DELEITURAS

Officials throughout NATO are assessing the lessons learned from the massive Trident Juncture exercise last year, and U.S. European Command officials vow to apply those lessons to exercises moving forward.

Air Force Maj. Gen. John P. Healy, the command’s director of exercises and assessments, praised the soldiers, Marines, airmen, sailors and civilian employees who participated in NATO’s Trident Juncture in Norway last year. “They did the heavy work,” he said.

Trident Juncture is a monumental exercise with thousands of moving parts — from Marines drawing equipment from war stocks and a carrier battle group operating north of the Arctic Circle to airmen bringing in equipment and supplies and engineers examining roads and bridges.

NATO designed the exercise to test interoperability of alliance and partner troops. It examined command and control aspects of alliance forces, and examined the logistics behind the effort, Healy said.

“The unique attribute of the U.S. with our partners and allies is we are the only ones who can actually move stuff to this effect, with this degree of efficiency and effectiveness anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice,” the general said in an interview from U.S. European Command headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany.

But interoperability is more than just solving logistical problems, Healy said. It means forces can work together in a battlespace. “With 31 different nations participating in the exercise, we’ve got 31 different methodologies on how they want to command and control the troops they are bringing along with them,” the general said.

Now the job for U.S. European Command will be to internalize the lessons of Trident Juncture. “We are going to take the lessons and use them in all the NATO exercises, our EUCOM exercises as well as our combined exercises,” he said.

Working with other countries is important to American goals in Europe. “We are one of the partners and allies associated with NATO,” Healy said. “We need to make sure that what we are doing is in line with what NATO’s expectation of a collective defense is and vice versa.”

Seattle soda drinkers are paying nearly every penny of a tax on sugary drinks that the city council put in place in January 2018, according to a new study.

University of Washington researchers studied the effects of the soda tax on the prices of taxed and untaxed drinks at various types of stores. The study found that, on average, 97 percent of the 1.75 cents per fluid ounce tax is paid by consumers, according to the January 2019 report.

“We don’t know why, but they did see something similar in Berkeley,” research-team leader Jesse Jones-Smith told The Seattle Times, referencing Berkeley, California, which passed a soda tax before Seattle.

Researchers studied drink prices at more than 200 Seattle stores before the tax was enacted and compared them to prices at the same stores six months after the tax went into effect. The researchers also studied prices at 200 stores outside Seattle in surrounding communities to gather a baseline.

Researchers also studied how the tax affected the prices of likely replacement products if people moved away from buying the taxed items.

“The most important finding is that in the large grocery stores most of the tax is being passed through,” Jones-Smith told The Seattle Times.

More of the tax burden was passed on to consumers in small stores than in larger supermarkets. Small stores passed on 104 percent of the tax to consumers, according to the report. Larger stores passed on 86 percent.

Across all stores, 102 percent of the tax was passed on to consumers on soft drinks, 84 percent on sweetened teas and sports drinks, 63 percent on sugar-sweetened juice drinks and 62 percent on sweetened bottled coffee drinks.

The city implemented the tax to curb residents’ sugary-drink consumption while raising additional funding for city programs. University of Washington researchers are still studying if the tax affected soda consumption.

Seattle collected nearly $17 million more in tax revenue in the first nine months of 2018, and the city is now planning future spending based on that level of revenue, The Seattle Times reports.

Washington voted to ban any new soda taxes in the state in November 2017.

• New Zealand politicians, members of the media, and non-Muslim women embraced displays of Muslim faith Friday in an effort to show solidarity with the country’s Muslim community after the Christchurch shootings. 
• Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern donned a hijab, along with thousands of other non-Muslim women, and recited a passage from the Koran at a ceremony in Hagley Park shortly before the Muslim call to prayer broadcast nationwide, while women news anchors also wore hijabs, newspapers featured a common Arabic greeting on their front pages, and politicians began their addresses in parliament with the same Arabic phrase.
• Despite overwhelming support for the #scarvesinsolidarity campaign, Muslim and non-Muslim critics lambasted it, arguing that hijabs are used to oppress women in Muslim majority countries. 

New Zealand politicians and journalists have all but converted to Islam in their efforts to show solidarity with the Muslim community after the Christchurch shootings.

Thousands of New Zealanders engaged in nationally sanctioned displays of Islamic faith Friday, ranging from the national broadcast of the Islamic call to prayer and non-Muslim women donning hijabs to newspapers running Arabic greetings on their front pages. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, police officers, and news anchors joined in the displays of faith throughout the day.

New Zealand broadcast the Islamic call to prayer at 1:30 p.m. local time nationwide, the time when the attacks began the previous Friday, on both television and radio. Thousands of New Zealanders of various faiths also gathered at Hagley Park and other areas around the country to attend a live call to prayer, followed by two minutes of silence and reflection.

