What is the true state of the union?
The financial health of the federal government, the prosperity of the American people, the prospects for the nation’s future and the state of America’s national security are all in significant jeopardy.
Financially, the nation’s status fits the technical definition of bankruptcy. The national debt of $17,338,229,800,000
exceeds America’s Gross Domestic Product of $17 trillion. Combined with an annual deficit of $680 billion, this means that US has no realistic way to pay its debt under current circumstances.
In 2013, the federal government spent 3.5 trillion while taking in only 2.8 trillion in revenue .
Under the Obama Administration, the federal debt has drastically incrased. In January 2009, the total federal debt stood at $10.6 trillion. In October of 2013, it hit $16.7 trillion – an increase of 57 percent. In the same time frame under President George W. Bush, who was financing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, total federal debt rose 38 percent.
A salient question is: What did all that increased deficit spending–including the $787 billion stimulus package– during the Obama presidency buy?
Since 2009, federal welfare spending has jumped 41%, costing taxpayers $193 billion per year. Despite that, 46 million Americans live in poverty, and median income remains over 8% lower than was in 2007.
The increase in spending in this area has clearly failed. The poverty rate remains unchanged at approximately 15%.
America has vast unmet domestic needs, which remained largely unaddressed by Obama’s deficit spending. Its infrastructure remains in poor condition. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gives the nation a D+, with vast numbers of crumbling roads and bridges, and other vital unmet needs in our transportation, water, energy, and waste management utilities. Some minor improvements have been made (The prior score was a D) but this is largely due to spending by state and local governments, not Washington.
The private sector has not benefited from the spending, resulting in employment rates that remain unacceptably high.
The Department of Labor Statistics’ U-6 figure is a dismal 13.1%, a number that understates the true level of the dilemma since the national employment participation rate is at a four-decade low of 62.8%, representing a worsening of an 0.8 percentage point over the year. 347,000 left the workforce in December, exceeding the number of new jobs created. More and more Americans have completely dropped out of the labor force, and aren’t counted in unemployment statistics. 11.2 million have left the labor force under the Obama presidency.
Many of those who have found work and are counted as employed are actually working only part-time. Seven out of eight new positons added under President Obama have been part-time jobs.
The number of long-term unemployed continues to be an unresolved crisis. These displaced workers count for 37.7% of all unemployed, and their chances of re-entering the work force diminish daily.
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There has been a $2,535 drop in median income after the recession ended in June 2009, according to Sentier Research
The United States is less secure than it was five years ago. The significant increase in federal spending has not benefited the military. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, In calendar year 2012, military spending declined from $711 billion to $668 billion.
In dollar terms, this was the largest decline since 1991. President Barack Obama’s budget proposes cutting security spending to 2.4% of GDP in 2023. This would represent the lowest allocation of GDP to defense spending in the post-World War II era.
In 2012, U.S. military spending fell faster than overall military spending by democracies.If military budgets were compared in a way that reflected varying personnel costs, U.S. military preeminence would appear smaller than it does using straightforward comparisons based on market exchange rates.
While the US cuts back, its potential adversaries have drastically accelerated their spending. That increase may be even greater than public sources indicate, since neither nation takes into account may spending provisions that the US includes in its statistics, and, especially in the case of China, they have significant sources of military income that are not included in official spending reports.
The National Interest notes that: “Russia is now engaged in its largest military buildup since the collapse of the Soviet Union more than two decades ago, with major increases in defense spending budgeted each year to 2020. Putin has pushed for this program even over the objections of some within the Kremlin who worried about costs and the possible negative impact on Russian prosperity; opposition to the expansion of military spending was one of the reasons the long-serving Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin left the cabinet two years ago.”
Chinese Navy ship Qingdao (DDG 113) as it arrives in Hawaii for a scheduled port visit.
(U.S. Navy photo)
Foreign Policy reports: China’s official 2012 defense budget is $106 billion, an 11 percent increase over last year and a fourfold increase from a decade ago. The Pentagon places China’s total military spending at somewhere between $120 and $180 billion. “Estimating actual PLA military expenditures is difficult because of poor accounting transparency and China’s still incomplete transition from a command economy,” the report notes, referring to the People’s Liberation Army.
Al Qaeda has rebounded, a now controls more territory than ever in the middle east, has strengthened in Africa, and its affiliate Taliban stands poised to make significant gains in Afghanistan.
Orion Crew Vehicle
(NASA photo)
In the economically and technologically crucial area of space technology, the United States remains in limbo. The last manned mission aboard an American-launched craft took place in July of 2011. NASA may not put astronauts in space with its own craft until 2021. While the U.S. retreats, China has moved quickly forward. The vast wealth from space-based assets on the moon and beyond, which will play an important role in the world economy within the next fifty years, are receding away from America’s grasp.
Politically, the nation appears more disunited than at any time since the civil war. The Obama Administration’s politicization of federal agencies has created an antagonistic climate that prevents compromise. The Justice Department’s refusal to investigate clear cases of voter intimidation diminishes faith in American democracy, as does the IRS intimidation of Tea Party groups. Disturbingly, Administration supporters, including Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) call for overtly unlawful actions, including continuing to use the IRS for partisan purposes. The spillover effect has spread beyond Washington. New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo has called for conservatives to leave his state.
The State of the Union in 2014 poses a serious challenge for the nation’s future.