If America Does Not Turn Back To God, There Isn’t Going To Be An America - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

If America Does Not Turn Back To God, There Isn’t Going To Be An America Posted: 19 Jul 2017 Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG I know that politicians aren’t supposed to talk like this, but I don’t care. I am not a politician and I never will be. And I am not running for Congress because I want a career in politics. We have enough career politicians right now, and so we definitely don’t need another one. So I am not going to carefully craft a message that I think that the voters want to hear. Instead, I am just going to tell the truth, and I believe that people all over America are going to stand with me. And the truth is that if America does not turn back to God, there isn’t going to be an America. Since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, close to 60 million American children have been murdered by the abortion industry. The blood of 60 million children is crying out from the ground against us, and if we continue to slaughter children on an industrial scale there will be absolutely no future for our nation. So no, I don’t plan to tone down my message. I have been urged to compromise on my message in order to attract more voters, and that is how it always starts. Politicians start making compromise after compromise, and after a while they become spineless jellyfish that don’t really stand for anything. Just look at what has been happening in Congress. We gave the Republicans control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives and Planned Parenthood has still not been defunded. Earlier this year the Democrats threatened to shut down the government, and the spineless Republicans gave them virtually everything that they wanted – including full funding for Planned Parenthood for the rest of the fiscal year. You cannot be Pro-Life and vote for funding for Planned Parenthood. Do you know what is going on at Planned Parenthood clinics all over the nation? After an abortion is performed, organs are harvested from that dead child and sold off to the highest bidder. We now have undercover video after undercover video proving this, and yet nobody has been arrested. Instead, the federal government continues to give Planned Parenthood approximately 500 million dollars a year. I am on a personal mission to stop this. I am so deeply frustrated with politicians that use the “Pro-Life” label to get our votes but that then turn around and keep on voting to fund Planned Parenthood year after year. So I am pledging that I will NEVER vote for any bill that includes even a single penny of funding for Planned Parenthood, and I am calling on all Pro-Life voters to refuse to vote for any candidate that will not make the same pledge. In addition, if I am elected I will use the full power of my office to go to war with Planned Parenthood. That means that I am going to do whatever I can to force Planned Parenthood out of business, and I will greatly rejoice when the last Planned Parenthood clinic in America finally shuts down for good. This is what our “Pro-Life” politicians should be doing, and I hope to be part of a nationwide movement to force them to start standing up for the unborn. If you believe in what we are trying to do, I would encourage you to prayerfully consider supporting our campaign. We are a 100% grassroots campaign, and so that means that the only way that we will be able to get our message out and the only way that we will be able to win this campaign is if true conservatives like you get behind us. And the good news is that we have already created a tremendous amount of buzz all over the state of Idaho. This district has never had someone so bold and so conservative run for this seat, and the liberals are already beginning to freak out. If you live in north Idaho, I would encourage you to attend a campaign event that we are having this Thursday at 7 PM in Bonners Ferry. It is going to be at the Providence Bible Presbyterian Church which is really easy to find. If you have any questions about how to locate it, just let me know. I hope to meet as many of you as possible there… And I want to remind everyone that my brand new book has just been released. It is entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters”, and if you loved my previous books then I think that you will really enjoy this one as well. Throughout this campaign I am going to do my best to keep all of you updated on what is happening. Like I have explained previously, there is no incumbent in this race because the individual currently holding this seat is running for governor instead. So the race is completely wide open, and if we can get my message to every voter in this district I believe that we will win by a very wide margin. If you believe in what I am trying to do, then I would like to ask you to consider contributing to the campaign. The Lord has put me into a position where I am forced to depend on my brothers and sisters, and there is no way that this can happen without you. Right now we are in need of brochures, signs and other basic things that a campaign needs, and if you would like to help out you can do so right here. In 2016, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton were able to raise millions upon millions of dollars from Americans that are deeply committed to promoting abortion. I believe that there are even more Americans out there that are deeply committed to defunding Planned Parenthood and ending abortion in America, and the only way that is going to happen is if we start sending deeply committed Pro-Life people to Washington. If we do not stop the slaughter of our children, there isn’t going to be an America for our children and our grandchildren. Time is running out, and I hope that you will help me share this message.

