DOGE, Jesus, and the Mesopotamians
If you spent $48 million every single day since the birth of Jesus, you would still not have spent the entire $36 trillion National Debt.
If you spent $48 million every single day since the birth of Jesus Christ, you would still not have spent the entire $36 trillion National Debt.
$48 million. Every. Day.
I don’t think our brains can actually process that much money. I think we would be more concerned about the National Debt if it were only $36 million—easier for us to be outraged about an amount we can potentially win in the lottery, an amount most of us have fantasized about and planned how we would spend. But the Federal Government will have overspent that amount before you are done reading this post. For reals.
What if the debt was only $36 billion? This is already outside of most people’s math synapses—almost no one knows what they would actually do with that kind of money. It’s mind-boggling to the point where you can’t really entertain the fantasy. But the Federal Government overspends by $36 billion every week.
$48 million every day since the time of Christ—or Caesar Augustus, if you prefer.
Want to go back farther? How about the time of King David? We can reliably place his reign at around 1000 B.C. (Or B.C.E. for those of you who like to pretend.) That’s $32 million. Every day. Since the actual David. David and Goliath David. David and Bathsheba David. That David.
The earliest known human civilization dates back to the Mesopotamians, around 4000 B.C. (Not pretending.) If you spent $16 million every day of recorded human history, you still would not have reached the entire U.S. National Debt. That is how obscene our spending has become. And none of this is adjusted for inflation, nor does it include debt from states, cities, or your own Visa card. The debt is the doomsday meteor already visible, like the one people refused to acknowledge in that disturbing and mediocre Don’t Look Up movie. Replace the comet in that movie with the national debt, and that’s us now.
Incidentally, most of this debt has been incurred in just the 25 years. We are now in a debt spiral, getting exponentially worse. I made a chart:
Today, the Federal Government overspends by $5.5 billion every single day. Because of math—no matter what a President says or a Congressional candidate promises—if we do not immediately reverse course, Social Security, Medicare, and more will be cut heavily, along with everything else. All of the studies say so. And soon—between 5 to 10 years, depending on whose study you read. This study suggests unavoidable and major cuts to Social Security by 2033. It’s the optimistic one.
Why can we trust this analysis? Because math. That’s why. Not because Elon says so, or Trump says so, or your favorite talk show host says so.
Americans have been ignoring the debt for 25 years. Both Republicans and Democrats are to blame. But regardless of who you want to blame more, this reality is now. If we do not make major cuts to our budget now—right now—we're going to have forced austerity that will make whatever Elon Musk or Donald Trump is doing look like a broken arcade vending machine that steals your dollar and doesn’t give you your Doritos.
No, tax increases won’t cover it. Tax the rich and corporations all you want. It may help some, but it’s not nearly enough to cover the $2 trillion annual deficit we currently have—or to even reduce the $36 trillion we owe now. Again, math wins the day, and tax increases can’t cover it. We’re way past that. We must make massive cuts.
It is understandable why so many question the way this is being handled by DOGE at the moment. But for some reason, that criticism is missing the acknowledgment that regardless, the math tells us we must make major cuts today. Maybe that reason is that the math in some congressional and other personal bank accounts will be adversely affected. After all, someone is getting paid that $5.5 billion we overspend every single day. I don’t know who, but I do know most of it is not going to help the poor. I think we should start with those who are the loudest at telling us not to look up at the debt comet about to strike and destroy us all.
Yes, people being laid off is sad, and it’s troubling to see them tell their stories all over our feeds, and good programs will get cut along with very bad ones. That’s a shame. For some, much of what is happening with the DOGE team appears sloppy and seemingly cruel. But maybe when Bill Clinton tried to address this in 1993 with his plan to Reinvent Government, there was still time to do it in a more orderly way. But that was 30 years ago— and $30 trillion ago.
That time has passed. Now, we must blow up the cart.
It’s going to hurt. We will all feel it.
But it will save the country if we are successful.
I have said for decades that a day will come when a U.S. president—no matter what party, no matter what color hat they wear, and no matter what trendy ideology they espouse—will have to tell the American people to prepare for immediate and drastic cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and other programs.
We are one step away, one administration away, from that day.
If Democrats and Republicans will not do this now, the very next president from either party will tell you:
You can’t retire.
You can’t get that surgery.
You must pay more taxes anyway.
This is a certainty.
Because math.
SCF