Deeply Unified Americans: Untouchable Federal Budgets

Gary North has the article of the day:

If you want to find political agreement, follow the money. See which agencies' budgets are immune from public criticism.

The American welfare state's largest budgets are immune from abolition or even major revision: Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The Pentagon's budget is immune. The budgets of the spy agencies are immune, if they are even discussed. They are known only because Snowden leaked the information, and is called a traitor for having done so. Search Google for "Snowden" and "traitor." See what you get. The public school budgets are close to immune. The Federal Reserve sets its own budget and creates money out of nothing to buy federal debt, which generated $113 billion in 2015 from interest payments by the government. It then skimmed its self-determined operating expenses off the top: $13 billion.

Please, spare me the rhetoric about a divided America. America is divided over chump change: those portions of the budget that are discretionary, i.e., about 16% of the budget.

The Punch and Judy show that is Presidential politics is held every every four years and is all about divvying up 16%. It is performed in order to keep the voters excited because they think something major is at stake. In three years out of four, the voters go back to sleep: sports, TV, and social media.

If something is major, it will have a non-discretionary budget. Everything else is either noise or else deliberate illusions designed to keep the voters occupied one year out of four, and in hibernation during the other three.

You'll want to read , the entire article.