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Charles’ Note: The “throw the bums out” mentality is strong these days. 

The problem is finding anyone better to replace them.

Voters threw Trump out in 2020… only to invite him back in 2024. 

And if history is any guide, the House of Representatives will change hands again in next year’s election. 

That’s the most depressing part. While most Americans won’t be particularly sad to see the current Congress shown the door, only a fool would believe the next one will be better. Or even materially different. 

Will the next Congress balance the budget?

Will it rein in a gargantuan military budget that is more than twice the size of Russia’s and China’s combined?

Will it make any attempt to reform Social Security to at least postpone the inevitable insolvency currently projected by 2034?

Or will they just point their fingers at the other guys and then carry on as usual?

To answer those questions, I’ll pass the baton to James Hickman, my fellow libertarian traveler and co-founder of Schiff Sovereign. James is a lifelong entrepreneur and investor who’s traveled to more than 120 countries on all seven continents. In addition, he’s started, invested in, or acquired businesses all over the world. 

Take it from here, James. 

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“Zeus” Just Made the Most Predictable Crisis in History Even Worse

By James Hickman, Schiff Sovereign

It was September 29, 2021 – nearly four years ago – that then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a press conference about their $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” spending bonanza.

Despite the outrageously high price tag, Pelosi told reporters at the presser, “the dollar amount [of the Build Back Better bill], as the President said, is zero.”

She then made a little circle with her right thumb and index finger to emphasize her point, pivoting to all the cameras from left to right as if to insist that there was no cost to her $3.5 trillion legislation.

Yet despite defying every arithmetical and logical postulate known to man, the Left went on to repeat this idiotic lie.

“My Build Back Better Agenda costs zero dollars,” tweeted Joe Biden. The bill “will cost zero dollars” said Press Secretary (now MSNBC host) Jen Psaki.

Those on the political Right justifiably lost their minds over such intellectual dishonesty. 

So it’s ironic that they’re now doing the same thing with their own multi-trillion dollar “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

The Congressional Budget Office’s analysis shows that the One Big Beautiful Bill will add $3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade – on top of the other ~ $22 trillion that they already expect to be added to the national debt between now and 2034.

Well, the Senate’s current rules state that any legislation that adds $3 trillion to the national debt must automatically be subject to more onerous voting requirements.

And these stricter voting requirements will make it almost impossible to advance the legislation through the Senate.

As a result, the Right has decided to do what the Left did in 2021 – make up a new form of mathematics to pretend that the bill costs nothing.

Senate Budget Committee chairman Lindsey Graham is in charge of the faux-math: “I’m the king of the numbers,” he declared to reporters. “I’m Zeus, the budget king.”

Something tells me that “Zeus” won’t be awarded the Fields Medal anytime soon for his mythological mathematics.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I like tax cuts. They’re almost always great for growth, which the U.S. economy desperately needs. 

But tax cuts alone don’t get the job done unless there are commensurate spending cuts too. If there aren’t, the deficits will continue to grow, and America’s fiscal crisis will come ever closer.

We’re written about this a LOT: the United States is headed for a serious crisis – which we project will take place in 2033 at the latest.

Irresponsible, reckless spending is the primary reason why. 

The U.S. already has a $36 trillion national debt (that is set to explode higher this summer). Even today, the interest bill on the U.S. national debt costs $1+ trillion per year, more than 20% of tax revenue.

By 2033, the government itself projects that the national debt will be at least $55 trillion. 

At that point, based on their own forecasts, the Treasury Department could spend more than 40% of tax revenue just to pay interest on the debt.

Oh, and that same year – 2033 – Social Security’s biggest trust fund will run out of money, causing an immediate and permanent cut to benefits.

The government will have one way out at that point: Pressure the Federal Reserve to expand the monetary base… that is, “print” tens of trillions of dollars to fund the government and prop up Social Security. This will result in a crippling level of inflation.

This is one of the most predictable yet preventable crises in human history. 

But Congress is not only doing nothing about it, they’re making it worse.

There is another way – one that is conceptually simple.

For starters, Congress could actually do its job and spend responsibly. It’s not like there isn’t a mountain of waste to cut.

They also need to pass much-needed reforms to both Social Security and immigration. The country would be better off if there were an efficient way for smart, talented, law-abiding, hard-working people to become legal residents.

The executive branch, meanwhile, would need to undo mountains of red tape and regulatory sludge that it dumped onto the economy over the past few decades.

“Liberation Day” should have been the day that countless pages of useless, job-killing, productivity-killing regulations were eliminated. This can still happen.

Most importantly, the entire federal government needs to stop its make-believe accounting and show the world (plus American voters) that they are trusted, serious professionals.

It’s bad enough that the U.S. has to sell $2 trillion worth of additional debt each year to fund its annual deficits.

But that’s not even close to the real requirement.

Over the next twelve months, roughly $9 trillion worth of existing U.S. debt securities will mature. This was money that the government borrowed years ago… and will soon come due.

In theory the government has to pay that money back. 

Naturally they don’t have the funds to do so… so instead, they’ll borrow new money to pay back the old loans… essentially refinancing $9 trillion worth of the national debt over the next 12 months.

Realistically they must sell ~$11 trillion in debt over the next 12 months: $9 trillion to refinance existing debt, plus another $2 trillion to cover this year’s budget deficit.

$11 trillion is an enormous amount of money… which means they’ll need every investor possible ready and willing to buy U.S. government bonds.

And that’s a problem. 

Because right now, foreigners (who own a HUGE chunk of the debt) are aggressively backing away from U.S. government bonds.

That’s a big part of why gold keeps going up. Foreign governments and central banks are dumping their U.S. government bonds and buying gold instead.

Who can blame them? 

It’s hard to take a guy seriously who refers to himself as Zeus and makes up his own arithmetic.

Would you lend money to someone who doesn’t know the difference between “free” and a $2 trillion deficit?

Me either.

If Washington wants to attract capital and stabilize the economy, they have to start acting like grown-ups. They must demonstrate to the world that they can tackle hard problems, cut spending, and govern responsibly.

And right now, they aren’t doing any of that.

To your freedom,

James Hickman
Co-Founder, Schiff Sovereign