Are The ‘Toxic’ Democrats Destined To Become A Permanent Minority Party? - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

Are The ‘Toxic’ Democrats Destined To Become A Permanent Minority Party?

Posted: 21 Jun 2017  Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

It has become exceedingly clear that the Democratic Party is in deep trouble.  Close to 55 million dollars was spent on the race in Georgia’s sixth congressional district, and that shattered all kinds of records.  Democrat Jon Ossoff was able to raise and spend six times as much money as Karen Handel and yet he still lost.  This was supposed to be the race that would show the American people that the Democrats could take back control of Congress in 2018, and so for the Democrats this was a bitter failure.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee actually injected almost 5 million dollars into the race themselves, and Planned Parenthood threw in another $700,000.  But after all of the time, effort and energy that was expended, Handel still won fairly comfortably.

The Democrats are trying to spin this result as some sort of “moral victory”, but as Dan Balz of the Washington Post has pointed out, there are “no moral victories in politics”…

There are no moral victories in politics. Republicans won on Tuesday in the most important special election this year. Democrats lost, as they have done in the other special elections in GOP-held seats this year.
For the national Democratic Party, the debate continues about developing a message that goes beyond attacking Trump, or assuming dissatisfaction with the president will be enough.

It has been a very long time since there has been so much national attention on a single House race.  A number of high profile Hollywood celebrities became personally involved in Ossoff’s campaign, and they were absolutely devastated when he lost…

Celebrities who donated time and money to Ossoff’s campaign, including actresses Alyssa Milano and Rosie O’Donnell, used their social media accounts to react to the Democrat’s loss shortly after the election results were confirmed late Tuesday night.
Milano, who personally drove voters to the polls in April’s preliminary election and was actively campaigning for the Democrat for most of Election Day, tweeted simply: “Grouphug” and “Get in.”
Meanwhile, electronic music producer Moby and vocal Trump critic O’Donnell appeared to be frustrated by the results, with Moby questioning how Democratic “still can’t win” even with “buffoon” Donald Trump in the White House. O’Donnell tweeted: “DONALD TRUMP IS THE DARKNESS ITSELF.”

Where does the Democratic Party go from here?

Their anti-Trump message is not working, and their usual divide and conquer tactics are not working either.

At this point either the Democratic Party is going to have to reinvent itself, or they could be facing a long, painful string of election defeats for the foreseeable future.  To say that things have not been going well for the Democrats lately would be a major understatement.  I really like what Rush Limbaugh had to say about this on his radio show…

“You have no idea the degree to which the media and the Democratic Party are destroyed today. I’m talking about how they feel … which is complete and utter defeat, frustration and devastation,” he said on Wednesday, hours after Republican Karen Handel was a multiple percentage point winner over defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff.
“The dirty little secret is the media and the Democratic Party is turning off average Americans. They are not persuading, they are not convincing people Trump is a reprobate,” he continued. “They do not know how to beat Donald Trump. There are depressed and despondent.”

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why Jon Ossoff lost.

All of the anger and violence that we have seen lately has greatly tainted the Democratic Party.

The Democrats have become the party of Kathy Griffin.

The Democrats have become the party of Antifa and mock Trump assassinations.

And the Democrats have become the party of James Hodgkinson.

U.S. Representative Tim Ryan was right on the ball when he admitted that his party’s brand has now become “toxic” in much of the nation…

Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio, who tried to unseat Ms. Pelosi as House minority leader late last fall, said she remained a political millstone for Democrats. But Mr. Ryan said the Democratic brand had also become “toxic” in much of the country because voters saw Democrats as “not being able to connect with the issues they care about.”

“Our brand is worse than Trump,” he said.

As I have discussed repeatedly, the left doesn’t have any positive vision for the future to offer the American people.  They cannot win in the marketplace of ideas, and so they use anger, frustration, intimidation and violence as weapons.  For quite a while the Democrats successfully used “the blame game” and divide and conquer tactics to win elections, but now the American people are seeing through the charade.

