According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. GDP declined to 20.93 trillion dollars in 2020.

So once our national debt crosses the 30 trillion dollar mark, our debt to GDP ratio will be surging toward 150 percent.

That is madness.

But most Americans are greatly in favor of the 1.9 trillion dollar COVID “relief bill” that is currently going through Congress, because it includes more direct “stimulus payments” to the American people.

Of course most of the money in the bill is not going directly to the American people.  In fact, one analysis found that direct payments only account for about 35 percent of all money allocated…

About 22% of the total bill comes from the $422 billion set aside for $1,400-per-person stimulus checks. Another 13% ($246 billion) is for extending additional unemployment funding of $400 a week.

And that was before Joe Biden and moderate Democrats in the Senate agreed to dramatically reduce the number of Americans that will qualify for payments…

President Joe Biden has agreed to a compromise with moderate Democrats to narrow the income eligibility for the next round of $1,400 stimulus checks that are included in a bill the Senate is expected to take up this week, a Democratic source told CNN Wednesday.

That means 7 million fewer families will receive a partial payment than would have under the House version of the bill, according to an estimate from the Penn Wharton Budget Model. The new proposal will completely cut off those who earn more than $160,000 a year and individuals who earn more than $80,000 a year.

Much of the money in the “relief bill” is actually going to go to “pork projects” that are favored by prominent Democrats.  Here are just a few examples…

PolitiFact rated “Mostly True” a claim from conservative Stand for America that the bill contains unrelated projects. Examples cited in that fact check included a $1.5 million bridge connecting New York and Canada; a $100 million underground rail project in Silicon Valley; $480 million for Native American language preservation and maintenance; and $50 million in environmental justice grants.

It looks like some of those “pork projects” won’t make it into the final version of the bill that gets signed by Biden, but there will still be billions upon billions of dollars of wasteful spending.

But what does a billion dollars matter anyway, right?

After all, a stack of a billion one dollar bills would only be about a half mile high…

If you were to stack $100 bills on top of each other, one million dollars would be around the three feet mark – about the height of a chair or a toddler.

And if you keep stacking the $100 bills, eventually past the peak of the world’s tallest building, going a little over half-a-mile into the air, this would be one billion dollars.

A trillion dollars is another matter.

In order to get to a trillion dollars, you would need a stack of one dollar bills that would go beyond the orbit of the International Space Station…

This would have you stacking $100 bills into the stratosphere and past the International Space Station. You would have to stack these bills 631 miles above Earth’s crust. That would equal one trillion dollars. Now imagine 28 stacks of 631 mile-high $100 bills.

That’s America’s debt.

We are trapped in an endless debt spiral that has accelerated greatly over the past couple of years.

The only way to keep the game going is to keep creating, borrowing and spending more money, and in the process we are literally wiping out the bright future that our children and our grandchildren were supposed to have.

Thomas Jefferson tried to warn us about the dangers of a large national debt…

I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared…. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt…. We must make our choice between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude…. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and our comforts, in our labors and in our amusements…. If we can prevent the Government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.

But even though we were the wealthiest and most prosperous nation on the entire planet, we just couldn’t help ourselves.

We just had to keep spending money that belonged to our children and our grandchildren, and now we have accumulated the greatest mountain of debt in the history of humanity.

Jefferson understood that government debt was a way for one generation to steal money from other generations…

“The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”

Since Barack Obama first entered the White House, we have been stealing more than 100 million dollars from future generations of Americans every single hour of every single day.

Just think about that.

What we are doing to future generations of Americans is beyond criminal.

Of course if we stay on the path that we are currently on, there won’t be an America at all.

Can someone out there explain to me how this story can possibly end well?

I have been asking versions of that question for years, and nobody has ever risen to the challenge.

That is because it is obvious to everyone that our story is going to end tragically.

In our insatiable greed, we are systematically destroying the United States of America, and we should be utterly ashamed of ourselves.

***Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook, Twitter and Parler, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with as many people as we possibly can.

The post Does Anyone Even Care That The U.S. National Debt Will Soon Cross The 30 Trillion Dollar Mark? appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

What just happened in New Zealand is yet another example that demonstrates that the thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted on a daily basis is rapidly disappearing.  Shooter Brenton Tarrant is a horribly deranged man who decided that he would gain worldwide fame by shooting a whole bunch of innocent people in cold blood.  And it turns out that he wasn’t even from New Zealand…

A 28-year-old Australian man who was charged with murder was remanded without plea until his next appearance in court on April 5, while two others remain in police custody. NBC’s Australian subsidiary, Channel 7, say police sources have named one of the suspects as Brenton Tarrant.

The charged individual “traveled sporadically to New Zealand and stayed for varied amount of time,” but was not a resident of Christchurch, Ardern said in a statement.

In this day and age, this sort of thing can literally happen anywhere.  No community is truly “safe”, and we all need to understand that our world has fundamentally changed.

