WSJ: TARP Was No Win for the Taxpayers

Treasury’s claim that the bank bailouts will return a profit ignores the other, more costly programs enabling the banks to repay their TARP funds.

The Wall Street Journal, Mar 17, 2011

… Special Inspector General for TARP criticized Treasury in October for inadequately disclosing a change in its valuation methodology that reduced a $45 billion loss in AIG to $5 billion, making TARP losses appear smaller than they really are. This data manipulation is only part of a much larger problem with Treasury’s representations regarding the supposed success of the bank bailout payments that lie at the heart of TARP.

The focus on repayment fails to consider the huge taxpayer costs from non-TARP programs that directly and indirectly enabled many of the large banks to repay their TARP funds. These intertwined programs, operated by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, dwarf the size of TARP and lack its accountability.

… The Congressional Budget Office estimates that Treasury’s bailout of the GSEs [Government Sponsored Entities, like Fannie Mae and Freddy Mack] will cost the taxpayers approximately $380 billion through fiscal year 2021. If only one-fourth of CBO’s estimate ultimately benefits TARP recipients and other financial institutions, taxpayers will have provided a subsidy to these institutions of approximately $100 billion, which is not accounted for under TARP.

…. TARP was never where the real action was happening. In fact, other Fed and FDIC programs added another $2 trillion of taxpayer money at risk to the 19 stress-tested banks alone, on top of the $1.1 trillion of MBS purchased by the Fed. TARP is but one-eighth of that total.

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Big bank bailouts and ‘secret Fed loans’ 2007-2010

The Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department ‘flushed’ billions of dollars (courtesy of tax-paying U.S. citizens) out through their big-big-bank-connected umbilical cord credit extension system during the height of the Great Financial Crisis.

The ‘biggest of the big’ made out well – and their insiders did even better.

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“Secrets and Lies of the Bailout” –  RollingStone, Jan 4, 2013 

Goldman Sachs, which had made such a big show of being reluctant about accepting $10 billion in TARP money, was quick to cash in on the secret loans being offered by the Fed. By the end of 2008, Goldman had snarfed up $34 billion in federal loans – and it was paying an interest rate of as low as just 0.01 percent for the huge cash infusion. Yet that funding was never disclosed to shareholders or taxpayers, a fact Goldman confirms. “We did not disclose the amount of our participation in the two programs you identify,” says Goldman spokesman Michael Duvally.

Goldman CEO Blankfein later dismissed the importance of the loans, telling the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission that the bank wasn’t “relying on those mechanisms.” But in his book, Bailout, Barofsky says that Paulson told him that he believed Morgan Stanley was “just days” from collapse before government intervention, while Bernanke later admitted that Goldman would have been the next to fall.

Meanwhile, at the same moment that leading banks were taking trillions in secret loans from the Fed, top officials at those firms were buying up stock in their companies, privy to insider info that was not available to the public at large. Stephen Friedman, a Goldman director who was also chairman of the New York Fed, bought more than $4 million of Goldman stock over a five-week period in December 2008 and January 2009 – years before the extent of the firm’s lifeline from the Fed was made public. Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit bought nearly $7 million in Citi stock in November 2008, just as his firm was secretly taking out $99.5 billion in Fed loans. Jamie Dimon bought more than $11 million in Chase stock in early 2009, at a time when his firm was receiving as much as $60 billion in secret Fed loans. When asked by Rolling Stone, Chase could not point to any disclosure of the bank’s borrowing from the Fed until more than a year later, when Dimon wrote about it in a letter to shareholders in March 2010.

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It is now time untangle America from this twisted political mess and get us back to a citizen-driven economy.

It is time to and grant U.S. citizens the same direct liquidity access that was ‘gifted’ to major banks and insurers during 2007 – 2010.

The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens.  It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.

The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (12935 downloads )

Bloomberg Uncovers the Fed’s Secret Liquidity Lifelines | Bloomberg LP

Aug 22, 2011 – Excerpt:

“The U.S. Federal Reserve mounted an unprecedented campaign to head off a depression by providing as much as $1.2 trillion in public money to banks and other companies from August 2007 through April 2010.  The emergency loans were intended to help recipients cope with cash shortfalls and keep credit markets from grinding to a halt.  Bloomberg News sorted through more than 29,000 pages of previously secret documents and Fed spreadsheets detailing more than 21,000 loans to compile a database showing which companies got the emergency liquidity, and when.”