The more angry and violent the left becomes, the more the American people are going to turn against them.  The following comes from Daniel Greenfield…

But Trump Derangement Syndrome is a symptom of a problem with the left that existed before he was born. The left is an angry movement. It is animated by an outraged self-righteousness whose moral superiority doubles as dehumanization. And its machinery of culture glamorizes its anger. The media dresses up the seething rage so that the left never has to look at its inner Hodgkinson in the mirror.
The left is as angry as ever. Campus riots and assassinations of Republican politicians are nothing new. What is changing is that its opponents are beginning to match its anger.  The left still clings to the same anger it had when it was a theoretical movement with plans, but little impact on the country. The outrage at the left is no longer ideological. There are millions of people whose health care was destroyed by ObamaCare, whose First Amendment rights were taken away, whose land was seized, whose children were turned against them and whose livelihoods were destroyed.

Of course it is quite true that the Republican Party needs to be cleaned up as well.  Many establishment Republicans use labels such as “conservative” and “Pro-Life” to win elections, but then they end up government like Democrats.  And so many members of Congress in both parties spend far more time and energy raising money for their next elections than they do serving the American people.

There is a reason why Congress only has a 17.6 percent approval rating at the moment.  Both major parties should take that as a sign that they need to clean up their acts, because the American people are sick and tired of the status quo.

Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog - BREAKING: Gunman opens fires on Members of Congress, hits House Majority Whip & 4 others. Here’s the latest.

New post on Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog

BREAKING: Gunman opens fires on Members of Congress, hits House Majority Whip & 4 others. Here’s the latest. by joelcrosenberg (Washington, D.C.) -- Here's what we know so far: Five people wounded, reports the NYT and CNN House Majority Whip Scalise was hit -- now in stable condition at local hospital. Two Capitol Hill police officers reportedly shot. The gunman in custody. Reports of at least 60 shots fired. Security being tightened around White House and the Capitol. Investigation underway. Please pray for Rep. Scalise and the others hit. "House Majority Whip Steve Scalise was among at least two people shot Wednesdaymorning during a GOP baseball practice at an Alexandria, Virginia, ball field," reports NBC News. "He was in stable condition, said two different senior-level GOP aides. One source said the Republican lawmaker was wounded in the hip area. " "Two sources said at least one Capitol Police officer was also shot," noted the NBC report. "Police confirmed in tweets that it was investigating reports of a 'multiple shooting' and that the suspect was 'in custody' and 'not a threat.' The victims were being rushed to the hospital." Politico reports: "Katie Filous, a 29-year-old resident of Alexandria’s Old Town section, said she had just gotten out of her car to take her four dogs to the park when someone on the ballfield screamed, 'Everybody get down! Someone has a rifle!' She said a woman who looked like a security guard or a Secret Service member pulled out a handgun and shot at the man." Developing....I'll post more as additional facts become known. For the latest, please follow me on Twitter. joelcrosenberg | June 14, 2017 at 1:07 pm | Categories: Epicenter | URL: http://wp.me/piWZ7-7RT

Is Puerto Rico’s Economic Collapse A Ploy By Liberals To Permanently Shift The Balance Of Power In Congress? - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

Is Puerto Rico’s Economic Collapse A Ploy By Liberals To Permanently Shift The Balance Of Power In Congress?

Posted: 16 May 2017  Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

Next month, citizens of Puerto Rico are going to vote on statehood, and the absolutely devastating economic collapse that is gripping the island could be enough to push pro-statehood forces over the edge to victory.  Of course Congress has the final say on whether Puerto Rico becomes a state or not, but it is going to be very difficult to deny Puerto Rico’s 3.4 million residents statehood if they strongly insist that they want it.  Needless to say, if Puerto Rico becomes the 51st U.S. state that would greatly benefit the Democrats, because the population of Puerto Rico is very liberal.

Puerto Rico does not get to vote in presidential elections, but they do help select the nominees for both parties.  In 2016, 58,764 votes were cast in the Democratic caucuses held in Puerto Rico, and only 36,660 votes were cast in the Republican primary.  As a state, it is doubtful whether Puerto Rico would send any Republican lawmakers to Washington for decades to come.

So if Puerto Rico becomes a state, the Democrats would add two new senators and probably four or five representatives.