When a great tragedy like this happens, it is not time to jump on social media and try to use it to score political points.

Unfortunately, that is precisely what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others on the left have been doing.  Here is her full statement about “thoughts & prayers” in context…

At 1st I thought of saying, “Imagine being told your house of faith isn’t safe anymore.”

But I couldn’t say “imagine.”

Because of Charleston.
Pittsburgh.
Sutherland Springs.

What good are your thoughts & prayers when they don’t even keep the pews safe?

If she had simply mocked gun owners, conservatives or her political opponents, that would have been bad enough.

But she didn’t stop there.

She mocked almighty God by implying that our thoughts and prayers are worthless.

There is no room in Congress for someone that would make such a statement, and I am calling on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to immediately resign.

Others on the left are relentlessly pointing their fingers at conservatives in the aftermath of this attack, but Brenton Tarrant was not a conservative.  In fact, he made this explicitly clear in the manifesto that he left behind…

The terrorist gunman who killed 49 Muslims at a mosque in New Zealand said in his own manifesto that he wanted “no part of” conservatism, describing himself as an “eco-fascist” and expressing admiration for Communist China.

Answering the question “Were/are you a conservative?”, Brenton Tarrant wrote, “No, conservatism is corporatism in disguise, “I want no part of it.”

But you aren’t hearing that on the mainstream news, are you?

In his manifesto, Tarrant also expressed disdain for Donald Trump, and he openly admitted that the “nation with the closest political and social values to my own is the People’s Republic of China.”

That would make him a far left communist more than anything else.  But the mainstream media just keeps using terms such as “right wing extremist” to describe him.

Tarrant also made it abundantly clear in his manifesto that he wants to see “a civil war in the United States”…

At three points in his manifesto, the shooter also states his intention to spark a civil war in the United States by triggering crackdowns on the Second Amendment. In his laundry list of motivations, the shooter spends the most amount of time discussing this goal, which he believes will ultimately lead to a “fracturing” of the U.S. along “cultural and racial lines.”

As he describes it, his attack will “Create conflict between the two ideologies within the United States on the ownership of firearms in order to further the social, cultural, political, and racial divide within the United States.”

Without a doubt, our nation is more divided today than we have ever seen in modern American history, and the stage is set for the mass societal chaos that I depicted in “The Beginning Of The End”.  I am stunned by all of the anger, frustration and hatred that I see throughout our society, and it is getting worse with each passing day.

If we don’t learn how to love one another, we simply are not going to make it as a society.

Loving others does not mean that you always have to agree with them.  We must always contend for the truth, but at the same time we have got to find a way to love those that are opposed to us.

Hatred never leads anywhere good, and Tarrant is a perfect example of that fact.  Sadly, our world is filled with more hate than ever before, and that is going to have very serious consequences for all of us.

About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters. His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News. From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites. If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so. The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.

The post Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mocks God: “What good are your thoughts & prayers when they don’t even keep the pews safe” appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Trump has essentially painted himself into a corner, and maybe that is what he intended to do.  Perhaps he understands that this is the time to take a stand, and perhaps he is ready to do whatever it takes to achieve his goal.

But if he is not willing to do whatever it takes, then he should never have made such bold statements.  Because if he backs down now, he will lose all credibility with millions upon millions of American voters.

And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has put himself in the exact same position.  In the aftermath of Tuesday’s shouting match, Schumer appeared on the Senate floor and unequivocally declared that there will be no money for a border wall…

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D.-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor on Thursday that there will be no funding for President Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border because the Democrats in Congress will never allow it.

“I want to be crystal clear. There will be no additional appropriations to pay for the border wall. It is done,” Schumer said.

There is no possibility of a compromise with Trump in that statement.

And he doubled down on his position during a subsequent interview with NBC News…

Schumer argued that there are not enough votes for the full $5 billion authorization in either the House or Senate, a point that Republicans have contested. Accusing the president of putting government funding at risk to “throw a bone to his base,” Schumer said that it’s up to Republicans to get Trump to the table.

“They just have to have the guts to tell President Trump he’s off on the deep end here and all he is going to get with his temper tantrum is a shutdown. He will not get a wall,” Schumer said.

Somebody is going to come out of this as a big loser.

Will it be Chuck Schumer or will it be Donald Trump?

Whoever loses this cage match will essentially be neutered politically.

In the end, this fight doesn’t have a thing to do with money.  The five billion dollars that Trump is asking for is a pittance when compared to the enormous sums of money that are poured into other programs.  If Trump was asking for five billion dollars for roads that would be no problem at all.

Ultimately, what this is about is a battle of the wills.  Donald Trump wants a border wall and the Democrats are absolutely determined not to give him one.