Ardern also recited a passage from the Koran prior to the call to prayer.

Politicians and members of the media also reportedly began their broadcasts and addresses with the Arabic greeting Al Salaam Alaykum.

Some New Zealand newspapers also featured the a version of the greeting on their front pages.

Thaya Ashman, a doctor in Aukland, began the social media campaign #scarvesinsolidarity after the shooting urging non-Muslim women to wear hijabs on Friday as a show of support for the Muslim community.

The campaign garnered massive support throughout the country, with leaders like Ardern wearing a hijab to Hagley Park and thousands of women donning hijabs for ceremonies to commemorate the mosque shooting victims, 50 of whom were killed and several others were hospitalized with wounds. Muslim volunteers even distributed hijabs at the events and helped non-Muslim women don them, according to The Washington Post.

“Why am I wearing a headscarf today? Well, my primary reason was that if anybody else turns up waving a gun, I want to stand between him and anybody he might be pointing it at. And I don’t want him to be able to tell the difference, because there is no difference,” Bell Sibly, a woman in Christchurch, told Reuters.

Women police officers providing security for the ceremonies and later for the burial of the victims also sported hijabs.

A non-Muslim police officer wears hijab while protecting Muslims to show her solidarity.

We are one ?#HeadScarfforHarmony #scarvesinsolidarity pic.twitter.com/6oeLqqICAm

— Islam Channel (@Islamchannel) March 22, 2019

The campaign for non-Muslim women to wear hijabs garnered criticism, however, as hijabs and various other forms of Islamic headwear for women are seen as a form of oppression against women, since wearing them is not optional for women in conservative Muslim communities.

Despite the criticism from Muslims and non-Muslims alike, New Zealand women took to the embrace of conservative Islam with fervor.

“If I could I would be attending the mosque and standing outside to show my support for my Muslim whanau but I’ve got lectures and I can’t really skip them,” college student Kate Workman, who wore a hijab Friday, told The Globe Post.

Other women who wore hijabs, like Rafaela Stoakes, expressed similar sentiments.

“It is amazing how different I felt for the short time I was out this morning,” Stoakes told AFP.

“There were a lot of confused looks and some slightly aggressive ones,” she said. “I did feel a sense of pride to honor my Muslim friends, but I also felt very vulnerable and alone as I was the only person wearing one.”

The majority of service members who earn the Medal of Honor do so during times of conflict, but several recipients earned it for bravery that didn’t have anything to do with war.

Marine Corps Pvt. Albert J. Smith is one of those recipients, and he earned his medal on this day 98 years ago.

Smith was born in Calumet, Michigan, on July 31, 1898, to parents who had emigrated from Austria and Germany. According to the historical society of Schoolcraft County, Michigan, the family eventually moved to a farm in Thompson, Michigan, where Smith spent his childhood helping his father.

Smith was fascinated with flying, so in October 1919, when he was 21, he joined the Marine Corps in hopes of becoming a pilot.

A year later, Smith was stationed at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. It was the only U.S. naval air station during World War I and had been responsible for training 1,000 naval aviators — most of whom were officers — by war’s end.

On Feb. 11, 1921, Smith was on duty as a sentry at the station’s Marine barracks. According to the Michigan newspaper Manistique Pioneer Tribune, two naval machinists were warming up a seaplane when something went wrong, and it took off. The plane came crashing to the ground right near the gate where Smith was posted, and its gas tank exploded, sending fire everywhere.

Smith immediately sprang into action to help Plen Phelps, the one machinist who had been on the aircraft when it took off. Without any concern for his own safety, Smith pushed his way through until he found Phelps pinned under the burning wreckage.

Smith managed to drag the unconscious Phelps out, despite suffering serious burns to his head, neck and hands.

Smith received the Medal of Honor for his actions on Sept. 29, 1921. According to the Tribune, he was presented the medal by the brigadier general who commanded the 1st Marine Aviation Squadron in Santo Domingo in the modern-day Dominican Republic, where Smith was stationed after Pensacola.

Smith’s actions just go to show that service members are ready to come to the rescue at all times. We thank them for that!

This article is part of a weekly series called “Medal of Honor Monday,” in which we highlight one of the more than 3,500 Medal of Honor recipients who have earned the U.S. military’s highest medal for valor.

Dozens of people died after getting lost in Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument because federal regulations prohibited officials from putting directional signs in place, a Utah county commissioner said.

Leland Pollock, the commission chair for Garfield County in Utah, testified in front of Congress Wednesday in favor of President Donald Trump’s decision to roll back the designation of GRENM. The monument, established in 1996 by former President Bill Clinton, has taken an “egregious” toll on human life, Pollock testified.

Garfield County is one of three that contain portions of GSENM within its boundaries.