Puerto Rico would be the 30th largest state in the entire country, and so it would instantly have more political power than 21 other U.S. states.

This upcoming vote on June 11th is going to be extremely important, and pro-statehood forces are working very hard to get a positive result.  The following info about the referendum in June comes from Wikipedia…

The fifth referendum will be held on June 11, 2017 and will offer two options: “Statehood” and “Independence/Free Association.” It will be the first referendum not to offer the choice of “Commonwealth.” Newly-elected Governor Ricardo Rosselló is strongly in favor of statehood for Puerto Rico to help develop the economy and help to “solve our 500-year-old colonial dilemma … Colonialism is not an option …. It’s a civil rights issue … 3.5 million citizens seeking an absolute democracy,” he told the news media.^[30] Benefits of statehood include an additional $10 billion per year in federal funds, the right to vote in presidential elections, higher Social Security and Medicare benefits, and a right for its government agencies and municipalities to file for bankruptcy. The latter is currently prohibited.^[31]
At approximately the same time as the referendum, Puerto Rico’s legislators are also expected to vote on a bill that would allow the Governor to draft a state constitution and hold elections to choose senators and representatives to the federal Congress.^[31]

Over the past decade, Puerto Rico has been suffering through a nightmarish economic recession that never seems to end.  The island was recently forced to declare the equivalent of bankruptcy because it is facing $123 billion in debt and pension obligations.  At this moment 46 percent of the residents of Puerto Rico are living below the poverty line, the unemployment rate is 11 percent, and authorities just announced that another 179 public schools will be closing down.

It has been argued that the Obama administration could have done much more to alleviate the economic problems in Puerto Rico but that it purposely chose not to do so.

Why?

Well, the worse economic conditions get in Puerto Rico, the better it is for pro-statehood forces.  Puerto Ricans are being told that becoming a state is the key to Puerto Rico’s long-term economic future, and at this point many are willing to do just about anything to get the economic suffering to end.  The following is a short excerpt from a New York Times article entitled “Amid Puerto Rico’s Fiscal Ruins, a New Push for Statehood“…

A vigorous push for statehood was a central campaign promise of Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, 38, who was inaugurated in January. Next month, he will ask residents to vote, in a nonbinding referendum, for statehood as part of a long-term fix for a commonwealth facing a period of severe austerity that is likely to include shuttered public schools, frozen salaries, slashed pensions and crimped investments in public health. The island remains in the grip of a recession that has lingered for much of the past decade.

Could it be possible that this is what liberals have wanted all along?

Could it be possible that Obama and his minions saw Puerto Rico as a chess piece that could be used to permanently shift the balance of power in Congress?

Of course if Puerto Rico becomes a state that would have implications for presidential elections as well.

In the end, it will be Congress that decides what the fate of Puerto Rico will be, but if the people of Puerto Rico truly want to become the 51st U.S. state it is going to be really hard to deny them that opportunity indefinitely.

Last year at their national conventions, the Democrats and the Republicans both took the position that the citizens of Puerto Rico should be able to make this decision for themselves.  But once faced with a final decision, it is inevitable that many Republican members of Congress would be opposed to statehood.

Personally, I believe that either independence or “free association” would be much better for Puerto Rico, and let us hope that the people of Puerto Rico choose that direction.

But when people are really hurting, they will often grasp any sort of olive branch that is being offered to them, and right now the progressives are really pushing statehood.
Of course for strategists on the left, the goal is not to help the suffering people of Puerto Rico.

Rather, the endgame is complete domination of the U.S. political system by any means necessary.

The Debt Crisis Of 2017: Once Their Vacation Ends, Congress Will Have 4 Days To Avoid A Government Shutdown On April 29 - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