And so far the Democrats have succeeded.  As Ann Coulter has noted, some fencing has been put up, but no construction of any portions of the border wall has taken place…

Coulter, who also writes a syndicated column, linked to an article in the Washington Post that details what new construction has occurred along the U.S.-Mexico border. The article reveals that none of the wall Trump pledged to build in his 2016 presidential campaign has been built.

Some new fencing — not a wall — has been erected in Calexico, Calif. But this area to fence was identified by the Border Patrol in 2009 and the material is “bollard fencing,” which is hollow steel beams spaced several inches apart, reported The Post.

So this is it.

This is the moment when Trump will really show us how committed he is to a border wall, because if he doesn’t get funding now he will never, ever get it once the Democrats control the House.

And in order to get that funding, Donald Trump is going to have to force a government shutdown, and at this point it looks like that is precisely what is going to happen.  The following comes from the Hill…

It’s a perilous moment for the Grand Old Party. Either Trump folds and backs off his demand for the wall — the signature promise of his 2016 campaign — or the government will shut down over the holidays.

“The odds are 65/35 we’re shutting down. I’m not optimistic we’re going to see some kind of compromise on appropriations on Homeland Security,” said Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-Mich.), the freshman representative to the GOP leadership team. “I don’t see that they’re going to get done bickering.”

Like previous government shutdowns, not that much will actually change for the first few days.

But the longer a government shutdown lasts, the more painful it will become.

Things will really start getting hairy once some people eventually stop receiving government checks, and it will take a tremendous amount of resolve to keep going at that point.

This could be a defining point in Donald Trump’s presidency.  If he is a man of his word, he will force a government shutdown and fight for what he believes.

But if he caves and gives the Democrats everything that they want once again, the entire nation will know that he is just another typical Republican.

About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters.  His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News.  From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites.  If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so.  The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.

The post It’s Trump vs. Schumer for all the marbles, and someone is leaving this cage match completely neutered appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

The most likely outcome appears to be that the Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives and the Republicans will remain in control of the Senate.  For what it is worth, Nate Silver is currently projecting that the Democrats have an 88 percent chance of winning the House and only a 19 percent chance of winning the Senate.

But of course he was also projecting a huge landslide victory for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

In any event, a divided Congress would create gridlock in Washington, and according to Wedbush Securities managing director Steve Massocca that would produce “some negative fallout” for the financial markets…

Steve Massocca, Wedbush Securities managing director said there could be some negative fallout from a split Congress, since Democrats would hold committee chairmen seats in the House. “To what extent are they able to disrupt the Trump agenda will weigh on peoples’ minds,” he said.

“Donald Trump, the agenda, is very good for the markets. Less regulation, lower taxes,” he said.

But in the end, such a scenario is not likely to move stock prices too substantially.

However, if the Democrats are able to take control of both houses of Congress on Tuesday, Massocca believes that would truly be a “disaster” for stock prices…

The least likely scenario—a Democratic sweep— is also seen as the most negative for stocks.

“Disaster,” said Massocca.

Normally by now we would have a really good idea of what is going to happen tomorrow, but at this point the polls are all over the place.

For example, the last generic poll conducted by CNN has Democrats up by 13 points, but the last generic poll conducted by Rasmussen has Republicans in the lead…

One day before Americans head to cast their ballots in the crucial midterm congressional elections, two final polls conducted by CNN and Rasmussen have predicted wildly different results.

The final generic poll conducted by left-leaning CNN has put Democrats 13 points ahead of Republicans. Meanwhile, a separate poll carried out by the more right-leaning Rasmussen agency has suggested that Republicans are leading, but by a much smaller margin of one point.

For the record, Rasmussen was more accurate back in 2016, and in only about 24 hours we will find out who was more accurate this time around.

There are some that are entirely convinced that Republicans will be able to maintain control of both houses of Congress, and needless to say that would almost certainly cause a huge surge on Wall Street.  In fact, one Nevada lawyer is so sure that Republicans will maintain control of the House of Representatives that he just flew to London and bet $130,000 of his own money on that outcome…

A big political gambler I met in Las Vegas in 2016 is in London betting that the Republican Party will keep control of the U.S. Congress. Robert Barnes is essentially wagering that U.S. pollsters haven’t fixed any of the problems that led them astray during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Barnes, a trial lawyer, lives in Las Vegas, frequenting the city’s sportsbooks, but he has to travel to the British Isles to wager on U.S. politics since it’s not allowed in the U.S. On this side of the Atlantic, the bookies know him as a high roller; the political betting team at Ladbrokes even tweeted his photo to mark his arrival and his 100,000 pound ($130,000) bet on the Republicans’ House majority. Given that the entire U.S. primaries betting market is in the single millions in the U.K. and Ireland, that’s quite momentous.

$130,000 is an enormous amount of money, and so I hope that he knows what he is doing.

On the other side, Nancy Pelosi is so confident about the outcome that she has already declared victory on national television.

But of course many other leading Democrats are extremely nervous right now.  They remember the election night debacle of 2016, and they are concerned that something like that might happen again.

