Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report.  On today’s report, I will be discussing the National budget, due today but now postponed until December 22.  Congress is supposed to pass a budget for the New Year by the end of each fiscal year. But our elected leaders have been unable to do so for quite some time operating instead on a series of continuing resolutions. This is very important to each of our lives for reasons we will see.

The people we elect to oversee the nation’s finances control even tiny aspects of our lives, for example, they tell me who I can hire and who I can fire, how much water I can have in my toilets, what lights I can use in my home, and how I can heat and cool my home.  The point is that there so many glaring problems on the backs of the American people but our elected leaders will not deal with them except perhaps to make them worse.

A crushing debt burden

According to Federal Reserve statistics, the United States Government owes 20.4 trillion dollars and climbing every minute.  The 75-year shortfall of promises, over actual ability to deliver, is 210 trillion dollars currently.  That means that over the next 75 years, not including what’s being added every year, the Federal Government has issued promises for 210 trillion dollars more than it is capable of delivering.  Our children, grandchildren, and future generations will owe more and more of their wages to tax, if they are fortunate enough to have wages.

In addition to the Federal Government, virtually every state and local government is head over heels in debt they cannot pay.  Private individuals have followed the government’s example into debt slavery as well.  One in 10 individuals has debt in the hands of a collection agency.  I mention these things just to set the stage for what the government is doing to resolve its budget problems.

Congress is divided just like the rest of the nation is divided, but the difference is, that on most items in Congress, decisions are made by the majority.  The Republicans hold majorities in both houses so they don’t really need Democrat cooperation, but it seems that the minority party always has leverage if it has the courage to use it.  A couple of months ago Congress was unable to pass a budget so they passed a “continuing resolution” instead.  That resolution provided funds to run the government until today.  Now the Republicans have prepared a new continuing resolution to last until December 22, so the whole thing will have to be debated again in two weeks.

Government shutdown?

If Congress doesn’t pass a 2018 budget by midnight December 22, the Federal Government will have to theoretically shut down.  That is non-essential services will have to shut down.  Most services and agencies will be fine and some will be partially affected.  The longer the impasse lasts the more the services will be affected.  National Parks, payments to Federal Contractors, certain regulatory enforcement, visa processing and other such things would be shut down.

The military, federal prisons, the war on drugs, etc. will all be just fine.  The last shutdown in October 2013 lasted just 17 days.  Most of us survived the apocalypse just fine and laid off federal employees received their back pay for not working.  Social Security checks went out on time and TSA remained on the job but still, one wonders why these intelligent people can’t agree on how much more than they actually have should be borrowed and spent.

What do our elected leaders spend it on?

Everybody on both sides of the isle seems to want more guns, bullets, airplanes, ships, and the people to operate them.  Once they have them our representatives busy themselves creating world situations that require the federal government to use them.  They are willing to sacrifice a lot of things in order to purchase the items of war.  The Democrats say they want fewer guns and more welfare, and the Republicans want less welfare and more guns, but year after year it all gets worse.

Virtually all members of Congress agree on the basics such as, the need to redistribute the fruits of the labor of taxpaying Americans.  Sometimes they can’t exactly agree on whose voting base has the greater need and should therefore receive the greater award but generally speaking they all agree.

The DACA problem

We can see, then, that our elected representatives agree on most things, so why can’t they pass a budget?  For one thing the minority always use the budget and the desire for one as a bargaining chip against the majority.  The biggest bargaining chip by far this budget season is the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or (DACA).  What that really means is that Democrat demands for amnesty for a whole lot of illegals are actually holding up the budget.  The Democrats say, no DACA no budget and it’s just that simple.

Some Democrats have said bluntly no DACA, or as they call it the Dream Act, no budget.  The United States is being held for a sort of ransom, i.e., you let us continue mass third world immigration and build our permanent majority or you won’t have a budget.  That is unethical, irresponsible, and unconstitutional, but nobody seems to care.

President Trump promised to end DACA on his first day in office, which in my opinion, was his most important and most damaging lie.  If he had fulfilled his promise, DACA would be a memory now instead of a cause of conflict and the proverbial camel’s nose under the tent for amnesty purposes.  The Democrats want to make this budget debate a forum on mass third world immigration, which they so desperately want to keep.  They need mass third world immigration to build a permanent voting majority and also to change the makeup and outlook of American society.

Immigration

President Trump says he still wants to build his wall, but he needs 60 votes in the Senate to advance spending measures, so he would need 8 Democrat votes in order to fund his wall.  There is no way that’s going to happen without some form of compromise, but perhaps something coming out of this budget debate will be that compromise.  My prediction is a continuation of DACA ,which is amnesty by another name, coupled with slow amnesty across the board in return for a few meaningless immigration changes and a little money, but not enough for the wall.  If the President really wants the wall as much as he said he did, then he could always takes the money from his black ops military funds.

The welfare problem

It’s hard to reconcile mass third world immigration and the other very expensive requirements of a social welfare state.  How is a nation supposed to provide welfare benefits to every third world person who wants to come and take advantage of it?  We already have a completely divided country and the divisions seem to be growing daily.  That is to be expected in a multicultural society which is, by definition, more than one culture.  Some cultures have no intention of blending, and simply transport their culture to another location.  The new cultures, alien to many Americans, must be fed, clothed, housed, and educated, but at whose expense.  That is the real question to be resolved in budget debate.

The finances of the nation are currently vulnerable to unanticipated events, which could create emergency conditions financially speaking. That includes nuclear war in the Far East for example. Or never mind the nuclear part, just a big war in general.  Inflation, which can be very scary and potentially destructive. So the Fed would have to raise interest rates to fight it.  A significant rise in interest rates would put serious pressure on the nation’s ability to cover the increased interest expense within the budget.  In other words, more money would have to be borrowed to cover the interest payments on all the other money that was borrowed.

What will happen – and what should

So we have many issues that could cause negotiations to breakdown.  DACA, defense spending in general, funding for the wall, funding for more illegals, funding for Planned Parenthood, funding for Obamacare, and many other vote-buying schemes, as well as a few legitimate programs.

Finally folks, what’s going to happen on budget day?  I predict a settlement of DACA continuation.  In other words, slow amnesty, as well as temporary amnesty in return for a few meaningless concessions and a budget.  You know what they say about amnesty?  There’s nothing more permanent than temporary amnesty.

What should happen?  If it’s not permitted by the Constitution, then it’s not funded.

At least that’s the way I see it.

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle,