wake Up America!

A southern California family has been fined for holding regular Bible studies at their home because it violates a city zoning code, The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

The city of San Juan Capistrano, in Orange County, fined Charles and Stephanie Fromm $300 for having as many as 50 people assembled at their home twice a week, the Times reported. City officials also warned the couple that subsequent fines could increase if they continued to host the Bible studies without obtaining a special permit.

A religious legal non-profit group, the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), has taken up the case saying the fine was a violation of religious freedom.

A spokeswoman for the city of San Juan Capistrano stressed that local authorities were not trying to prohibit home Bible study.

Instead, she said the city fined the Fromms for transforming a residential area into a place where people regularly assemble.

"The Fromm case further involves regular meetings on Sunday mornings and Thursday afternoons with up to 50 persons, with impacts on the residential neighborhood on street access and parking," spokeswoman Cathy Salcedo said in an email to The Los Angeles Times.

Brad Dacus, an attorney for the Public Justice Institute, said the Fromms live in a semi-rural area and have not caused any parking problems for neighbors.

The city "needed some kind of rational basis to justify their rigid intolerance towards this family for having a Bible study in their home," Dacus told the Times.

He said the Fromms should have their money returned, adding that PJI intends to defend "this family's home Bible study all the way to the US Supreme Court, if necessary."

The Fromms could not be reached Wednesday for comment, the Times said.

What Recession? Holder's Corrupt Justice Department Spent Nearly Half a Million on Refreshments

Eric Holder Is Incompetent & the DOJ is a Corrupt Agency! Not to mention completely insensitive to the plight of the average citizen. Spending $32 per person for Cracker Jacks, popcorn, and candy at one of their "conferences" is but one of the many examples of how this agency has lost touch with reality, sensibility, and morality.

Wake Up America!

If the 2008 financial crisis caused the nation to tighten its belt, the Justice Department didn’t get the memo.

The federal agency spent about $490,000 on food and beverages at 10 conferences, including $16 apiece for muffins, more than a dollar an ounce for coffee and $32 per person on snacks, according to a new report from the Justice Department’s inspector general.

The half-a-million-dollar tab represented more than 10 percent of the $4.4 million total cost of the events that were held between October 2007 and September 2009.

“Some conferences featured costly meals, refreshments, and themed breaks that we believe were indicative of wasteful or extravagant spending – especially when service charges, taxes, and indirect costs are factored into the actual price paid for food and beverages,” the report reads, citing a $76-per-person lunch at one workshop.

The inspector general made 10 recommendations to improve oversight and minimize conference costs, all of which were accepted by the Justice Department.

Republicans shook their head in disbelief.

"$16 muffins and $600,000 for event planning services are what make Americans cynical about government and why they are demanding change," said Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"The Justice Department appears to be blind to the economic realities our country is facing," he said. "People are outraged, and rightly so. The Inspector General's office just gave a blueprint for the first cuts that should be made by the (deficit-cutting) supercommittee."

The Justice Department implemented a new conference policy in April 2008 after a previous audit found wasteful spending at events held between October 2004 and September 2006. Among the examples were $53-per-person lunches and a $60,000 reception that served Swedish meatballs at $5 a piece.

In the September 2007 report, the inspector general said the agency had “few internal controls to limit the expense of conference planning and food and beverage costs at DOJ conferences.”

The latest report aimed to determine whether the new policy was working.

“Our assessment of food and beverage charges revealed that some DOJ components did not minimize conference costs as required by federal and DOJ guidelines,” the report reads.

In 2008 and 2009, the department hosted or participated in 1,832 conferences costing $121 million.

At a Washington, D.C., legal conference, the department spent $4,200 on 250 muffins -- or more than $16 apiece, the report said.

At another conference, the department's Office on Violence Against Women spent $65 per person at a lunch for 65 people. Coffee cost more than $1 an ounce. A snack break at the same conference cost $32 per person for Cracker Jack, popcorn and candy bars.

Article by Fox News

America's Debt Woe Is Worse Than Greece's Yet We Continue To Spend Like We've Hit The Lottery!

Our government is utterly broke. There are signs everywhere one looks. Social Security can no longer afford to send us our annual benefit statements. The House can no longer afford its congressional pages. The Pentagon can no longer afford the pension and health care benefits of retired service members. NASA is no longer planning a manned mission to Mars.