Democratic pollster John Anzalone is describing what they are going through as “the bed-wetting phase”…

Haunted by memories of 2016, liberals around the country are riven with anxiety in the campaign’s homestretch. They’re suspicious of favorable polls and making election night contingency plans in case their worst fears come true. Some report literal nightmares about a Democratic wipeout.

“We’re kind of just in the bed-wetting phase now,” said Democratic pollster John Anzalone, a Hillary Clinton campaign alumnus who spent election night 2016 in Clinton’s Manhattan war room.

If the Democrats are unable to take the House, that will probably mean that a late “red wave” has saved the day for the Republicans and it will also probably mean that they will likely increase their Senate majority by a little bit.

In that scenario, we will see a lot more than “bed-wetting” from the left.  Their hopes have been pinned on these midterm elections for nearly two years, and a crushing loss could set off a national temper tantrum of frightening proportions.

About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is publisher of The Most Important News and the author of four books including The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters.

The Last Days Warrior Summit is the premier online event of 2018 for Christians, Conservatives and Patriots.  It is a premium members-only international event that will empower and equip you with the knowledge and tools that you need as global events begin to escalate dramatically.  The speaker list includes Michael Snyder, Mike Adams, Dave Daubenmire, Ray Gano, Dr. Daniel Daves, Gary Kah, Justus Knight, Doug Krieger, Lyn Leahz, Laura Maxwell and many more. Full summit access will begin on October 25th, and if you would like to register for this unprecedented event you can do so right here.

The post The One Election Scenario That Would Be A “Disaster” For The Financial Markets appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

House conservatives are preparing a new push to oust Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, according to three conservative Capitol Hill sources — putting the finishing touches on an impeachment filing even as Rosenstein announced the indictment of 12 Russian intelligence officers for interfering in the 2016 election.

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, in fact, had the impeachment document on the floor of the House at the very moment that Rosenstein spoke to reporters and TV cameras Friday.

This kind of high drama is very rare in the halls of Congress, and even though it didn’t happen on Friday, the impeachment document reportedly could be filed “as soon as Monday”…

Conservative sources say they could file the impeachment document as soon as Monday, as Meadows and Freedom Caucus founder Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) look to build Republican support in the House. One source cautioned, however, that the timing was still fluid.

Wow.

So why are Republicans so upset with Rosenstein?

For one thing, they feel like he has continually stonewalled their investigation into corruption at the FBI, and that is definitely a very serious matter.

Secondly, Rosenstein is ultimately where “the buck stops” when it comes to the Mueller investigation.  The following comes from the Hill…

Rosenstein has long been a target for Republicans who are frustrated over special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into election meddling by Russia and possible collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign. He is overseeing the probe after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation, and some argue that he’s the only person with the legal authority to fire Mueller.

If Rosenstein were to be impeached, that would almost certainly mean the end of the Mueller investigation, and Democrats would go absolutely ballistic.

But in order for any of this to happen, conservatives are going to have to get the support of Paul Ryan, and Politico is reporting that Ryan has “clearly been uncomfortable with the notion of going after Rosenstein…

But House GOP leaders like Speaker Paul Ryan have clearly been uncomfortable with the notion of going after Rosenstein. It’s unlikely that will change anytime soon, especially so soon after the latest indictments. Ryan’s office was not immediately available for comment.

Without Ryan’s support, there is no way that there will be enough votes for impeachment, and so he is the key.

And the clock is ticking, because the November mid-term elections are rapidly approaching.

Traditionally, the opposition party has always done extremely well during the first mid-term election of a new presidency, and signs continue to emerge that we will see a similar pattern this time around.

For example, Democrats now hold a gigantic 12 million voter registration lead in states that require party affiliation.  The following comes from the Washington Examiner…

Democrats hold a massive voter lead in states that require party registration, a gap of 12 million that could be key to whether the party takes control of the House and Senate in the fall midterm congressional elections, according to a new analysis.

Overall, 40 percent of voters in 31 party registration states are Democrats, 29 percent are Republicans, and 28 percent are independents, according to a new report of July numbers from the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. The states include several with key battles over House seats such as California, New York, Florida, and Pennsylvania.

The lead is significant, said Rhodes Cook’s analysis in Center Director Larry Sabato’s “Crystal Ball” newsletter, because in the past presidential election the majority party in 24 of the 31 states won, especially among Republican states.

I know that a lot of you may not want to hear this, but voter registration numbers are very, very important.

Yes, Republicans could still potentially win in states where the voter registration numbers are very much against them, but at this point the left has far more passion and energy than we do.

As noted in the excerpt above, the party that held the voter registration lead ended up winning in 24 out of 31 states in 2016.

That is a winning percentage of more than 77 percent.