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Bloomberg Aug 22, 2011 – The #8 Recipient:

“JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon has touted a “fortress balance sheet” that helped his bank survive the crisis better than rivals. “The markets were always open to us,” Dimon wrote in a letter to shareholders in March 2010.

Data show the New York-based bank got Federal Reserve liquidity after its March 2008 acquisition of Bear Stearns Cos. and in early 2009 as debt markets froze. In February and March 2009, JPMorgan borrowed $48 billion from the Fed’s Term Auction Facility, as executives said liquidity was “strong.” In the March 2010 letter, Dimon said JPMorgan loaned as much as $70 billion to other banks after Lehman Brother’s failure and bought “a net $250 billion of securities” to help facilitate market liquidity. The Fed loans became public in late 2010.”

Peak amount of debt on 10/1/2008:  $68.6 billion

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Wall Street’s financial institutions engaged in high-risk gambling with their leveraged speculation strategies during 2004-2007.  They rolled the dice and lost big.

The U.S. Federal Reserve the ran to the rescue with a massive ‘public money’ bailout scheme – to help the Wall Street’s financial behemoths regain their ‘financial health.’

It is now time to grant U.S. citizens the same direct access to liquidity that was provided to the likes of JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, State Street, Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, State Street, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, UBS … and dozens of others.

It is time to level the playing field, and here is the only economic acceleration plan anywhere that can make it happen:

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (12935 downloads )

The Federal Reserve’s gargantuan emergency lending programs transfused dozens of global financial heavyweights in the banking world with hundred of billions of dollars during the great financial crisis 2008-2012.

A look back: Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone Feb 17, 2010

Excerpts:

“At the height of the housing boom, Goldman was selling billions in bundled mortgage-backed securities — often toxic crap of the no-money-down, no-identification-needed variety of home loan — to various institutional suckers like pensions and insurance companies, who frequently thought they were buying investment-grade instruments. At the same time, in a glaring example of the perverse incentives that existed and still exist, Goldman was also betting against those same sorts of securities — a practice that one government investigator compared to “selling a car with faulty brakes and then buying an insurance policy on the buyer of those cars.”

Goldman hedged its massive blind bet by purchasing from AIG a “virtually unregulated form of pseudo-insurance called credit-default swaps”  Goldman did not apparently concern itself with the fact that “AIG wasn’t required to [and didn’t] actually have the capital to pay off the deals.”

AIG had sold $440 billion of this ‘worthless crap’ to various banks (like Goldman and the French multinational investment bank, Société Générale)… a large portion of which the “taxpayer ended up having to eat.”

AIG was taken over by the government in September 2008, and instead of the normal course of bankruptcy-arbitration, the government saw to it that “Goldman was paid 100 cents on the dollar on an additional $12.9 billion it was owed by AIG…”

Less than one week after the massive AIG bailout, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were granted permission to become bank holding companies – will full access to borrowing funds, at very low interest rates, at the Fed Discount Window.

“Borrowing at zero percent interest, banks like Goldman now had virtually infinite ways to make money. In one of the most common maneuvers, they simply took the money they borrowed from the government at zero percent and lent it back to the government by buying Treasury bills that paid interest of three or four percent. It was basically a license to print money — no different than attaching an ATM to the side of the Federal Reserve.”

“You’re borrowing at zero, putting it out there at two or three percent, with hundreds of billions of dollars — man, you can make a lot of money that way,” according to one prominent hedge fund manager.

Goldman then tapped into “a new federal operation called the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program [which] let insolvent and near-insolvent banks dispense with their deservedly ruined credit profiles and borrow on a clean slate, with FDIC backing. Goldman borrowed $29 billion on the government’s good name, J.P. Morgan Chase $38 billion, and Bank of America $44 billion. “TLGP,” says Prins, the former Goldman manager, “was a big one.”

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Bloomberg  Nov 28, 2011: “On Sept. 21, 2008, a week after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. went bankrupt, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. converted to a bank holding company, gaining access to the Federal Reserve’s last-resort lending program for banks, the discount window. While it took only $50 million from the window, New York-based Goldman Sachs had been borrowing from the central bank for six months from two temporary programs for broker-dealers: the Term Securities Lending Facility and the single-tranche open market operations, or ST OMO. On Dec. 31, 2008, Goldman Sachs had $34.5 billion of loans from ST OMO, some of it at an interest rate of 0.01 percent.”

Peak Amount of debt as of 12-31-2008:  $69 billion

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That hardly tells the full story, however.

Epilogue:  Goldman had also received a $10 billion TARP loan, but quickly paid it back, proudly exclaiming that “the firm does not require further capital” and the $10 billion can now be “used by the government to revitalize the economy, a priority in which we all have a common stake.”

