There’s lots of talk right now about the federal budget. Some people say “if we don’t raise the debt ceiling, we’re going to default” or “we need to raise the debt ceiling to preserve the full faith and credit of the US Government.” Others threaten the future of Social Security and military pay checks. Is there any truth to these statements? And what are all these terms, what do they mean? One of the ways politicians get their way is to use obscure language and scare tactics. Let’s look at the reality of the situation.

National debt refers to the $14,342,954,633,916.41 that we owe our creditors (like China). The federal government sells Treasury Bonds to other countries (and individuals) with a promise to pay them back at a future date (typically, 30 years), with interest.

Deficit refers to the difference between what the government makes (primarily through income taxes) and what it spends on things like the National Endowment for the Arts (currently budgeted at $155 million, though Obama has requested increasing it to $161.3 million), grants to the United Nations ($6.4 billion in 2009 alone), and subsidies to things like Amtrack ($1.6 billion per year.)

Debt limit refers to the amount of money, based on the federal budget approved by Congress, that we are allowed to borrow from other countries.

So let’s put this into terms everyone can understand: a household budget.

Say you have a mortgage, car loan, and Visa card. The amount you borrow is your debt: $100,000 for your house, $20,000 for your car, and $5,000 on your credit card would be a household debt of $125,000.

Let’s say your job pays you $2,000 per month. And to make math easy, say your mortgage payment is $1,000 a month, your car loan payment is $250 a month, and your minimum Visa payment is $50 a month. So right off the top, you have to pay $1,300 a month to your creditors, leaving you $700 a month for “discretionary spending.” Utilities, gasoline, food, insurance, entertainment… they all fall under “discretionary spending”. It’s discretionary because you can decide to eat steak or hamburger, you can opt for the $150/month cable package with all the premium channels, or opt to just watch the “basic 4″ with an antenna. You make decisions based on how you want to live and adjust your spending accordingly. Now if you spend more than $700 a month on your discretionary spending, then you have a “household deficit”.

Now if you have a household deficit and assuming you have no savings, the only way you can continue to live the lifestyle you’re accustomed to is to either 1) increase your income or 2) ask for another loan. If you decide to get a home equity loan or raise your credit card limit, you’re “raising your debt ceiling.”

For the sake of the argument, say you get a home equity loan for $20,000. This increases both your household debt by $20,000, and negatively impacts your monthly budget because instead of $1,300 a month in monthly debt, you now have an additional $150 a month you have to pay the home equity loan. You can see how this snowball effect continues to the point where you’re living almost entirely on credit… and borrowed time.

This is where our country is today.

And rather than looking at what we can cut, we are being told we need to keep spending and just borrow more. The fastest way to cut $1 trillion from the budget would be to just go back to what we were spending 4 years ago. But we’re being told we can’t do that. Some politicians in Washington — including Obama — are saying “we need to increase taxes” to fix the problem. This is like saying “you’re already working 60 hours a week… just work more,” instead of looking at the budget and deciding “we need to drop the HBO and stop buying the $17-per-pound steaks and switch to $3-per-pound ground beef.”

Don’t be fooled, America. We still have the money to pay our debts, including Social Security and military pay. It’s time to cut the premium cable and start enjoying Hamburger Helper.

Want some ideas where we can cut from the federal budget? Check out Citizens Against Government Waste’s “Prime Cuts” whitepaper. The PDF can be seen here. — ed

On July 2nd, 1776, the Continental Congress voted to declare the thirteen colonies independent from England. Two days later, Thomas Jefferson delivered the finished Declaration of Independence to the Continental Congress, a document that encapsulated what the Founding Fathers knew to be universal rights of all mankind, rights given to us by God. The Founders knew that the purpose of government wasn’t to give us rights, but only to protect those rights.

After winning our War for Independence, we enacted first the Articles of Confederation, which failed because the federal government had too little power to protect these rights. So the states decided in 1787 to fix the Articles of Confederation. Quickly realizing that they Articles could not be fixed, but had to be replaced, the Founders began assembling the Constitution of the United States of America. They spent 116 days debating how it should be formed (13 days per page), and on on September 17, 1787, the Constitution was adopted.

What a great and momentous time. Finally, all men would be free. Finally, we would be an independent nation.

And look around you today and see how far have we fallen from that great hight.

We are a now a nation where almost 50% of the people pay no taxes, yet receive handouts from the government in exchange for their votes.

We are now a nation where we are in massive debt to foreign and hostile countries, making us dependent upon their banks for our spending habits.

We are now a nation where people roll their eyes at the needy, and grumble that “the government should do something for them.”

We are now a nation who is dependent upon other countries — some hostile — for our energy needs, while we regulate and prevent tapping our own sources of energy.

We are now a nation who is dependent upon other countries to manufacture the goods we consume.

We are now a nation of people who are largely dependent upon the federal government to “bail out” bad decisions by businesses and homeowners.

We are now a nation of people who — after a week’s warning — wait until the last minute to evacuate from an oncoming hurricane, then blame the government for not doing enough.