Yes, the Senate map is favorable for Republicans in 2018.  It will be a lot more difficult for Democrats to take the Senate than it will be for them to take the House, but if the Democrats take either body there will be absolute gridlock in D.C. leading into the 2020 election.  The Trump agenda will be dead in the water, the Republican agenda will be dead in the water, and next to nothing will get accomplished.

The Republicans have had two years to accomplish everything that they wanted to do, and they have completely fumbled the football.

It would be nice if they could at least impeach a deep state operative such as Rosenstein, but with swamp creature Paul Ryan still in charge, that is going to be quite a challenge.

Michael Snyder is a nationally syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is publisher of The Most Important News and the author of four books including The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters.

The post It Could Really Happen! Republicans Are Preparing To Impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Those that responded to the survey were asked to give their first and second choices to the question, and this is how the final numbers came out for first choice…

Obama: 31 percent
Reagan: 21 percent
Clinton: 13 percent
Trump: 10 percent
Kennedy: 7 percent
Carter: 4 percent
George W. Bush: 3 percent
George H.W. Bush: 3 percent
Eisenhower: 2 percent
Ford: 1 percent
Nixon: 1 percent
Johnson: 1 percent
Truman: 1 percent
Roosevelt: 1 percent

The way that the question was asked is obviously going to depress the numbers of presidents that served many decades ago.  For example, I was not born yet when Eisenhower was president, so he would not be an option for me when naming the president that has “done the best job in my lifetime”.  If the question had been framed differently, I think that Eisenhower and Kennedy would have done much better.

In particular, I think that Eisenhower doesn’t really get the credit that he deserved.  America generally thrived under his leadership, but nobody ever really talks about him too much anymore.

Another thing that really jumps out about these numbers is how poorly both Bushes did.

George H.W. Bush’s presidency was largely considered to be a continuation of the Reagan administration, but he only got 3 percent of the vote.  7 percent did name him as their second choice, and most of those probably named Reagan as their first choice.

George W. Bush served much more recently, and to get only 3 percent of the vote shows how the American people really feel about him at this point.  The president that served immediately before him (Bill Clinton) got 13 percent of the vote and the president that served immediately after him (Barack Obama) got 31 percent of the vote.  To only receive 3 percent of the vote is an absolutely disastrous showing.

Overall, Democrats have to feel really good about these survey results.  If you add the last four Republican presidents together, their grand total of 37 percent of the vote doesn’t even come close to the combined total of the last two Democratic presidents (44 percent).

Needless to say, Democrats overwhelmingly chose Obama or Clinton as their top choices in this poll…

A sizable majority of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say Barack Obama (71%) is the best (51%) or second best (20%) president in their lifetimes. About half of Democrats name Clinton (49%). Another 14% of Democrats name Kennedy as one of their top two, 12% name Reagan and 10% mention George W. Bush.

And Republicans overwhelmingly picked Reagan or Trump as their top choices…

A majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say Reagan (57%) ranks in the top two presidents in their lifetimes. Another 40% of Republicans name Trump, while 20% name George W. Bush, 16% name George H.W. Bush and 15% mention Clinton.

Perhaps the most alarming result from this survey was how Millennials voted.  Our young adults are the future of this country, and a whopping 62 percent of them picked Barack Obama as their first or second choice…

Millennials (born 1981 to 1996) were the most likely to choose Obama, with 62 percent naming him as their first or second choice. Reagan was the top pick for Generation X (1965 to 1980), baby boomers (1946 to 1964) and the silent generation (1928 to 1945).

Unsurprisingly, party identification was very closely tied to a person’s answer. Obama was the first or second pick of 71 percent of Democrats but only 13 percent of Republicans.

Reagan was the clear favorite among Republicans with 57 percent (12 percent among Democrats). Trump was the second pick for Republicans at 40 percent. Only 3 percent of Democrats named Trump.

This is yet more evidence that we are undergoing a dramatic demographic shift in this nation.

Older Americans tend to vote more than younger Americans do, but older Americans are also slowly but surely dying off.

Unless something fundamentally changes, we aren’t going to have any Ronald Reagans or Donald Trumps in the future.  Instead, what we are going to get are more Barack Obamas and Bill Clintons.

In fact, if Michelle Obama wanted to run for president in 2020 she would almost certainly win the Democratic nomination easily, and that is a chilling thing to admit.

But she almost certainly will not run, and instead it looks like Hillary Clinton is gearing up for one last run for the presidency.

Many conservatives assume that since Trump beat Clinton last time that he will beat her again.

And that might be true.

However, we should remember that Hillary did receive 3 million more votes than Trump did last time.

And we should also not forget that older voters are slowly but surely dropping off the voting rolls, and they are being replaced by an entirely new generation of young people that is extremely liberal.

That doesn’t mean that all hope is gone.  We are at a crossroads, and at this moment we are in a battle for the soul of our nation.

If we want to win, then conservatives better wake up, because right now the left has far more passion and energy than we do.