“During the three months following Goldman’s re-payment of its $10 billion TARP loan, the Fed purchased $27 billion of MBS from Goldman.”

“In all, the Fed would purchase more than $100 billion of MBS from Goldman during the 12 months that followed Goldman’s TARP re-payment,” according to a Dec 15, 2010 Business Insider report.

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It is now time to re-balance the severely out-of-whack financial equation in America with a new credit facility, The Citizens Credit Facility, which grants U.S. citizens the same direct access to liquidity that was so generously provided to the likes of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bank of America, State Street, UBS, and many other domestic and foreign financial institutions.

Meet the most powerful economic resuscitation plan in the world…:

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

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UBS Ag is Switzerland’s largest bank.  Headquartered in Basal and Zurich, this global financial services company also specializes in investment banking, asset management and wealth management.  UBS existed as Union Bank of Switzerland prior to 1998 – at which time it merged with Swiss Bank Corporation.

This foreign banking titan received massive Fed liquidity flows during the early months of the Great Financial Crisis.

Bloomberg  Nov 28, 2011 – Excerpts:
“UBS AG, Switzerland’s biggest bank by assets, received a capital injection of 6 billion Swiss francs ($7.12 billion) from the Swiss government in October 2008. The next month, the Zurich-based lender borrowed $77.2 billion from the Federal Reserve after customers removed a net 83.6 billion francs from its money-management units in the three months through September. At the peak, UBS got $37.2 billion from the Commercial Paper Funding Facility, $20.5 billion from the single-tranche open market operations, $12.5 billion from the Term Auction Facility and $6.9 billion from the Term Securities Lending Facility. A UBS spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the bank also tapped the Swiss National Bank or other central banks for liquidity.”

$77.2 billion – Peak Amount of Debt on 11/28/2008

“The Fed’s Secret Liquidity Lifelines:  The U.S. Federal Reserve mounted an unprecedented campaign to head off a depression by providing as much as $1.2 trillion in public money to banks and other companies from August 2007 through April 2010.  The emergency loans were intended to help recipients cope with cash shortfalls and keep credit from grinding to a halt.  Bloomberg News sorted through more than 29,000 pages of previously secret documents and Fed spreadsheets detailing more than 21,000 loans to compile a database showing which companies got the emergency liquidity, and when.”
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If a major foreign banking colossus like UBS is to be ‘lathered up’ with massive financial transfusions from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s emergency lending programs… to “help recipients cope with cash shortfalls” … then U.S. citizens deserve nothing less that to be granted the same direct access to liquidity to help shore up their own balance sheets and restore financial stability at the family level.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (12933 downloads )

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Six-Month Federal Budget Deficit: $1.1 Trillion – WSJ

Interest on the public debt rose 43%, and now exceeds defense outlays.

By The Editorial Board | April 8, 2024 – Excerpt:

Washington continues to spend like deficits and debt don’t matter, and the politicians would rather you don’t know. For the record, the Congressional Budget Office reported Monday that the federal budget deficit for the first six months of fiscal 2024, ending in March, was $1.064 trillion. Enjoy it, because you’ll eventually pay for it in higher taxes…

The six-month interest payments of $440 billion exceeded the $412 billion in outlays for defense. As CBO has documented in other places, interest payments are expected to keep climbing as interest rates return to a more normal historical pattern.

None of this will come as a surprise to our readers. But it’s still useful to be reminded of the ugly facts, given how hard the political class tries to hide and ignore them.

Full article: on.wsj.com/3PW7qnA

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America’s debt ‘death spiral’ gives us $1 trillion reasons to act now

US is on track for Treasury to pay $1 trillion just in interest on debt

By E.J. Antoni Fox News | Published March 26, 2024 – Excerpts:

Interest on the federal debt is exploding much faster than the government predicted. It turns out Congress and the executive branch are as bad at projecting the future as they are at saving money…

While the Biden administration had projected a $1.6 trillion deficit for the current fiscal year, the Treasury has been borrowing at a $3 trillion annualized rate — almost twice the projected amount. 

This additional debt, issued at today’s interest rates, will increase the Treasury’s annual interest expense by over $100 billion….

When it’s time to repay old debt, the Treasury simply issues new debt to cover repayment of what was originally borrowed, plus the accrued interest that’s due. How much debt is being rolled over in 2024? About $8 trillion worth. 