The Debt Crisis Of 2017: Once Their Vacation Ends, Congress Will Have 4 Days To Avoid A Government Shutdown On April 29 Posted: 09 Apr 2017  Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG April 2017 could turn out to be one of the most important months in U.S. history that we have seen in a very long time.  On April 6th, Donald Trump attacked Syria on the 100th anniversary of the day that the U.S. officially entered World War I, and now at the end of this month we could be facing an unprecedented political crisis in Washington.   On Friday, members of Congress left town for their two week “Easter vacation”, and they won’t resume work until April 25th.  What this means is that Congress will have precisely four days when they get back to pass a bill to fund government operations or there will be a government shutdown starting on April 29th. Up to this point, there has been very little urgency by either party to move a spending bill forward.  It is almost as if everyone is already resigned to the fact that a government shutdown will happen.  The Democrats will greatly benefit from a government shutdown because they can just blame the entire mess on the Republicans.  But for the GOP, this is essentially the equivalent of political malpractice. To me, there is simply no way that Congress is going to be able to agree on a bill that funds the entire government in just four days.  And it turns out that this upcoming deadline comes exactly on the 100th day of Trump’s presidency… The U.S. government is poised to shut down on Day 100 of Donald Trump’s presidency, unless Congress can pass a new spending bill or a continuing resolution before the current one expires on April 28. Since Congress is currently on a two-week recess, there will be a sense of urgency to get a new bill passed once they reconvene on April 25. Leaders in both chambers would have four days to craft a new proposal that each side can agree on and get it on the president’s desk for Trump to sign. If the Republicans control the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, why will it be so difficult to get an agreement on a spending bill? Well, first of all, look at how difficult it was for the Republicans to agree on a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.  At this point, it doesn’t look like that is going to happen at all. More importantly, any bill to fund the government is going to require 60 votes in the Senate.  The “nuclear option” that the Republicans just used to push the Gorsuch Supreme Court nomination through is not available in this case under current Senate rules because a spending bill of this nature would not qualify. So the Democrats have leverage, and they plan to use it to the maximum.  Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is already promising to block any spending bill that includes funds for a border wall or that defunds Planned Parenthood… The threat from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democratic leaders sets up a climactic first showdown with the president, particularly with their inclusion of Trump’s signature border wall proposal. “If Republicans insist on inserting poison pill riders such as defunding Planned Parenthood, building a border wall, or starting a deportation force, they will be shutting down the government and delivering a severe blow to our economy,” Schumer said in a statement. Up until now, Trump hasn’t needed Democratic votes to stock his cabinet or advance the repeal of Obamacare, but a spending bill keeping the government open is subject to a 60-vote threshold in the Senate. Do you understand what this means? President Trump is going to be under an immense amount of pressure to end the government shutdown once it begins, but to do so will mean that he has to give up his goal of getting a border wall. Do you think that Trump will just throw in the towel and forget about his beloved border wall after giving countless speeches promising one? It is a game of chicken between Trump and the Democrats, and I don’t think that either side will give in easily. Of even greater importance is the debate over the funding of Planned Parenthood. There are members of the Freedom Caucus that will absolutely not vote for any spending bill that includes funding for Planned Parenthood.  But without the Freedom Caucus, there aren’t enough Republican votes to get a spending bill through the House of Representatives. Alternatively, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is vowing that his party will block any funding bill that attempts to defund Planned Parenthood in the Senate. If Planned Parenthood is not defunded now, it never will be defunded.  This is one of the most pivotal moments in recent U.S. political history, and the outcome is going to have extraordinary consequences for our nation. For those that are optimistic that there will not be a government shutdown, do you actually expect me to believe that this battle over the funding of Planned Parenthood will somehow get resolved in just four days? Give me a break. And of course there are dozens of other major issues that have to be resolved as well.  For example, Senator McCain is promising note to vote for any bill unless it includes an enormous increase in military spending, while many Senate Democrats would be very much against such a move. I don’t see any way that a government shutdown is going to be avoided at this point, and the longer it goes on the more financial markets are going to get rattled. Meanwhile, we continue to get even more signs that a substantial slowdown has begun for the U.S. economy.  Last week, we learned that only 98,000 jobs were added in March, and that was only about half of what most analysts were expecting. And since it takes approximately 150,000 jobs a month just to keep up with population growth, that means that we are losing ground. At the same time, the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow forecasting model is now projecting that U.S. GDP growth for the first quarter of 2017 will be just 0.6 percent on an annualized basis. That is absolutely pathetic, and as I have said before, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we actually end up with a negative number for the first quarter. If we do indeed get a negative number for the first quarter and that is followed by another negative number for the second quarter, that will mean that a new recession has already started right now but we just haven’t gotten official confirmation yet. And lots of other things are already happening which have not happened since the last recession.  For instance, this is the first time since the last financial crisis when there has been no growth for commercial and industrial lending for at least six months. In addition, commercial bankruptcies spiked during the last recession, and now it is happening again… Commercial bankruptcy filings, from corporations to sole proprietorships, spiked 28% in March from February, the largest month-to-month move in the data series of the American Bankruptcy Institute going back to 2012. Of course consumer bankruptcies are rising at an alarming rate as well.  The following comes from Wolf Richter… In December, bankruptcy filings rose 4.5% from a year earlier. In January they rose 5.4%. It was the first time consumer bankruptcies rose back-to-back since 2010. I called it “a red flag that’ll be highlighted only afterwards as a turning point.” In March, consumer bankruptcy filings rose 4% year-over-year, to 77,900, the highest since March 2015, when 79,000 filings occurred, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute data.  The turning point has now been confirmed. If you would like, I could keep talking about the bad economic news for a couple thousand more words.  U.S. credit card debt has just surpassed the one trillion dollar mark, a major crisis has arrived for the U.S. auto industry, thousands of retail stores are closing all over America, our pension funds are underfunded by trillions of dollars, and the U.S. national debt is now sitting at a grand total that is just shy of 20 trillion dollars.  The only reason that we have not crossed that 20 trillion dollar mark yet is because the debt ceiling deadline has already passed, and that is another thing that Congress needs to address very quickly if they want to avoid a major crisis. Needless to say, the last thing that we need at this point is another war or two on top of everything else. Unfortunately, a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group headed by the USS Carl Vinson is heading toward North Korea right at this moment, and Russia and Iran are promising to “respond with force” to any new U.S. attacks on Syria.  I will be writing quite a bit more about all of this on End Of The American Dream later today. Those that were hoping for some sort of “reprieve” under Donald Trump can forget all about that now.  The pace of global events is really starting to accelerate, and the U.S. is already in a more precarious position than it was at any point in 2016. The clouds have been building for a very long time, and now the storm is almost upon us.  I hope that you have been getting prepared, because a day of reckoning for the United States of America is closing in very rapidly.