Michael Snyder is a nationally syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is publisher of The Most Important News and the author of four books including The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters.

The post Poll Asks Americans To Name The Greatest President In Their Lifetimes – Barack Obama Wins With 31 Percent appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

In Part I and Part II of this series, I talked about how the elite use debt as a tool of enslavement.  In Part III, I went over how the elite use the colossal media corporations they own to control what we think.  Today, I want to talk about their influence in the realm of politics.

In Washington D.C., it is well understood that the game of politics is all about the money.  If I win my election, and online polling suggests that there is a ton of enthusiasm for my campaign, I will be expected to spend most of my time on the phone raising money.  As a freshman member of Congress, at orientation it will be explained to me that I am supposed to spend approximately four hours a day doing fundraising, and that is why the House and Senate floors are so empty most of the time.

By law, members of Congress cannot make fundraising calls from their offices, and so both parties have huge call centers just across from the Capitol.  Especially around lunch and dinner times (because those are some of the best times to reach people), those call centers are packed as members of the House and Senate run through lists of potential donors.

And it isn’t just about raising money for their own campaigns.  As a freshman member of Congress I would be expected to raise at least $200,000 for the NRCC (the National Republican Congressional Committee).  If I don’t pay my dues, I would get into big trouble with party leadership.

But you know what?  I have already pledged that I am not going to participate in this very corrupt system.  If I am sent to Congress, I am going to spend my time doing the job that the people of Idaho sent me there to do.

So will Paul Ryan and the others in leadership get very upset with me for not “paying my dues”?

Of course.

But it is time for some of us to take a stand and do what is right.  Congress has become a cesspool of filth and corruption, and it is time to flush the toilet.

Because if we don’t fight this corrupt system, the influence of money in politics will just get worse and worse.  Today, the elite pour millions upon millions of dollars even into small campaigns, and in 2016 it took an average of more than 10 million dollars to win a U.S. Senate seat…

While the White House may not have gone to the biggest spender, an awful lot of House and Senate seats did — as usual. And it was pricier than ever to win them.

This election cycle, an average winning Senate candidate had spent $10.4 million through Oct. 19 (reflecting the latest reports filed with the Federal Election Commission). That’s a $1.8 million increase over the same period in the 2014 cycle. By the end of last cycle, the number rose to $10.6 million, and a similar uptick is expected this time once post-election and year-end reports are filed.

Once you win, the pressure to raise money for your next campaign never ends.

The elite know this, and they use this pressure to influence votes.  Prior to a big vote, lobbyists will make it abundantly clear how they want certain members of Congress to vote, and if they vote the “right way” those members of Congress will be rewarded.

Just across from the U.S. Capitol there are clubs where fancy receptions are regularly held.  If you vote the “right way” on a particular bill, you may be invited to one of these receptions, and there will be big, fat donation checks waiting there for you.

Of course most members of Congress have learned how to play the game, and this is why it is nearly impossible to defeat incumbents.  Over the past six decades, the re-election rate for members of the House of Representatives has consistently been well over 80 percent, and according to the UVA Center for Politics incumbents actually did far better than that in 2016…

This election cycle, 393 of 435 House representatives, 29 of 34 senators, and five of 12 governors sought reelection (several of the governors were prohibited from seeking another term). Of those, 380 of 393 House members (97%), 27 of 29 senators (93%), and four of five governors (80%) won another term. These members of Congress and governors not only won renomination, but also won in November.

Since World War II, the overall success rate for Senate incumbents has been 84 percent, and the overall success rate for House incumbents has been 94 percent.

Incumbents are almost always armed with huge war chests and most of them have tremendous name recognition, and so toppling them is not easy.

Fortunately, there is no incumbent in my race because Raul Labrador is running for governor.  So the race is completely wide open, and right now my campaign has the most enthusiasm by far.  If you would like to help me flush the toilet in Washington, I would encourage you to visit MichaelSnyderForCongress.com.

If we don’t fight back, we will never break the stranglehold that the elite have on our political system.

Every generation of Americans has had to stand up and fight for liberty and freedom, and now it is our turn.  This particular battle will not be fought with guns and bullets, but rather with ideas, values and principles.

We are part of a movement that is sweeping the nation.  Good men and women are rising up to run in federal, state and local races all across the country, and it is absolutely imperative that we all get behind them and support them.

Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

The post How The Elite Dominate The World – Part 4: They Buy Politicians, And Incumbents Almost Always Win appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Considering the clown show that the Senate has already become, it is hard to imagine things getting much worse.  If you want to see the website that has been set up for Kid Rock’s campaign, you can find it right here.  Apparently his primary slogan is “Are You Scared?”

Some may dismiss this as a publicity stunt, but apparently Kid Rock is quite serious about running…

Famed rocker and admitted Republican Robert Ritchie — aka “Kid Rock” — tweeted Wednesday that he has been asked repeatedly about whether he is going to run for office, specifically for the U.S. Senate. His response? “Absolute YES.”