All the Treasury bills being rolled over were issued within the last year, so they already have relatively high rates of interest — but not the Treasury notes or bonds, which were issued between two and 30 years ago. Much of that debt has an interest rate about half of current rates. As these notes and bonds are rolled over, the interest expense of the Treasury will continue skyrocketing….

Between new debt issued to cover current deficits and old debt being rolled over, the Treasury will auction about $10 trillion of debt this year, much of it having an interest rate of about 5%. This is less than one third of the federal debt but will cost $500 billion annually to service. 

The rest of the debt, about 70%, will cost another $500 billion annually because the interest rates on the remaining notes and bonds are still relatively low. While that buys America some time to try and diffuse this debt bomb, it still means we’re paying over $1 trillion a year just in interest on the debt. 

This is already the federal government’s third-largest single line item in the budget. It will grow to first place in just a few years. Interest on the debt is now so large that it exceeded 60% of all personal income taxes collected in February. This is the Treasury’s largest source of tax receipts, and most of it is being consumed by interest….

America is rushing headlong to this point of no return as multi-trillion-dollar deficits as well as maturing debt are all being issued at higher interest rates. 

The desensitized public is unfortunately numb to the warnings, but they need to wake from their slumber because the day of reckoning is fast approaching. There’s not much time left to cut spending. 

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The solution to this madness: The most powerful, debt-busting economic acceleration plan in the history of America — The Leviticus 25 Plan.

Summary Details:

·  The Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 Generates $112.6 Billion Federal Budget Surpluses Annually (2025-2029). Part 1: Overview, Deficit Projection

·  The Leviticus 25 Plan Generates $112.6 Billion Federal Budget Surpluses Annually (2025-2029). Part 2: Federal Income Tax Recapture; Economic Security / Means-Tested Welfare Recapture.

·  The Leviticus 25 Plan Generates $112.6 Billion Federal Budget Surpluses Annually (2025-2029). Part 3: Medicaid, Medicare, VA, TRICARE, FEHB, SSDI Recapture

·  The Leviticus 25 Plan Generates $112.6 Billion Federal Budget Surpluses Annually (2025-2029). Part 4: Interest Expense Recapture, Totals Summary

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (12709 downloads )

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April 2024 quote:  “However human, envy is certainly not one of the sources of discontent that a free society can eliminate. It is probably one of the essential conditions for the preservation of such a society that we do not countenance envy, not sanction its demands by camouflaging it as social justice, but treat it, in the words of John Stuart Mill, as ‘the most anti-social and evil of all passions.’”  – Friedrich von Hayek, 1974 Nobel Prize, Economic Science

M2 is the Fed’s estimate of the U.S. total money supply.

M2 is a measure of the U.S. money stock that includes M1 (currency and coins held by the non-bank public, checkable deposits, and travelers’ checks) plus savings deposits (including money market deposit accounts), small time deposits under $100,000, and shares in retail money market mutual funds. (Source:  St. Louis Fed) 

Central banks can influence M2 supply by either issuing more money into the economy or by incentivising people to spend less. Quantitative easing is one way that a central bank can increase money supply and stimulate the economy. (Source:  IG.com)

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Total Net Worth held by the Top 0.1% (red) and the Bottom 50% (blue), and M2 (green), were all relatively stable, showing a modest upside trajectory, through about 1995.  At that time the (red vs blue) gap was approximately $2 trillion.

But then as the Fed began ratcheting up M2 (2000-2020), the gap between the Top 0.1% and the Bottom 50% began to reveal a significant distortion.

And then when the Fed began ‘goosing’ M2 in serious fashion (2020-2022), the gap became especially pronounced – widening out to approximately $16 trillion by 2022.

Clearly, Fed monetary interventions favored the ultra-wealthy participants in the U.S. economy.

US M2 Money Supply is at a current level of 20.79T, down from 20.86T last month and down from 21.12T one year ago. This is a change of -0.36% from last month and -1.58% from one year ago. (Source:  YCharts.com)

“Recent inflation behavior has been consistent with a lagged effect of M2 on personal consumption expenditures (PCE) inflation,” Neely wrote. For instance, he cited the rise of PCE inflation beginning in February 2021, which coincided with the peak M2 growth rate of 26.9% and was a year after M2 growth began to soar.  (Source:  St. Louis Fed, Oct 17, 2023)

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The Top 0.1% benefactors of the Fed policies pumping M2 higher would be concentrated, directly or indirectly, within the very financial sectors which precipitated the 2008-2010 Great Financial Crisis, fell below their capital requirements, and then magically went on to receive:  1) Federal Reserve Discount Window access; and 2) “Secret Liquidity Lifeline” credit extensions pumped through funding facilities created by the Federal reserve (Term Auction Facility (TAF), Commercial Paper Funding Facility (CPFF), Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF), the Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF), Single-Tranche Open Market Operations (ST OMO), the Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Money Market Mutual Funding Liquidity Facility (AMLF) and several other credit facilities).