We're broke for a reason. We've spent six decades accumulating a huge official debt (U.S. Treasury bills and bonds) and vastly larger unofficial debts to pay for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits to today's and tomorrow's 100 million-plus retirees.

The government's total indebtedness -- its fiscal gap -- now stands at $211 trillion, by my arithmetic. The fiscal gap is the difference, measured in present value, between all projected future spending obligations -- including our huge defense expenditures and massive entitlement programs, as well as making interest and principal payments on the official debt -- and all projected future taxes.

The data underlying this figure come straight from the horse's mouth -- the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO's June 22 Alternative Fiscal Scenario presents nothing less than a Greek tragedy. It's actually worse than the Greek tragedy now playing in Athens. Our fiscal gap is 14 times our GDP. Greece's fiscal gap is 12 times its GDP, according to Professor Bernd Raffelhüschen of the University of Freiburg.

In other words, the U.S. is in worse long-term fiscal shape than Greece. The financial sharks are circling Greece because Greece is small and defenseless, but they'll soon be swimming our way.

To grasp the magnitude of our nation's insolvency, consider what tax hikes or spending cuts are needed to eliminate our fiscal gap. The answer is an immediate and permanent 64% increase in all federal revenues or an immediate and permanent 40% cut in all federal noninterest spending.

Such adjustments go miles beyond anything Congress and the president are considering. No wonder. They are focused on limiting growth in the official debt, while ignoring what's happening to the unofficial debt. To understand the thickness of their blinders, note that the fiscal gap, after inflation, grew by $6 trillion last year, whereas the official debt grew by only $1 trillion. Hence, our leaders are looking at one-sixth of the problem.

The August budget ceiling crisis deal calls for $2.5 trillion in budgetary savings over the next ten years. President Obama is unveiling plans Monday to cut the debt by $3 trillion. Both of these are peanuts compared to what's needed to start eliminating the fiscal gap.

There is a way forward to deal with both our fiscal mess and the economy, which is lying on the operating table in desperate need of open-heart surgery. Such surgeries are called radical because they require radical intervention. But they are also extremely safe compared with the alternative -- administering Band-Aids and letting the patient die.

At www.thepurpleplans.org, I provide five radical, but absolutely essential plans to fix taxes, health care, Social Security, the financial system, and energy policy. Collectively, they would more than eliminate the fiscal gap and get our economy out of the emergency room and onto the racetrack.

The plans are called purple because they should appeal to blue Democrats and red Republicans. If neither party adopts them, I guarantee that a third-party candidate running via www.americanselect.org will.

The Purple Tax Plan is of particular relevance now, given Obama's decision to push for a repeal of the Bush tax cuts for the rich and to levy a new tax on the super rich -- those with incomes above $1 million.

The president wants to raise taxes. Can't argue with that. We desperately need much higher revenues along with much lower expenditures. Federal revenues measured as share of GDP are at a postwar low. And the president wants the rich to bear a bigger share of the tax burden. It's hard to disagree with this either. The rich have been getting off far too easy for far too long.

But the Republicans want to ensure that more taxes don't mean more spending or smaller spending cuts than would otherwise arise. They also worry about high tax rates discouraging work, saving, and job creation by entrepreneurs.

Most of us agree with both the president and the Republicans, which is possible because they're both talking past each other. But what we really want is a tax system that's simple, transparent, fair, and efficient. Neither the personal income tax, the corporate income tax, nor the estate and gift tax meet these criteria. Each is a bigger nightmare than the next.

The Purple Tax Plan entails radical surgery. It eliminates the personal income tax, the corporate income tax, and the estate and gift tax. In their place it substitutes a highly progressive 17.5% federal retail sales tax plus a demogrant -- a monthly payment to each household, large enough that it reimburses the poor for the sales tax they've paid. (The 17.5% rate is the tax's nominal rate. Its effective rate is 15%, since 15 cents of every dollar spent goes to taxes and 85 cents to goods and services, with 15 divided by 85 equaling the 17.5% nominal rate.)

If you're a Democrat, a sales tax, apart from the demogrant, probably sounds highly regressive. But nothing could be further from the truth. Taxing consumption is mathematically identical to taxing what's used to buy consumption, namely one's wealth and one's wages. Warren Buffett would effectively pay 15% on his wages, but also 15% on the principal of all his wealth, which is not now being taxed.