Ritchie has been vocally supportive of Republican politicians in the past, including President Donald Trump, whom he endorsed during the 2016 presidential elections. Ritchie recently made headlines when he visited the White House with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and fellow rocker Ted Nugent. The photos that came out of the visit prompted nasty comments from many on the left.

When you go to his website, you will notice that nothing is said about the issues.  This is so typical of what you will find on many campaign websites these days, and that is why I have tried to be completely different.  Instead of playing “hide and seek” with the issues, candidates should come out and tell people exactly where they stand so that voters can make informed decisions.

So where does Kid Rock stand?  Well, apparently he is not really that conservative.  The following comes from Fox News…

Rock, an outspoken conservative, endorsed Mitt Romney for president during his 2012 campaign. He told The Guardian in 2015 that he’s a Republican on certain issues, but leans toward the middle on others.

“I am definitely a Republican on fiscal issues and the military, but I lean to the middle on social issues. I am no fan of abortion, but it’s not up to a man to tell a woman what to do. As an ordained minister I don’t look forward to marrying gay people, but I’m not opposed to it,” Rock said.

Obviously this is not the kind of candidate that a lot of us are going to be able to get behind.

In fact, I have unequivocally stated that I will never support any Republican candidate that does not pledge to vote against any bill that contains even a single penny of funding for Planned Parenthood.

But if good people don’t run, we are going to end up with whatever we get.

If you think that Nancy Pelosi, John McCain, Al Franken, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, Lindsey Graham and the rest of our Congress critters are doing a great job, then no action is required.

However, if you are sick and tired of the mess in Washington, I encourage you to join us in trying to do something about it.

I am trying to do my part by running for Congress here in Idaho.  I am just an ordinary person that has never run for public office before, but at least I am putting myself out there.

And maybe you should consider running for something in 2018 too.

One of the big things that I am trying to do is to inspire good people to run for public office all over the nation.  Because getting one person elected is only going to have a very small impact, but if hundreds of good people start winning elections all over the country that is really going to start changing things.

There is never any guarantee of success.  When our founders decided to rebel against the mighty British Empire, the rest of the world thought that they were crazy.  But instead of listening to the doubts, they put everything they had on the line, and as a result the United States of America exists today.

And whoever thought that Donald Trump would become the president of the United States?  When he first announced his candidacy, the mainstream media mocked him relentlessly.  They treated him like a huge joke, and hardly anyone believed that he actually had a prayer of winning the Republican nomination.

Jeb Bush had 100 million dollars and nearly the entire Republican establishment on his side, and Trump smashed him because Trump simply had a much better message.

So would you consider getting involved?  If you feel like you absolutely cannot run for something, then at least get involved in the campaign of someone that you do feel like you can back.

If we do nothing, there is no hope for America.  Because if this nation stays on the path that it is currently on, it will crash and burn.

What we need is a second American revolution.  Instead of a revolution with guns and bullets, what we need is a revolution of ideas, values and principles.

So many of us (including myself) have bitterly complained that we never have anyone good to vote for.  And we can continue to do so, or we can take matters into our own hands and start running for these offices ourselves.

A lot of people believe that America is too far gone and that we shouldn’t even try to fight the death of our country.

But I believe that it is never too late to shine a light in the darkness, and I plan to keep proclaiming the truth for as long as I possibly can.

And I hope that as many of you as possible will join with me, because otherwise the clowns will just keep on winning over and over again.

The post Kid Rock Is Running For Senate – And Maybe You Should Run For Public Office Too appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Today, the liberal elite dominate almost every aspect of our society.  Their enormous media corporations control more than 90 percent of the news and entertainment that we watch on our televisions, their dominance of the legal system has resulted in the legalization of abortion and gay marriage, and their relentless grip on public education means that an entire generation of young Americans is being indoctrinated in their ways.

And of course for decades the liberal elite have been accustomed to pulling the strings in both major political parties.  Many had believed that it would be impossible for us to ever take our government back, but the election of Donald Trump showed us that anything is possible if we will just work together.

Today, our Republic is hanging by a thread.  If our founders had not stood up and fought for their way of life, the United States of America would not exist today, and if we do not stand up and fight for our way of life now, there will be nothing to pass on to our children and our grandchildren.

There are many that believe that America is too far gone, and so they are content to sit back and wait for everything to fall apart.

But that is not my choice.

I choose to fight for America.

So today, on the 241st anniversary of our Independence Day, I am publicly announcing that I am running for Congress in Idaho’s first congressional district.

I have been called an “anti-politician” because I am not just another career politician looking for a job.  If I am sent to Washington, I plan to turn the tables over, dismantle the big government institutions that the liberal elite have constructed, and fight to restore our Republic.