We are now a nation where 2000-page laws are passed, without the consent of the governed, without even one hour of debate per page, let alone 13 days.

We are now a nation where 1 in 4 don’t know what country we declared independence from, where only 58% know it happened in 1776, where only 57% of the population bothered to vote in the 2008 election, and where everyone complains about our elected officials at every level.

We are now a nation where our elected officials don’t know our own Constitution — saying that an illegal immigrant could one day be president or that the Constitution has a “good and welfare clause” — and not only does our media remain silent, we vote these people back into office. And the people that do know the Constitution, who do know their history, and who do know that the Boston Tea Party happened in 1773 are pilloried and ridiculed.

The Romans, in their enjoyment of wealth and prosperity, in their bread & circus lifestyle, lost the memory of freedom and in turn lost their freedom as well as their nation. Are we on the road to the same? Is our government  protecting our individual freedoms, or is it now not only negligent in that duty, but has instead shackled us with the chains of slavery? Are Twitter and Facebook and celebrity scandals our modern-day soma as we amuse ourselves to death? Are will still an independent nation? Are we still even worthy of celebrating Independence Day? Or are we, because of our decades of wealth and prosperity, because of our selfishness, and because of our apathy, no longer worthy of the God-given right to alter or abolish our own government?

Osama bin Laden is dead.

And while most of the United States is rejoicing that fact, we weren’t.

Don’t get us wrong: Osama bin Laden deserved to die. But we weren’t rejoicing because as more detail emerged, we realized the entire operation was a failure. We can hear what you’re thinking: “How can the operation that succeeded in killing the most infamous terrorist in history be a failure?” Oh it was. And it’s all Barack Obama’s fault.

Let us begin by saying that it was no fault of the special ops guys, the SEALs, SOCOM, Delta Force, Det-1, and whoever was involved. Aside from one mission glitch (more on that later) the operation went down pretty much the way the White House wanted it to. And that, dear readers, is where the problems lie.

Failure #1: Killing bin Laden

As soon as the intelligence guys briefed the president that they had firm intel on bin Laden’s whereabouts, Osama’s clock was ticking. There was never any possibility of him being grabbed and returned to the United States. Why? Let’s look at what would have happened if we would have taken him alive. The options would have been:

1. Send him to Guantanamo Bay for a military tribunal. Obama wouldn’t have done that because it would have infuriated his entire base of voters. They’re mad as hell as it is that Gitmo is still open after Obama swore to close it. They’re also mad as hell that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (the principle architect of the 9/11 attacks) was transferred back to Gitmo for a military tribunal after the idiocy of taking him out of Gitmo and sending him to New York City for a public trial was realized. So Obama couldn’t have sent bin Laden to Gitmo.
2. Send him to a maximum security US prison to await trial. Obama couldn’t have done this, because the majority of independent voters and every conservative voter would have been crying for impeachment.
3. Allow the CIA to “ghost” him. This would have been the best option, but also the one that would have require the most amount of guts to do, and Obama doesn’t have that kind of intestinal fortitude.

So, given that none of these options were available, the only option Obama had politically was to kill him. And why is this a bad thing? First, because Obama made the decision based on politics instead of national security. And second, because capturing bin Laden alive would have yielded much more intelligence information than what we got off his laptops and out of his compound. Which leads us to…

Failure #2: Blabbing about everything

About the only bit of information we don’t know about the operation is the names of the men who carried it out. The administration has blabbed about the unit (Seal Team Six, a.k.a. “DevGru”, although there were other spec ops operators involved, fortunately unnamed); the fact that bomb-sniffing dogs were used; that we captured lots of intelligence information; that bin Laden had money and two phone numbers on him when we killed him; that we were probably using HK416 rifles and that we wore helmet-mounted cameras; and on, and on, and on.

First off, revealing the information about who we sent in, what they were armed with, the fact that a dog was sent with them, and other operational aspects of the mission is tantamount to high treason. We are letting the world know how our spec ops guys work, their tactics and strategies, and everything about their operations. If someone in the military would have leaked this information, they would have been court martialed for treason, but since it makes Obama look good politically, then he’ll tell the world about it and that’s just perfectly fine in his book.

Second, announcing to the our enemies that “we have bin Laden’s laptop and all sorts of intelligence data, nya-nya-nya-nyaaaaaa!” would have been like telling Germany “we have one of your Enigma encryption machines and know how to use it” or telling Hirohito “we broke your radio codes, we’re going to shoot down Yamamoto by ambushing his airplane with a flight of P-38′s when he departs Rabaul on April 18th, 1943″. Again, if anyone would have leaked this information during World War II, they would have been tried for treason and likely executed. But since it might help his presidential approval ratings, Obama has no problems blabbing about the “treasure trove of intelligence” we got from bin Laden’s hideout.

