The next president will take office as this year’s $544 billion deficit pushes up the U. S. national debt to nearly $20 trillion … which is chicken feed compared to nearly $127 trillion in unfunded liabilities racked up by our entitlement state.
And, on top of that, add our outrageous world policeman fees.
The Washington Post reports that, “thanks to various treaties and deals set up since 1945, the U.S. government might be legally obligated to defend countries containing 25 percent of the world’s population.”
And boy, has America, World Policeman, been active! The U. S. military is well into a second decade of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, engaged in ongoing armed conflict in Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, and with ISIS and its terror, not seemingly degraded at all but growing.
No wonder, then, that the iconoclastic Donald J. Trump questioned — at a Washington Post editorial board meeting, just before the Brussels terrorist attacks — the wisdom of U.S. commitments to NATO, South Korea and Japan.
“NATO was set up when we were a richer country,” Trump explained. “We’re not a rich country. We’re borrowing, we’re borrowing all of this money. We’re borrowing money from China.…”
So why subsidize wealthy countries? “Well, if you look at Germany … Saudi Arabia … Japan … South Korea — I mean we spend billions of dollars on Saudi Arabia, and they have nothing but money.”
Lest I get my hopes up too high, it seems unlikely that Trump would change actual policy, but simply make “a much different deal with them, and it would be a much better deal.”
Here’s an even better deal, as our third president, Thomas Jefferson, articulated: “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations. Entangling alliances with none.”
It’s quite affordable.
This is Common Sense, I’m Paul Jacob.
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4 replies on “Trump’s Empire?”
Trump does, at the least , bring forward for debate issues which have been ignored too long and deserve public and voter scrutiny. On this he certainly appears tho be the exception to the rule.
Peace, commerce and honest friendship can only take place with people who share our values. Thomas Jefferson was forced to send our military to the Mediterranean to defend the rights of our merchant ships. Barbary Pirates threatened ships on the high seas and seized ships and took their crews captive. We were foolish to ever defend Saudi Arabia from Saddam Hussein. THey should have been forced to defend themselves. But hindsight is 20/20.
I only wish our next president would tell the people of Europe: it’s not 1945 anymore. Heck, it’s not 1985 anymore. Defend yourselves.
This is a point on which Mr. Trump & I agree… STOP THE AID TO COUNTRIES THAT DON’T NEED IT. & I will go 1 step further… stop the aid to countries that hate the USA & are not our allies. I am for humanitarian support to the citizens. But I can’t abide aid to countries that we support that allow terrorism to proliferate.
If Mr. Trump would stop the bullying & lay off the Twitter rants & act a bit more statesman-like, perhaps I could get on the Trump train.
Have a blessed Easter, Paul.
Great comments. Happy Easter to you.