Trump Calls Out Antisemites in First Address Before Congress - Israel Today

Trump Calls Out Antisemites in First Address Before Congress

Wednesday, March 01, 2017 |  Israel Today Staff

US President Donald Trump opened his first address before Congress by calling out a recent spate of antisemitic attacks and threats against American Jews.

The past month has seen a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents in the US.

“Recent threats targeting Jewish community centers and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, as well as last week’s shooting in Kansas City, remind us that while we may be a nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all its forms,” he said.

Just last week, vandals severely damaged Jewish tombstones in Pennsylvania and Missouri, and a number of Jewish Community Centers received bomb threats.

Trump and others in his circle have suggested that some of the bomb threats could have been made to further the perception that his presidency has brought about an increase in antisemitism.

Many of Trump’s detractors insist he is a racist and a bigot, ignoring the fact that his daughter converted to Judaism and remains his most trusted advisor, and that he has numerous Jews serving in high-ranking roles.

A number of leading Jewish organizations praised Trump for opening his speech by condemning antisemitism, but they did so cautiously.

Groups like the Anti-Defamation League have been vocal critics of Trump’s immigration policies targeting certain Muslim countries and his rollback of protections for “transgenders.”

WATCH HERE

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11 Quotes From Trump’s Speech To Congress That Show That The U.S. Economy Is In A State Of Collapse - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