The day the Purple Tax is implemented, Buffett will have the same number of dollars in wealth, but the purchasing power of his wealth will fall by 15%, thanks to the 17.5% higher costs of goods and services. And whether he spends his wealth on himself or gives it to his kids to spend, his wealth, plus any accumulated asset income, will buy 15% less in goods and services.

The Purple Tax also makes the payroll tax highly progressive by eliminating its ceiling and exempting the first $40,000 in wages from the employee portion of the tax. Finally, the Purple Tax includes a 15% inheritance tax on inheritances and gifts received in excess of $1 million.

Since the payroll tax is levied at close to a 15% rate, and the sales tax has an effective rate of 15%, and the inheritance tax rate is 15%, the Purple Tax plan imposes a single tax rate. This is very important for budgetary discipline. Under the Purple Tax, everyone will know that if Congress spends more on anything, the 15% effective tax rate will need to go up.

The ongoing food fight between Obama and the Republicans is hiding the real game -- spending ever-larger sums on ourselves and leaving ever-larger bills for our kids. This fiscal child abuse must stop. The Purple plans would let both sides claim victory, save our kids, and get our economy back in the race.

Article by Laurence J. Kotlikoff, Courtesy of CNN

Note: Laurence J. Kotlikoff, an economist, is a William Fairfield Warren Professor at Boston University, a columnist for Bloomberg and Forbes, and the author of 14 books including "Jimmy Stewart Is Dead" (John Wiley and Sons), "The Healthcare Fix" (MIT Press), and "The Coming Generational Storm" (co-authored with Scott Burns, MIT Press) 

Concrete Canvas Shelters... Why Are These Not Being Used On A Mass Scale? (Video)

This technology has been around for several years. Why is it not being distributed globally?

25 Signs That A Horrific Global Water Crisis Is Coming (Video)

Percentage of Population Without Reasonable Access to Safe Drinking Water

Every single day, we are getting closer to a horrific global water crisis.  This world was blessed with an awesome amount of fresh water, but because of our foolishness it is rapidly disappearing.  Rivers, lakes and major underground aquifers all over the globe are drying up, and many of the fresh water sources that we still have available are so incredibly polluted that we simply cannot use them anymore.  Without fresh water, we simply cannot function.  Just imagine what would happen if the water got cut off in your house and you were not able to go out and buy any.  Just think about it.  How long would you be able to last?  Well, as sources of fresh water all over the globe dry up, we are seeing drought conditions spread.  We are starting to see massive "dust storms" in areas where we have never seem them before.  Every single year, most of the major deserts around the world are getting bigger and the amount of usable agricultural land in most areas is becoming smaller.  Whether you are aware of this or not, the truth is that we are rapidly approaching a breaking point.

If dramatic changes are not made soon, in the years ahead water shortages are going to force large groups of people to move to new areas.  As the global water crisis intensifies, there will be political conflicts and potentially even wars over water.  We like to think of ourselves as being so "advanced", but the reality is that we have not figured out how to live without water.  When the water dries up in an area, most of the people are going to have to leave.

And yes, it will even happen in the United States too.  For example, once Lake Mead dries up there is simply no way that so many people are going to be able to live in and around Las Vegas.

Right now, most of us take for granted that we will always have access to an unlimited amount of clean water.

But when you take a hard look at the data, it quickly becomes clear that everything that we have always taken for granted about water is about to dramatically change.

That following are 25 signs that a horrific global water crisis is coming.  The first 12 facts are about the United States, and the last 13 are about the rest of the world....

#1 Today, the United States uses approximately 148 trillion gallons of fresh water a year.

#2 According to the U.S. government, 36 U.S. states are already facing water shortages or will be facing water shortages within the next few years.

#3 Since 1998, the level of water in Lake Mead has plunged by more than 50 percent.  Lake Mead supplies about 85 percent of the water used in Las Vegas, and at this point the lake has 5.6 trillion gallons less water than it used to have.  Lake Mead is falling so fast that some believe that the Hoover dam could actually stop producing electricity in a few years.  Needless to say, that would be a total disaster for that entire region of the country.  In addition, if things continue at the current pace, it is being estimated that Lake Mead will run completely dry some time around the year 2021.

#4 According to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. interior west is now the driest that it has been in 500 years.