If you are not familiar with me or my work, the following are 16 ways that I will be different from a typical Republican politician…

#1 Most Republican politicians tend to protect one another, but one of my campaign slogans is “Every RINO Needs To Go“.  We will never turn this nation in a positive direction until we clean up our own party first.  At this point Congress has an approval rating of about 16 percent, and it is time to flush the toilet.

#2 For decades Republicans have been using the Pro-Life label to get our votes and then betraying our values once they get into office.  If I am elected, I will use the full power of my office to go to war with Planned Parenthood.  I will NEVER vote for any bill, no matter what it says, if it includes even a single penny of funding for Planned Parenthood, and I will actively work to defeat any Republican politician that will not make the same pledge.  But I won’t be satisfied once Planned Parenthood is defunded.  My goal is to completely destroy Planned Parenthood as an organization, and I will greatly rejoice when the final Planned Parenthood clinic in America is finally shut down for good.

#3 I believe that every American citizen has a constitutional right to carry a gun, and I believe that government agencies that have been used to relentlessly harass gun owners such as the BATFE need to be shut down permanently.

#4 Many Republican politicians want to lower tax rates, but like Ron Paul I want to abolish the income tax and the IRS completely.  We didn’t have an income tax from 1872 to 1913, and that was the greatest period of economic growth in U.S. history.

#5 Another thing that I have in common with Ron Paul is that I want to abolish the Federal Reserve.  Since the Fed was created in 1913, the value of the U.S. dollar has fallen by about 98 percent and the U.S. national debt has gotten more than 5000 times larger.  The Fed is at the very heart of our debt-based financial system, and abolishing it is one of the keys to a bright economic future for America.

#6 I want to get the federal government off of the backs of our farmers, our loggers, our miners and our ranchers.  And so that is just one of many reasons why I want to abolish the EPA.

#7 I believe that we need to get the federal government out of the education business. I would abolish Common Core and the U.S. Department of Education, and I would return full control over education to the state level.

#8 I believe that it is time to “shut down Big Brother”.  The NSA has been conducting unconstitutional surveillance of American citizens for decades, and that needs to stop now.

#9 In his budget, President Trump proposed shutting down more than 60 different government programs and agencies.  I say that is a good start.  Instead of asking which government agencies we should close, we should be asking which government agencies should remain open.

#10 I am for a 100% repeal of Obamacare, and I believe that it is a disgrace to our party that half a year has passed and one of the worst pieces of legislation in the history of our nation still has not been repealed.

#11 I want to help Donald Trump build a wall on the southern border, and I believe that the Republicans in Congress that are trying to block the wall need to be held accountable by the voters.

#12 If I am elected, I will push for legislation that would give local communities all over America the option to say no to refugees.  The federal government should not have the right to force us to take Islamic refugees against our will, and the sexual assault of that precious little five-year-old girl in Twin Falls, Idaho by three Islamic refugees is just the tip of the iceberg of what will happen if changes are not made.

#13 I don’t care if it’s not politically correct – I will never be afraid to use the phrase “Islamic terrorism”.  The number of terror attacks keeps rising with each passing year, and those that don’t realize that we are in a war are in a complete state of denial.

#14 When Barack Obama entered the White House the national debt was just 10.6 trillion dollars.  When we gave Republicans control of the House of Representatives, the national debt was just over 14 trillion dollars.  Now it is close to 20 trillion dollars and we continue to steal more than 100 million dollars from our children and our grandchildren every single hour of every single day.  In a just society, those responsible for getting us into so much debt would be put in prison.

#15 Today, the federal government controls more than 60 percent of all Idaho land.  If I am elected, this is what my message to the feds will be: “Hand over the keys and get out of Idaho”.

#16 Unlike most politicians, I am not ashamed to say that I am a Christian. This nation was founded by Bible-believing Christians, and the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were birthed out of the values and principles found in the Word of God. If we truly want to make America great again, we need to return to those values and principles.

Every generation of Americans has had to fight for liberty and freedom, and now it is our turn.

This is our time.

This is our second American revolution.

This revolution won’t be fought with guns and bullets.  Rather, it will be a revolution of ideas, values and principles.

We can take our country back, but we have to be willing to work together.  I am asking you to join us, because we are in a battle for the soul of our nation, and it is a battle that we cannot afford to lose.

If you would like to learn more about what I am trying to do, you can visit my official campaign website or my official campaign Facebook page.  Ultimately this is not about winning one election or getting a certain candidate into office.  Rather, this is about a movement to save our country.  My hope is that what I am doing will inspire many others to do the same thing.

2018 may be the most critical mid-term elections in our history, and we need good men and women to run for office all over the nation.  Individually, we can only accomplish so much, but together we can make a world of difference.

The post This Is Our Second American Revolution appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

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.

The post Are The ‘Toxic’ Democrats Destined To Become A Permanent Minority Party? appeared first on The Economic Collapse.