Who were these benefactors specifically?  Primarily the officers and principles of major Wall Street banks and insurers, and the major shareholders in those institutions (e.g., Warren Buffett – Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs).

It is now time to balance the scales and grant that same direct access to Fed liquidity extensions to America’s hard-working, tax-paying U.S. citizens.

It is high time to get America back on track: 1) Balanced budgets;  2) Legitimate, non-debt based, economic growth;  3) Restored financial security for millions of American families; and 4) Economic Liberty.

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The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (12553 downloads )

Credit-Card & Auto Delinquencies Soar, Especially Age Group 18-39

ZeroHedge, Feb 09, 2024  |  Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com, – Excerpts:

Credit card debt surged to a record high in the fourth quarter. Even more troubling is a steep climb in 90 day or longer delinquencies.

Please consider the New York Fed Household Credit Report for the Fourth Quarter 2023, released this week.

Consumer Credit Key Points

• Aggregate household debt balances increased by $212 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, a 1.2% rise from 2023Q3. Balances now stand at $17.50 trillion and have increased by $3.4 trillion since the end of 2019, just before the pandemic recession.
• Mortgage balances shown on consumer credit reports increased by $112 billion during the fourth quarter of 2023 and stood at $12.25 trillion at the end of December.
• Balances on home equity lines of credit (HELOC) increased by $11 billion, the seventh consecutive quarterly increase after 2022Q1, and there is now $360 billion in aggregate outstanding balances.
• Credit card balances, which are now at $1.13 trillion outstanding, increased by $50 billion (4.6%).
• Auto loan balances increased by $12 billion, continuing the upward trajectory that has been in place since 2020Q2, and now stand at $1.61 trillion.
• Other balances, which include retail cards and other consumer loans, grew by $25 billion. Student loan balances were effectively flat, with a $2 billion increase and stand at $1.6 trillion. In total, non-housing balances grew by $89 billion.

Record High Credit Card Debt

Credit card debt rose to a new record high of $1.13 trillion, up $50 billion in the quarter. Even more troubling is the surge in serious delinquencies, defined as 90 days or more past due.

For nearly all age groups, serious delinquencies are the highest since 2011 at best.

Auto Loan Delinquencies

Serious delinquencies on auto loans have jumped from under 3 percent in mid-2021 to to 5 percent at the end of 2023 for age group 18-29.

Age group 30-39 is also troubling. Serious delinquencies for age groups 18-29 and 30-39 are at the highest levels since 2010.

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At the same time, Washington Democrats are out to drive America deeper into debt, and buy votes: Biden Unveils Plan To Wipe Out Student Loan Debt For Millions More Americans

And … Washington Republican are in disarray – and have no plan to bring the party together, win votes, and set America back on course for a prosperous future: ROOKE: Insurgent GOP Reps Launch Effort To Replace ‘Liberal’ Republican Speaker

Imagine the reaction of voters to a Republican plan that 1) Eliminates enormous tracts of Household Debt; 2) Packs more raw economic power than all Washington Democrat give-away initiatives combined; and 3) Monumentally reduces dependence on government.

And … and eliminates Federal and state budget deficits.

And… provides tangible, long-lasting financial benefits for working Americans across the board – education, construction, transportation, service industries, energy, mining, health care, tourism/hospitality, law enforcement, U.S. military – and others.

And… unifies Washington Republicans and GOP supporters across America.

Main Street America Republicans have that plan – loaded up and ready to launch.

The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens.  It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.

The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (12553 downloads )

Rogoff Says Biden, Trump Favor ‘Blowing Up’ US Debt – Bloomberg

Christopher Anstey | Mar 13, 2024 – Excerpts:

(Bloomberg) — Harvard University economics professor Kenneth Rogoff said both President Joe Biden and his predecessor and challenger Donald Trump risk sending US debt levels into dangerous territory as Washington fails to grasp that the era of ultra-low interest rates won’t come back.

“Washington in general has a very relaxed attitude towards debt that I think they’re going to be sorry about,” Rogoff said on Bloomberg Television’s Wall Street Week with David Westin. “It’s just not the free lunch that Congress and perhaps the two presidential candidates have gotten used to.”