#5 The Ogallala Aquifer, which is a massive underground lake that stretches from South Dakota all the way to Texas, is rapidly drying up.  The Ogallala Aquifer is believed to be the largest body of fresh water in the world, and right now it is being drained at a rate of approximately 800 gallons per minute.  Right now it covers approximately 174,000 square miles, and since the 1950s we have drained enough water from it "to half-fill Lake Erie".  Once upon a time, the Ogallala Aquifer had an average depth of about 240 feet, but today the average depth is just 80 feet.  If something is not done, we will definitely see a return of the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s.  We need to start listening to the experts.  Just consider what David Brauer of the Ogallala Research Service had to say when asked about the future of the Ogallala Aquifer....

    "Our goal now is to engineer a soft landing. That's all we can do."

#6 A federal judge has ruled that the state of Georgia has very few legal rights to Lake Lanier.  Lake Lanier is the main water source for the city of Atlanta.  Millions more people are expected to move into the Atlanta area in the coming years, and this is creating an absolute nightmare for city officials.

#7 It is estimated that California only has a 20 year supply of fresh water left.

#8 It is estimated that New Mexico only has a 10 year supply of fresh water left.

#9 Things have gotten so dry in Arizona that now giant "dust storms" have been blowing through the city of Phoenix.

#10 Texas is has experienced one of the driest stretches that it has ever seen.  Right now, approximately 81 percent of the state of Texas is experiencing "exceptional drought" conditions, and wildfires have burned an astounding 3.6 million acres in the state.

#11 Approximately 40 percent of all U.S. rivers  and approximately 46 percent of all U.S. lakes have become so polluted that they are are now considered to be too dangerous to fish in, swim in or get drinking water from.

#12 Eight states in the Great Lakes region have signed a pact banning the export of water to outsiders - even to other U.S. states.

#13 It is being projected that by the year 2030, global demand for water will be 40 percent higher than it is today.

#14 Worldwide demand for fresh water tripled during the last century, and is now doubling every 21 years.

#15 According to USAID, one-third of the population of the earth will be facing severe or chronic water shortages by the year 2025.

#16 Of the 60 million people added to the world’s cities every year, the vast majority of them live in impoverished areas that have no sanitation facilities whatsoever.

#17 It is estimated that 75 percent of the surface water in India is now contaminated by human and agricultural waste.

#18 If you can believe it, according to a UN study on sanitation, far more people in India have access to a cell phone than to a toilet.

#19 In the developing world, 90 percent of all wastewater is discharged completely untreated into local rivers, streams or lakes.

#20 Every 8 seconds, somewhere in the world a child dies from drinking dirty water.

#21 Due to a lack of water, Saudi Arabia has given up on trying to grow wheat and will be 100 percent dependent on wheat imports by the year 2016.

#22 In northern China, the water table is dropping one meter every single year because of drought and overpumping.

#23 Incredibly, a new desert the size of Rhode Island is created in China every single year because of drought and overpumping.

#24 In China, 80 percent of all major rivers have become so horribly polluted that they do not support any aquatic life at all at this point.

#25 Collectively, the women of South Africa walk the equivalent of the distance to the moon and back 16 times a day just to get water.

To learn more about the coming global water crisis, check out the short video posted below....



Right now, more than a billion people around the globe do not have access to safe drinking water.

That number is going to keep increasing.

Without enough fresh water, people cannot grow enough food.  Global food prices are already starting to skyrocket, and the coming global water crisis certainly is not going to help matters.

A massive, massive disaster is on the horizon.  The era of gigantic amounts of cheap food and "unlimited" amounts of clean water is over.

A horrific global water crisis is coming.

Article courtesy of the Economic Collapse

Enhanced Pat-Downs At NFL Games? America Is Rapidly Turning Into A High-Security Prison

This country is undergoing fundamental changes and everything that our forefathers passed down to us is in danger of being wiped out forever.

Wake Up America!

