Letters: Massive US debt is no joke; Speak out before it’s too late
Massive US debt is no joke
The Republican Party should be re-named the “Biggest Ever Deficit and Debt Party.”
The current massive federal debt is over $36 trillion.
The government has spent $1.05 trillion more than it has collected so far in Fiscal Year 2025, resulting in a deficit and an increased national debt.
The proposed “One Big Beautiful Bill” is projected to increase the federal deficit by over $3 trillion ($3,100,000,000,000) bringing the U.S. debt to nearly $40 trillion. This does not look like “government efficiency.”
To put a trillion dollars in perspective:
All the gold in Fort Knox is worth only $175 billion dollars.
It would take a person over 3,000 years to count to one trillion.
A trillion $1 bills would weigh over 2 billion pounds.
A stack of one trillion $1 bills would be over 67,000 miles high.
A stack of 3 trillion $1 bills would reach almost to the moon.
Spending $40 per second, it would take nearly 800 years to blow through one trillion dollars. (There are over 31 million seconds in a year.)
A trillion dollars laid side to side, would cover more square miles than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined.
Calculating the size of $1 trillion dollars is silly. A U.S. debt of over $40 trillion is no joke.
How can the so called One Big Beautiful budget bill possibly benefit the USA?
Tax cuts are not worth the additional debt that will be a burden on our children for many years.
Speak out before it’s too late
A young mom confided recently that she tiptoed by her newborn’s crib one morning and burst into tears. Tears for her baby’s future — a future that was unfolding so tragically that it seared her heart.
The stupefyingly ignorant Trump administration reveals new incompetencies daily.
Trump showed his empty soul pardoning January 6th insurrectionists, making them heroes. The con artists he appointed, and those who fearfully curry his favor, dare not cross their overlord, lest he destroy them.
“The media treats this like just another wacky subplot in the never-ending Trump reality show. Congress is too busy fighting over meaningless culture war nonsense. ... And the American public? Exhausted. Numb. Checked out. Years of scandals — Russia collusion, Ukraine blackmail, classified documents, tax fraud, sexual assault, an attempted coup— have fried the country’s brain. ... Trump has done the impossible. He has committed so many crimes, so openly, so brazenly, that none of them matter anymore.” (from “Closer to the Edge”)
“... constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore. A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong. And such a people, deprived of the power to think and judge is … completely subject to the rule of lies. With such a people, you can do whatever you want.” (Hannah Arendt)
Your timidity, Republicans, you of little backbone, and those in trusted leadership positions who could have spoken out, it may be too late.
‘Drain the swamp’ vs damaging cuts
Representative Glenn Thompson says that his voters want the government cuts being executed by President Trump. He is partially correct: They sent Trump back to Washington to reduce government spending. However, there may be more to consider.
Let us imagine a parent looking at a child’s wild and shaggy hair and deciding that the child needs a haircut. The parent brings the child to the barbershop and assumes that the barber is well-trained and knows how to make the child look good. However, this barber pulls out a chainsaw and gardening shears and proceeds to remove hair in ways not taught at barber college. After a few minutes, the floor is covered with a lot of hair, but the poor child has scrapes and cuts — and may be missing a few slivers of ear. Yes, the child got a haircut, but it is not a good haircut.
Representative Thompson’s supporters may have voted to “drain the swamp,” but are the cuts being made with chain saws, indiscriminate firings, and arbitrary rules resulting in a good haircut — or just a lot of hair and skin on the floor? GT’s career shows that he knows the importance of details. Perhaps now is the time to look carefully at DOGE’s actions and determine whether they are in the best interests of the voters who sent him back to Congress.
It is certainly scary to question or disagree with President Trump, but maybe some courage would be a good thing.
Concerning computer guidelines
As a frequent visitor and user of the computer services available at Schlow Library I encountered disturbing guidelines on the new computer system recently installed. Under the heading “Managed guest session” was the following statement: “Schlowlibrary.org manages this device and has access to all user activity, including web pages visited, passwords and email.”
Additionally, under the heading “Custom root certificates” says,”Administrators of this device have set up security certificates that may allow them to see content of websites you visit. Your administrator may be able to view: who has used the device and when, networking information such as address, interface configuration and connection quality. Device hardware specifications and statistics such as CPU/RAM utilization history and audio peripherals attached.”
What the heck is going on, here. Have I been somehow “deported” to Communist China or Russia? Label me very concerned!