While an exact “upper limit” for the federal debt cannot be known — it’s estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to climb to 116% of US gross domestic product by 2034 from 99% today — Rogoff warned that there will be challenges as the level increases.

The former International Monetary Fund chief economist said the escalating borrowing load will create volatility in inflation and interest rates, and encourage political pressures on the Federal Reserve. Current CBO projections also leave “a lot of room for accidents” that drive debt even higher.

“You’re taking bigger and bigger risks,” Rogoff said. “We will feel that.”

Both candidates may favor policies that will drive borrowing higher, he said. “Biden’s speech suggested blowing up the debt,” he said — even after the president in his State of the Union address last week proposed tax hikes to help to pay for spending priorities.

“We have really no idea what Donald Trump will do, but that’s what he did last time he was president — good guess he will do it again,” Rogoff said, referring to widening fiscal deficits when Trump was president 2017-21.

In the post-global financial crisis era, ultra-low interest rates helped to limit the impact of US deficits. But the post-pandemic period is different, Rogoff said. The real benchmark interest rate is more likely to be 1.5% to 2% rather than 0%, he said. Fed policymakers’ most recent projections imply a real, or inflation-adjusted, policy rate of 0.5%.

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The Leviticus 25 Plan has the raw power to eliminate America’s projected gargantuan $1.7-$2.0 trillion federal budget deficits and generate $112.6 billion annual budget surpluses.

If Mr. Trump or Mr. Biden have a better plan, or if Washington Republicans have a better plan, America is eager to see it…

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (12188 downloads )

Summary Details:

·  The Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 Generates $112.6 Billion Federal Budget Surpluses Annually (2025-2029). Part 1: Overview, Deficit Projection

·  The Leviticus 25 Plan Generates $112.6 Billion Federal Budget Surpluses Annually (2025-2029). Part 2: Federal Income Tax Recapture; Economic Security / Means-Tested Welfare Recapture.

·  The Leviticus 25 Plan Generates $112.6 Billion Federal Budget Surpluses Annually (2025-2029). Part 3: Medicaid, Medicare, VA, TRICARE, FEHB, SSDI Recapture

·  The Leviticus 25 Plan Generates $112.6 Billion Federal Budget Surpluses Annually (2025-2029). Part 4: Interest Expense Recapture, Totals Summary

Important to note: “House Republicans opened the earmark door with a secret caucus vote three years ago. Now, it’s nearly a ‘free’ for all…”

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“The Squad” Earmarked $224 Million Since 2023 – Led By AOC, It’s Pork Barrel Spending By The Democratic Socialists

ZeroHedge, Mar 26, 2024 – Authored by Adam Andrzejewski via OpenTheBooks substack, Excerpts:

“The Squad’ is a group of ultra-left wing Congressional socialists which has been the toast of so-called “progressives” for the last several years.

Its members might promise a worker’s paradise, in which government “withers away,” in the words of Vladimir Lenin, but for now they are only too happy to direct government largesse to the folks back home.

In fact, The Squad members have earmarked $224 million and many absurd pet projects since 2023. 

Download the full database of The Squad’s 2023 and 2024 earmarks here.

Our figures include the earmarks in the most recent $1.2 trillion spending bill from last week.

It’s a stunning display of logrolling – deep inside the status quo – they say they hate as a tool of capitalist oppression.

The Squad maxed out their pork in 2023 and 2024. Their 215 earmarked projects cost the rest of us (overwhelmingly non-socialist) U.S. taxpayers $224.1 million. Every dime was borrowed against our national debt.

New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), AKA, “AOC,” who last week did not know that “RICO” names a crime, is The Squad’s most prominent voice. She is celebrated as a “socialist superstar” by the Democratic Socialists of America.

Representative Ocasio-Cortez earmarked $1.2 million for a new building for the International Muslim Women’s Empowerment Project. Its founder teaches a “hijab grab” self-defense move involving a “kick to the groin.”

And then there’s the $500,000 for the Billion Oyster project in her district. Rich people eat oysters. However, the law prohibits anyone from either fishing or eating oysters in the Hudson River. So, this is only an engineering project for eco-marginalized people in Queens.

Other Squad members are Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Cori Bush (D-MO), Greg Casar (D-TX), Summer Lee (D-PA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).