11 Quotes From Trump’s Speech To Congress That Show That The U.S. Economy Is In A State Of Collapse Posted: 01 Mar 2017   Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG After Tuesday night, nobody should have any more doubt that the U.S. economy has been in the process of collapsing.  Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress is being hailed as his best speech ever.  Even CNN’s Van Jones praised Trump, which shocked many observers.  Jones said that when Trump honored the widow of slain Navy Seal Ryan Owens that it “was one of the most extraordinary moments you have ever seen in American politics”, and Jones believes that Trump “became President of the United States in that moment”.   But Trump’s speech is not just being praised for that one moment.  He detailed many of the most important problems that our nation is facing, and he explained his prescription for addressing those problems. Hopefully Trump’s words helped people to understand that our problems did not get fixed just because he got elected.  It is going to take extraordinary action to fix those problems, because our problems run very deep.  In particular, Trump made an exceedingly strong case that the U.S. economy has been badly deteriorating for a very long period of time.  The following are 11 quotes from Trump’s speech to Congress that show that the U.S. economy is in a state of collapse… #1 “Ninety-four million Americans are out of the labor force” #2 “Over 43 million people are now living in poverty” #3 “Over 43 million Americans are on food stamps” #4 “More than one in five people in their prime working years are not working” #5 “We have the worst financial recovery in 65 years” #6 “In the last eight years, the past administration has put on more new debt than nearly all of the other Presidents combined” #7 “We’ve lost more than one-fourth of our manufacturing jobs since NAFTA was approved” #8 “We’ve lost 60,000 factories since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001″ #9 “Our trade deficit in goods with the world last year was nearly 800 billion dollars” #10 “Obamacare premiums nationwide have increased by double and triple digits. As an example, Arizona went up 116 percent last year alone.” #11  “We’ve spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas, while our infrastructure at home has so badly crumbled” All of these quotes come from the transcript of the speech that was posted on the official White House website. So many of the economic themes that Trump touched on are things that I have been writing about recently.  For example, I recently published an article entitled “11 Deeply Alarming Facts About America’s Crumbling Infrastructure” in which I discussed the horrific state of our roads, bridges, ports, dams, water systems and airports.  I greatly applaud Trump for wanting to do something about this growing national crisis, but I just don’t know where the money is going to come from. Just over a week ago I also wrote a major article about Obamacare.  We have zero hope of turning our economy in a positive direction until we do something to fix our dramatically failing healthcare system, but at the moment Republicans in Congress seem extremely hesitant to take action.  Instead, many Republican leaders are now talking about trying to “fix Obamacare“, and that simply is not going to work. You can’t “fix” a steaming pile of garbage. All of the other facts that Trump listed about the economy were right on point too.  I have been screaming for seven years about our nightmarish trade deficit and the fact that tens of thousands of businesses and millions of good paying jobs were leaving the country.  It is refreshing to finally have a president that understands how badly America has been hurt by imbalanced trade agreements, and my hope is that he will start to take constructive action in this regard. So much damage to the economy has already been done, and there are all kinds of indications that we are about to officially slide into yet another recession.  Yesterday we learned that the number of “distressed retailers” in this country is the highest that it has been since the last recession, and in recent weeks major retailers across the nation have announced the closing of hundreds of stores.   Lending standards are tightening, bankruptcies are rising, and employment growth at companies listed on the S&P 500 has gone negative for the first time since the last recession. It is being projected that GDP growth for the first quarter of 2017 will be barely above zero, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if we actually had a negative reading. If we indeed are heading into a new recession, Trump and his supporters need it to happen as soon as possible so that they can blame it on Obama.  If a recession begins a year from now, everyone will blame it on Trump even if it is not his fault.  But if a recession begins now, Trump and his supporters can pin responsibility for it on Obama and then take credit if and when a recovery occurs. Trump’s speech on Tuesday night was very optimistic, and he seemed quite confident that every issue that we are facing as a nation can be fixed… Everything that is broken in our country can be fixed. Every problem can be solved. And every hurting family can find healing and hope. I hope that Trump is right, but I also know that the federal government is already 20 trillion dollars in debt, U.S. consumers are already more than 12 trillion dollars in debt, and corporate debt has approximately doubled since the last financial crisis. You can’t squeeze blood out of an apple, and you can’t get out of a debt bubble by going into a lot more debt. I understand that there are so many people out there right now that are deeply optimistic about the future, but the truth is that we have no hope of a positive future unless we fundamentally change our ways as a nation.  I wish that someone could show me evidence that this is happening, because I would be very glad to see it.  As it stands, we continue to steamroll toward the kind of apocalyptic future for this country that I have been warning about for a very long time. It will take a lot more than words to fix America, and I think that Donald Trump understands this. Hopefully many of his followers will start to get the message as well.