A Threat More Dangerous Than Terrorism

There’s another threat that is every bit as dangerous—if not more dangerous—than importing jihad, and that’s the threat of economic meltdown caused by out-of-control congressional spending.

Last week the Treasury reported that the federal government ran a $53 billion deficit in May; the government took in $225 billion in revenues, while it spent $277 billion.

Paul Ryan and the Capitol Hill establishment Republican leadership will try to tell you this is good news because May’s shortfall was down from $84 billion a year ago.

This is complete nonsense.

What the establishment media won’t tell you is that at the same time the federal government is running these near record deficits tax collections are also at near-record levels.

The U.S. Treasury raked in a record of approximately $1,914,651,000,000 in tax revenues in the first seven months of fiscal 2016 (Oct. 1, 2015 through April 30, 2016), according to an analysis of the Monthly Treasury Statement done for CNS News by our friend Terence P. Jeffrey.

According to Jeffrey’s analysis, that is up about $14,151,330,000—in constant 2016 dollars—from the approximately $1,900,499,670,000 in constant 2016 dollars the Treasury collected in the first seven months of fiscal 2015.

And the news gets worse—even though the Treasury has collected more in inflation-adjusted tax revenues so far this fiscal year than in any previous year, tax collections were actually down in the month of April alone compared to last April. In 2015, the Treasury collected approximately $471,801,000,000 in April (in 2015 dollars). In 2016, the Treasury collected $438,432,000,000 in April.

This means that despite collecting record revenues over the span of the first seven months of fiscal 2016, the federal government still ran a deficit of $354,592,000,000 during the period—as the federal government spent $2,269,242,000,000 in those seven months.

In practical political terms this means that establishment Republicans have abandoned any pretense of being the Party of fiscal responsibility—a GOP principle that pre-dates the Reagan Revolution we might add.

But more importantly, it means that the steady erosion of American economic power will continue to drive the steady erosion of American military and international political power.

Back in 2010 then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen identified our national debt as “the single biggest threat to our national security.”

Like the other threats that have presented themselves during Barack Obama’s tenure, this one has gotten exponentially worse on Obama’s watch. In 2010, the national debt held by the public was $13.56, today it is $19.28 trillion and rising.

But the difference between this threat and the threat posed by Obama’s disastrous policy in the Middle East and his open borders policy that has flooded America with toxic immigrants, of both legal and illegal status, is that debt, which is driven by spending, is the one threat over which Congress has direct control.

Which brings us to the other issue raised by how the House deals with adding money to the Homeland Security and defense budgets—they simply give Obama a blank check.

Under Speaker Ryan there’s no guarantee that the money Congress budgeted for the Pentagon or homeland Security will actually be used to confront the threats facing the United States today or in the future.

Radical Islam isn’t going to be defeated by the kind of big ticket defense projects that make the lobbyists and shareholders of the military-industrial complex rich—it will be defeated by reestablishing American leadership in a war that is at least as economic and cultural as it is kinetic.

We take the hollowing out of the military seriously and the failures of our Homeland Security apparatus even more seriously, but those in Congress who claim to support an effective Homeland Security effort and a strong national defense should start by cutting the politically motivated fat from the budget.

Runaway spending won’t make Obama a more effective opponent of the Islamist threat by fighting the cultural war radical Islam has declared on America.

Nor will they change his retreat from the Pacific or buck-up his weakness in the face of Russia’s aggression in its near abroad.

The only thing that will defeat or deter any of these threats is an economically strong and politically confident America. The spending policies pursued by Speaker Ryan and his establishment Republican allies in Congress all but guarantee another decade of American economic weakness and with it another decade of danger. 

I urge you to call Speaker Ryan’s office (the Capitol Switchboard is 1-866-220-0044) and tell Speaker Ryan that Admiral Mike Mullen was right; our national debt as “the single biggest threat to our national security” and it is time for Republicans to stop spending America into economic ruin and national security weakness. {eoa}

George Rasley is editor of ConservativeHQ, a member of American MENSA and a veteran of over 300 political campaigns, including every Republican presidential campaign from 1976 to 2008. He served as lead advance representative for Governor Sarah Palin in 2008 and has served as a staff member, consultant or advance representative for some of America’s most recognized conservative Republican political figures, including President Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp. He served in policy and communications positions on the House and Senate staff, and during the George H.W. Bush administration he served on the White House staff of Vice President Dan Quayle.