“The 1996 monument prohibits the most basic signing to direct visitors to and from the Dry Fork slot canyons. In the spring of 2018, an individual died from heat exhaustion after leaving the Dry Fork slot canyons and becoming unable to locate his way back to the parking lot,” Pollock said. “A simple $10 sign could have prevented the loss of life.”

“Reports indicate that in the 20 years the Clinton monument has been in existence more than 50 individuals have lost their lives, largely due to lack of appropriate, low-cost signing. Most of the deficiencies with the Clinton monument can be attributed to overly restrictive regulations which prohibited reasonable visitation management,” Pollock added.

Democratic lawmakers called the hearing “Forgotten Voices: The Inadequate Review and Improper Alteration of Our National Monuments” and focused largely on the Trump administration’s December 2017 cutbacks of two national monuments in Utah, GSENM and Bears Ears.

The hearing, meant to be a reckoning on the review process that resulted in the cutbacks, grew partly into an indictment of the original GSENM designation. The Clinton administration largely kept the decision a secret until it was finalized. The administration sought no public input, nor did it consult with the state’s congressional delegation.

Nicole Croft, executive director of Grand Staircase Escalante Partners, slammed the Trump administration for suspending the monument’s advisory board, though the board had no decision-making authority.

“He suspended the Monument Advisory Committee, which was comprised of locals, stakeholders and BLM leadership, and stopped the committee from discussing issues, addressing management concerns or new approaches, along with BLM management updates. This was exactly the venue for local stakeholder involvement,” Croft testified.

The Green New Deal could cost up to $93 trillion over a decade, according to a new report by the right-leaning American Action Forum (AAF).

That comes to an estimated cost $36,100 to $65,300 per American household per year to meet the Green New Deal’s goals, AAF reported Monday. Those goals include “net-zero” emissions, widespread high-speed rail, guaranteed jobs, universal healthcare and upgrading every building.

Thus, the potential cost of the Green New Deal could range from 63 percent of the median to nearly 106 percent what the average household earns a year. The median U.S. household income was $61,372 in 2017, according to government figures.

AAF looked at what it would cost to achieve the Green New Deal’s main goals. For example, eliminating emissions from the electric grid is estimated to cost $5.4 trillion over ten years. Also, “greening” the U.S. transportation system could cost up to $2.7 trillion, including building out high-speed rail.

Universal health care, on the other hand, would add an estimated $36 trillion in costs to the Green New Deal over a decade — this was included in the proposal despite having nothing to do with the environment.

“The Green New Deal is clearly very expensive,” wrote AAF policy analysts, including economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the former Congressional Budget Office director and adviser to former Arizona Senator John McCain’s 2008 president campaign. Holtz-Eakin is now AAF’s president.

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey to introduce Green New Deal resolutions in early February, calling for overhauling the U.S. economy to get greenhouse gas emissions to “net-zero” within 10 years.

The resolution also calls for a slew of welfare programs, from federal job guarantees to universal healthcare, and for the government to focus on “repairing historic oppression” of certain groups of people.

Ocasio-Cortez said the resolution, though non-binding, was needed to take global warming seriously. In a livestream to supporters Sunday night, Ocasio-Cortez said global warming was “going to kill us” if nothing is done.

Republicans oppose the Green New Deal, seeing it as a massive expansion of government to control almost every aspect of American life.

“The American Action Forum’s analysis shows that the Green New Deal would bankrupt the nation,” Wyoming Senator John Barrasso said in a statement.

“Promising new technologies like advanced nuclear power, carbon capture, and carbon utilization hold the key to significant emissions reductions,” said Barrasso, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public works.

Democrats are divided on support for the Green New Deal, despite support from every Senate Democrat running for president in 2020.

AAA forecasts that more than one-third of Americans will travel this holiday season. The record-breaking 112.5 million travelers taking to the nation’s runways, roads and rails for the year-end holidays represents a 4.4 percent increase over last year and the most since AAA has been tracking holiday travel. For the more than 102 million people who will pack up their cars for a holiday road trip, INRIX, a global mobility analytics company, predicts travel times in the most congested cities in the U.S. could be as much as four times longer than a normal trip.

“‘Tis the season for holiday travel, and more Americans than ever will journey to spend time with friends and family or choose to take a vacation,” said Bryan Shilling, managing director, AAA Travel products and services. “Strong economic growth fueled by robust consumer spending continues to drive strong demand for seasonal travel. With a record-breaking one-third of the country choosing to travel this holiday, roadways and airports are sure to be busy.”

The year-end holiday travel period is defined as Saturday, December 22 through Tuesday, January 1, 2019. The 11-day span is one day longer than last year, due to Christmas and New Year’s Day falling on Tuesdays this year.