The NFL has announced that it will be implementing "enhanced" pat-downs at all 32 NFL stadiums.  Once this is fully implemented, the 16 million fans that attend games each season will be frisked from the ankles to the knees and from the waist up.  Apparently this new level of security was brought on by a recent incident where a Cowboys fan smuggled a stun gun into a game between the New York Jets and the Dallas Cowboys and started zapping other fans with it.  As usual, authorities have responded to a minor security incident by massively overreacting to it.  In the post-9/11 world in which we live, paranoia is standard operating procedure.  Those that are responsible for security are far more interested in "covering their backsides" than they are in respecting the liberty, freedom and dignity of average Americans.  America is rapidly turning into a high-security prison.  When naked body scanners and "enhanced pat-downs" went into U.S. airports, those that warned that we would soon see these types of "Big Brother" security measures pop up at train stations, bus stations, shopping malls and sporting events were dismissed as "conspiracy theorists".  But it turns out that the "conspiracy theorists" did not even fully understand how quickly all of this nonsense was going to spread.  How much "security" is going to be enough?  Where in the world is the line going to be drawn?  If groping all fans is "necessary" for security at all NFL games, how long will it be before it is implemented at all other sporting events across the United States?

The truth is that no matter how hard they try, those in charge of our "security" cannot keep us perfectly safe.  Life is dangerous and bad things are going to happen no matter how much "security" you throw around.

We have a choice.  We can live as free men without fear, or we can cower in terror and call for increasingly repressive layers of "security".  If we continue on the path that we are on, this nation is going to become a totalitarian "Big Brother" police state so repressive that it will make our founding fathers roll over in their graves.

In fact, they are probably already rolling over in their graves.

Do you enjoy living in a prison grid?  That is what this country is becoming.

Once upon a time, going to an NFL game was great fun.  But like with so many other things, "Big Brother" is sucking all of the joy out of that too.

The following is from a USA Today article which describes that new "security" procedures at NFL stadiums....

    Under the new "enhanced" pat-down procedures, the NFL wants all 32 clubs to search fans from the ankles to the knees as well as the waist up. Previously, security guards only patted down fans from the waist up while looking for booze, weapons or other banned items.

Do you want to wait in incredibly long lines to get into a game while security thugs grope fellow fans as if they were a herd of cattle?

I think that I will be more than happy to sit home and watch the games on television.

Where will this end?

If we keep going to the games and act as if nothing has changed, then they are going to see that as a sign that they can tighten our shackles even more.

Yes, of course nobody ever wants to see something bad happen, but do we really have to live like this?

All government agencies that have anything to do with national security should be given a dual mandate.  Instead of just focusing on "security" at any cost, they should be required by law to provide security while pledging to never compromise the liberty, freedom, honor and dignity of the American people while doing so.

If those in charge of our security right now cannot protect us without compromising our liberty, freedom, honor and dignity then they need to immediately resign and allow someone else to do the job.

Right now, those that are supposed to be "protecting" us treat us all like a bunch of trash.

Rather than shielding us from "the enemy", they actually treat us as though we are the enemy.

It started in our airports, but now futuristic "Big Brother" police state security measures are being implemented at subway stops, bus stations, ports, shopping malls, highway rest stops and sporting events.

We are spending billions upon billions of dollars on programs that are turning us a little bit more into North Korea every single day.

Did you know that TSA "VIPR teams" now conduct approximately 8,000 "unannounced security screenings" every year at subway stations, bus terminals, seaports and highway rest stops?

Should we be proud that in America today, goons in black uniforms conduct "out-of-nowhere" security sweeps at transportation hubs and at public events?

What in the world is happening to us?

In prison, you should expect to be locked down and frisked by security thugs at any moment.

But I thought that we lived in America.

And you know who is going to be flocking to fill these security goon positions?

Yes, you guessed it.  For the growing number of perverts and child molesters in America, these are going to be dream jobs.

As a security goon, they can legally touch the bodies of other people and get paid while doing it!

But unleashing hordes of security goons is not enough for the government.  Now they want us to snitch on one another.  That is what the whole "If You See Something, Say Something" campaign is all about.

When I was growing up, East Germany was a nation that was despised because of their repressive totalitarian police state.

But now we are becoming just like East Germany.

Sadly, things will soon become even more repressive.

Are you ready to be monitored for "pre-crime"?  Yes, new technology will soon be watching you at public events that will determine whether or not you have the "intent" to commit a crime.  If you fail any of the "psysiological" or "behavioral" tests, you will be flagged for "suspicious activity" and security goons will pull you off the street.  This new program was described in a recent article by Paul Joseph Watson....