The Squad Practices Race-based Earmarking – Squad members shoveled some pretty stinky stuff into spending bills. It appears race-based legislating is OK if a progressive does it:

• $850,000 to create jobs for the Black community near George Floyd Square, whose death in 2020 “added to the stress faced by the community and increased the need for support and stability in housing and commerce.” Patron: Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
• $1.7 million to help the Environmental Leaders of Color build a “green tech park.” The group’s goal is to “assist marginalized communities in preparing for climate change’s adverse effects … so that they can thrive like healthy plants in their natural ecosystem.” Patron: Congressman Jamaal Bowman.
• $1 million for the Immigrant Opportunity Center expansion. It’s run by CAPI USA, a nonprofit that “guides refugees and immigrants in their journey toward self-determination and social equality.” Patron: Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
• $1.35 million to New Immigrant Community Empowerment, a nonprofit that advocates for citizenship for all illegal immigrants. Patron: Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez ($500,000). The group received another $850,000 this year from Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY).
• $1.5 million to build special grocery stores and education facilities for Black farmers in the community of St. Louis. Patron: Congresswoman Cori Bush.
• $1 million for the San Antonio College Empowerment Center, which runs an Undocumented Student Support Program to help immigrants enroll in the school. Patron: Congressman Greg Casar.

The Squad’s Green Earmarks

Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez introduced her Green New Deal, in 2019. It’s the focus of 21 earmarks to build green infrastructure, move away from fossil fuels, and involve minority communities in climate policy. She and her colleagues find ways to get us to pay for their policy preference, such as:

• $1 million to build “a network of intergenerational, trauma-informed waterfront green spaces.” The project already received $792,000 in 2022 earmark funding. Patron: Congresswoman Ayanna Presley
• $466,000 to improve the energy efficiency of a St. Louis homeless shelter. Patron: Congresswoman Cori Bush.
• $4 million to build an “industrial green beltway” in Dearborn, Michigan. Patron: Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.
• $500,000 from Ocasio-Cortez will build an oyster reef to “address longstanding environmental justice inequities facing underrepresented communities in Queens.” Oyster habitats in New York have been damaged by pollution and harvesting them for food is illegal.
• $850,000 to repair a bridge that “connects minority environmental justice communities” in Pennsylvania. Patron: Congresswoman Summer Lee.
• $2 million for Everett, Mass. to build a park for “low-income BIPOC residents” to “stay cool during increasingly hot summers.” (“BIPOC” is an acronym for “Black, indigenous and other people of color.”) Patron: Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley.

Stopping Insane Earmarks. Or Not.

In 2024, when it got too insane, Republican members of the House finally got serious and cut a few of the whacky earmarks.

For example, Rep. Pressley’s earmark to build affordable housing for LGBTQ seniors did not make it into the final House bill.

However, in the second minibus bill, Pressley was able to add back $850,000 for LGBTQ “The Pryde” senior housing by moving the earmark to the U.S. Senate. Pressley called Republicans homophobic for attempting toeliminate her LGBTQ earmarks.

Background

From time immemorial, politicians of every stripe have used their positions to benefit those who sent them to D.C., while sticking taxpayers with the tab.

Congresspeople all play together in the sandbox, promising not to rat each other out for some strikingly goofy – or downright weird – local spending. Things got so out of hand 15 years ago, that a bi-partisan coalition led by former U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and President Barack Obama actually banned earmarking for ten years.

It didn’t last.

Regardless of what you may have heard about GOP hate for former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), three years ago, the House Republican caucus, in a secret vote, joined Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats to reinstate earmarks.

That moment of fiscal fealty was replaced by the naked need for pork, and in the instance, a new alliance with the Speaker.

And so, we have more tabs to face than a diet soda aisle at a big Costco.

In 2024, the so-called “minibus measures” contained 8,051 earmarks totaling $15.7 BILLION TAXPAYER DOLLARS. In 2023, the year-end omnibus was stuffed with 7,510 earmarks worth just over $16 BILLION TAXPAYER DOLLARS.

Congress must disclose earmarks online. However, it posts them in hard-to-review PDF files. (Our team at OpenTheBooks.com converts those files into Excel spreadsheets to more effectively parse what they are hiding.)

When Congress knows what it is doing is wrong, it always makes it a bit harder to find.

In all too many ways, earmarks – from both Democrats and Republicans — are no exception.

Next week – “The Freedom Caucus Decides It Is Free to Earmark”

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It is critical now for America to get back on track.

Step 1: Eliminate Earmarks – eliminate budget blowouts from special interest politics.

Step 2: The Leviticus 25 Plan – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (12185 downloads )

Step 3: Less government, more freedom.

Washington Democrats love to grow government and broaden dependency on government programs. And run massive budget deficits, which will eventually sink the U.S. Dollar and bring on a forced transition into a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) system.