Failure #3: Using human assets on a kill mission

If you know that you’re going to simply kill a target, you don’t risk the lives of US troops and top-secret aircraft. You send in a stealth aircraft or a Predator drone and blow up the target from miles away. Oh sure, the argument can be made that we sent in people so we could gather intelligence. But the intelligence is worthless if you tell everyone about it (see Failure #2). Of course, someone will say “well, we needed to be sure that we got him.” Valid point, but there are enough other means of doing after-action bomb damage assessments that we’d know we got him. Obama was more worried about potential civilian casualties than he was about our troops. Again, he was more concerned with politics than national security.

Failure #4: Not having a contingency plan

The only glitch in the mission (from the operator’s perspective) was the crashing of a specialized and previously top-secret stealth Blackhawk helicopter in the compound. While the SEALs used thermite grenades to blow up the helicopter, major pieces of it remained. These pieces were then carted off by Pakistan, and certainly have been thoroughly inspected by anyone with a big enough checkbook. (Russia, China, Iran…) A proper contingency plan would have been to have some stealth aircraft or Predators in orbit, so that if everything went to hell we could level the entire place. And if one of the top-secret Blackhawks crashes in the compound, you can fire in some missiles after everyone is out to ensure the Chinese and Russians don’t get their hands on anything of value.

Failure #5: Undermining our relationship with Pakistan

No doubt about it, Pakistan is pissed about our handling of the situation. Namely because it wasn’t discreet. Now we have Hillary Clinton wondering aloud to reporters about “how could Pakistan not have known that bin Laden was hiding there.” Of course they knew; everyone knows they knew. But proper diplomacy is to not say anything and embarrass them publicly, unless you want a war. Now we’ve called them on their blunder and they look bad internationally. And may we remind everyone that Pakistan has nukes that al Qaeda would love to get their hands on? If we push Pakistan too far, they might have an “oopsie” moment and “loose” one of their nukes to the back of an al Qaeda truck. “Sorry ’bout that” they’ll say as New York City gets vaporized.

Failure #6: Underplaying the role of Gitmo… and waterboarding

The intelligence that led us to bin Laden started under President Bush’s tenure. In 2007 we uncovered information that eventually led the CIA to bin Laden’s courier, and eventually his hideout. This information was received during the waterboarding of a prisoner at the Naval Detention Center at Guantanamo Bay… The same center and the same techniques criticized by Obama and the Democrats.

Obama the Chickenhawk

Obama and the Democrats spent years taking pot shots at President Bush and his policies on the War on Terror. They demonized Bush, Gitmo, and waterboarding. In 2009, they demonized the SEALs who captured Ahmed Hashim Abed, an al Qaeda terrorist mastermind working in Iraq, responsible for several brutal attacks. Abed claimed one of the SEALs punched him, and despite the lack of evidence, the Obama administration allowed the military to proceed with the court martial. Fortunately, all three sailors were acquitted. But now Obama is cozying up to Seal Team Six like he’s always been their biggest fan.

Further, lots of media talking heads are saying how much “guts” Obama had to make the decision to kill bin Laden. Guts? Really? No, Chris Matthews. No, Keith Olbermann. No, CNN. It didn’t take guts to do what he did. He took the easy road, the road that was a political victory, but a national security defeat.

Real guts — and a national security win — would have went like this:

The Mission (the way it should have been done)

In general, the operation is known as “ghosting” an HVT (High Value Target). For all intents and purposes, they disappear off the face of the earth.

Special operations forces enter Pakistan by truck or donkey in deep cover. (In other words: dressed as locals, with beards, et cetera.) They meet up with the CIA observers who were already in Abbottabad staking out Osama’s hideout. At about 3 a.m. on a moonless night, a sniper begins picking off sentries from a location over 1000 yards away as the operators quietly scale the wall of the compound and begin their assault. After securing bin Laden alive, a pair of stealth Blackhawks (a primary and a backup) — which had been waiting in a holding pattern out of earshot — come in to extract the team and bin Laden, his laptops, and any other intel. The Blackhawks fly off and a Predator drone fires Hellfire missiles into the compound, blowing it up completely.

Bin Laden is now a “ghost”…. and taken to an undisclosed location for months or years of interrogation. Our official story is that we fired Hellfire missiles from an attack helicopter at “a suspected terrorist location” and “the hunt for bin Laden continues.” The compound in ashes, the remaining members of al Qaeda believe that bin Laden — and all the intelligence data — is gone, and they conduct business as usual. We use the gathered intel to shut down numerous al Qaeda operations worldwide. Moreover, we know know that we cannot trust Pakistan, but they don’t know we know that.

Obama: no guts, fleeting glory

As opposed to Obama’s epic failure, this mission would have been an epic win. It’s not the stuff of Tom Clancy novels, it’s what special ops guys train for all the time. Everyone in the intelligence community knows that a live prisoner is a much better intelligence asset than a dead man’s laptop. But to order that mission would have taken more guts than Obama would ever have, because it would have required that Obama do the right thing for national security and not advance himself politically. It would mean doing the right thing for the country and the wrong thing for his re-election chances. And that’s something Obama doesn’t have the guts to do.

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