    Homeland Security is also developing technology to be used at “security events” which purports to monitor “malintent” on behalf of an individual who passes through a checkpoint. The promotional video for the program explains how “Future Attribute Screening Technology” (FAST) checkpoints will conduct “physiological” and “behavioral” tests in order to weed out suspected terrorists and criminals.

In America today, watching for "suspicious activity" has become a very high priority.  As I wrote about recently, an FBI document that is being distributed to stores and hotels says that "suspicious activity" now includes....

-paying with cash

-missing a hand or fingers

-"strange odors"

-making "extreme religious statements"

-"radical theology"

-purchasing weatherproofed ammunition or match containers

-purchasing meals ready to eat

-purchasing night vision devices, night flashlights or gas masks

Do any of those apply to you?

I have also written about how our children are being trained to accept living in a repressive "Big Brother" prison grid.  Life in U.S. public schools is becoming a little more like life in U.S. prisons every single day.

Our kids are being conditioned to accept that it is okay for "authorities" to constantly watch them, track them, record what they do, search them for no reason and put them on "lock down" at any time.

Somewhere along the way, the American people became the biggest threat.  Instead of an "enemy" that lives on the other side of the world, we are now being told that our biggest enemy may be our neighbor or the person traveling in the seat right next to us.

Since the American people are the biggest threat, it has become necessary to monitor everything that we do and say.

Just check out what a recent Politico article had to say about how things have changed in the post-9/11 world....

    At the NSA, thousands of analysts who once eavesdropped on troop movements of enemy soldiers in distant countries were now listening in on the bedroom conversations of innocent Americans in nearby states.

    “We were told that we were to listen to all conversations that were intercepted, to include those of Americans,” Adrienne Kinne, a former NSA “voice interceptor,” told me. She was recalled to active duty after Sept. 11.

    “Some of those conversations are personal,” she said. “Some even intimate. … I had a real problem with the fact that people were listening to it and that I was listening to it. … When I was on active duty in ’94 to ’98, we would never collect on an American.”

Are you disturbed by this?

If not, you might want to check to see if you are actually an American.

Of course some of the biggest abuses are happening at U.S. airports.  The following is what one of Steve Quayle's listeners recently shared with him about her own TSA experience....

    She proceeds through the upper body part, then moves down to the ankles and up one leg. As she reached the top, her hand hits the middle of my crotch area and she slightly "slides" it away from there. This area had NEVER been touched before, and I only asked her a simple question, "since when can you touch the crotch?" She immediately pulls back, stands up, and calls a supervisor! He comes over, she tells him what happened (although her words were, "she complained I touched her in a personal manner")...he proceeds to tell me she was following protocol. I told him I had been patted down 2 or 3 times this year, and had NEVER had anyone touch my crotch! I told him, I was sorry, but I was standing on my principles. One thing leads to another, eventually I was able to retrieve my cell fon, and tried my darndest to record the incident, without them knowing I was doing so, but could only get brief recordings, the best one is linked here (Real Player format). You hear the guy at the end hesitate to answer my question..unfortunately I wasn't aware it had stopped recording!

    Eventually the duty supervisor for my airline walked over and introduced himself. He was very kind and understanding. I asked him if this was going to get me in trouble at work. He told me, as far as he was concerned, not at all. He said his wife has a disability, and she also has complained at the intrusiveness of the TSA patdowns, so he fully understood my position. I told him, that as a Christian, this type of touching is totally unacceptable. He agreed!

    After just sitting in a chair, waiting around, they brought in the "Federal Security Director" of Sky Harbor!! He proceeds to inform me of my "options." He tells me that they can have another woman complete the procedure and I can then proceed through, or if I refuse, I would be further investigated and charged with a civil suit!

This type of behavior is absolutely outrageous.

So why are so many Americans still willing to get on to airplanes?

Have we become so desensitized that we are willing to be groped and manhandled like cattle just so that we can feel a little safer?

Sadly, even if you get through all of the scanners, the groping and the searches, you can still be pulled off your plane in handcuffs and interrogated for hours just because someone thinks that you look "suspicious".

If you do not think that such a thing can happen to you, just read this story.  After reading that story you will likely never want to get on to an airplane in the United States again.

It doesn't seem to matter whether the Republicans are in control or whether the Democrats are in control.  We just continue our sad march toward becoming a totalitarian police state no matter who is in charge.

Anyone that still believes that we live in "the land of the free and the home of the brave" is delusional.

Article courtesy of The American Dream