Washington Republicans, meanwhile, love to give lip service to controlling spending and getting the massive federal deficits back under control – but, shamefully, have no politically feasible, economically viable plan to present to the voting public.

Main Street America Republicans do have a plan…

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Biden’s Free Lunch for Rich Kids – WSJ

The USDA prepares to feed more schoolchildren year-round, even if their parents make six figures.

By Sam Adolphsen and Paige Terryberry | March 26, 2024 4:06 pm ETn

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, but the Biden administration insists otherwise. The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to provide free lunches to children—including many whose parents earn six-figure incomes—year-round. New research from our organization finds that up to 72% of America’s some 49 million public-school students could soon be on the taxpayer dole.

As usual, this story begins with a supposedly temporary program. As schools closed in 2020, Congress allowed states to send extra payments to families whose children qualified for free and reduced-price school lunches. The following year, it added summer payments to the package, depositing money directly onto families’ electronic benefit transfer, or EBT, cards, which are used for food stamps. Finally, in December 2022, Congress made this “Summer EBT” program permanent—beginning in mid-2024. The USDA would automatically enroll millions of families and create a separate, means-tested application process for others.

The White House is now exceeding what Congress intended. In September 2023, the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service finalized a rule that expands the number of students who qualify for reduced lunches during the school year. If a mere 25% of a public school’s students meet the requirements, 100% of its students will be eligible to receive the benefit. The rule imposes no income limits, meaning middle- and upper-class children will get subsidized meals.

The Biden administration also is preparing to add the summer months to the expansion. On Dec. 29, 2023, the Food and Nutrition Service quietly solicited feedback on the difficulty of administering Summer EBT applications—likely hinting that it intends to abandon the applications and return to the pandemic-era policy of depositing taxpayer funds into EBT accounts, regardless of need.

According to our research, as many as 50% more public-school students will be eligible for taxpayer help during the school year. If the administration abandons Summer EBT applications and income standards, these students will automatically receive summer payments, too. If their families have EBT cards, they’ll likely receive monthly direct deposits; if not, they’ll presumably receive a card in the mail.

The administration is selling the expansion as a way to fight child hunger, especially in low-income communities. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack declared in January that “no child in this country should go hungry” or “lose access to nutritious school meals during the summer months.” But the federal government already runs multiple programs for low-income students, including the Summer Food Service Program and Seamless Summer Option.

In classic Washington fashion, the more-tailored summer food programs will continue to exist. The feds, meanwhile, will throw more taxpayer money at the same population while sweeping a larger share of Americans onto the government dole. The exact cost of Summer EBT isn’t yet known but will almost certainly run into the billions. The cost of expanded school lunches for middle- and upper-class children will add billions more.

Short of a new administration, court intervention or act of Congress, there’s no way to roll back the school-year welfare expansion. But states can refuse to participate in Summer EBT, and so far 13 haven’t opted in for this summer. The Biden administration—backed by an army of activists and a gullible media—is trying to browbeat them into submission. Nebraska reversed course last month, joining the program after previously steering clear.

Republican leaders fear being tarred as heartless monsters who want poor children to starve, but this handout would flow to the well-off. The real stakes are stopping welfare that taxpayers can’t afford and families don’t need.

Mr. Adolphsen is policy director and Ms. Terryberry a senior research fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability.

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The Main Street America Republicans’ plan:

1. Lifts families up out of the mire of ‘government-dependency’ programs, eliminates debt, and restores financial security for millions of America’s hard-working, tax-paying U.S. citizens who wish to be free to manage their own lives;

2. Generates massive $112.6 billion federal budget surpluses each of the first five years of activation – and pays for itself entirely over the succeeding 10-15 year period – thereby protecting the integrity of the U.S. Dollar, slowing inflation to a trickle, and cancelling the forced transition into a CBDC system;

3. Re-ignites free market dynamics, economic liberty, and a powerful new long-term economic growth cycle.

The Leviticus 25 Plan is a dynamic economic initiative providing direct liquidity benefits for American families, while at the same time scaling back the role of government in managing and controlling the affairs of citizens.  It is a comprehensive plan with long-term economic and social benefits for citizens and government.

The inspiration for this plan is based upon Biblical principles set forth in the Book of Leviticus, principles tendering direct economic liberties to the people.

The Leviticus 25 Plan – An Economic Acceleration Plan for America

$90,000 per U.S. citizen – Leviticus 25 Plan 2025 (12185 downloads )