By the Numbers: 2018 Year-End Holiday Travel Forecast

• Automobiles: More Americans will travel by car this holiday season than ever before. The 102.1 million people expected to pack up their cars for road trips is 4.4 percent higher than last year. It is the most since AAA began tracking holiday travel in 2001.
• Planes: The 6.7 million people who will travel by air this year is the highest level since in 15 years and is 4.2 percent more than last year.
• Trains, Buses and Cruise Ships: Travel across these sectors will increase by 4 percent, with a total 3.7 million passengers.

Holiday Hotspots
Based on historical and recent travel trends, INRIX expects drivers to experience the greatest amount of congestion before the holiday week – starting on Wednesday, December 19 – as commuters and holiday travelers mix on our nation’s busiest roadways. Drivers in Atlanta, New York City, Boston and Houston will see travel times more than three times a normal trip.

“With a record-level number of travelers hitting the road this holiday, drivers must be prepared for delays in major metro areas – with Thursday, December 20 being the nation’s worst day to travel,” says Trevor Reed, transportation analyst at INRIX. “Our advice is to avoid traveling during peak commuting hours. If schedules allow, leave bright and early, or after the morning commute.”

City	Worst Day to Travel	Worst Time for Travel	Delay Multiplier
Atlanta	Saturday, Dec. 22	3:00 – 4:00 PM	4x
New York City	Thursday, Dec. 20	9:30 – 10:30 PM	3.75x
Boston	Wednesday, Dec. 19	3:30 – 4:30 PM	3.5x
Houston	Wednesday, Dec. 19	12:15 – 1:15 PM	3.25x
Detroit	Monday, Dec. 24	2:00 – 3:00 PM	3x
Seattle	Wednesday, Dec. 19	4:00 – 6:00 PM	2.25x
Chicago	Monday, Dec. 24	1:30 – 2:30 PM	2.25x
Los Angeles	Thursday, Dec. 20	2:30 – 3:30 PM	2x
San Francisco	Friday, Dec. 21	4:15 – 5:15 PM	1.25x
Washington, DC	Thursday, Dec. 20	1:15 – 2:15 PM	2.75x
			Source: INRIX

Falling Gas Prices Motivating More Holiday Travelers to Drive
While gas has been relatively expensive throughout this year, a recent drop to the cheapest national gas price averages of the year, combined with rising disposable income, is motivating more Americans to hit the road this holiday season. Gas prices averaged $2.46 for the first week of December, which is two cents per gallon less than one year ago.

Best Times to Fly and Book Christmas Flights
An analysis of AAA’s flight booking data from the last three years revealed that most holiday air travelers depart two or three days before Christmas and return the day after the holiday. This holiday season, Saturday, December 22, Sunday, December 23 and Wednesday, December 26 will be the busiest days in the skies and at the airports. Fewer holiday travelers choose to fly on Christmas Eve (Monday, December 24) and Christmas Day (Tuesday, December 25), which are the lightest travel days around the Christmas holiday.

Day	3-Year Average Ticket Price	Expected Crowds
Saturday (Dec. 22, 2018)	$590	Heavy
Sunday (Dec. 23, 2018)	$564	Heavy
Monday (Dec. 24, 2018)	$512	Light
Tuesday (Dec. 25, 2018)	$564	Light
Wednesday (Dec. 26, 2018)	$666	Heavy

Most travelers booked their Christmas flights between October 26 and November 27, paying an average ticket price of $561 roundtrip. Last-minute planners who book between December 12-18 this year can expect to pay the lowest average airfares, at $488. However, those travelers risk encountering limited availability and their preferred flights may already be sold out.

Car Rental Costs Reach 10-Year High, Hotel Prices Mixed
Holiday road trippers should budget slightly more for a rental car this year, as daily rates have increased 3 percent over last year. At $76, the daily average car rental rate this holiday season is the most expensive in 10 years. Travelers will also pay a bit more at AAA Two Diamond hotels, where prices are 1 percent more than last year, or $122 per night. Conversely, the average rate for AAA Three Diamond hotels has fallen 3 percent to an average nightly cost of $152.

Top 10 Year-End Travel Destinations
Warm-weather destinations are top draws in the winter months, occupying nine of the top 10 spots on the list of most popular holiday destinations, based on AAA’s online and travel agency air and tour bookings. The major cruise ports of Fort Lauderdale and Miami have both gained in popularity compared with last year, on the heels of a strong year for cruise sales. Meanwhile, New York City, the only cold-weather destination to make the top 10, can also expect a growing influx of travelers this holiday season.

1. Orlando, Florida
2. Cancun, Mexico
3. Anaheim, California (Disneyland)
4. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
5. Montego Bay, Jamaica
6. Honolulu, Hawaii
7. New York, New York
8. Kahului, Hawaii (Maui)
9. Fort Lauderdale, Florida
10. Miami, Florida

The official response of the Obama administration to the recent beheading of two Americans in Syria by ISIS has been muddled at best. The often timid and tepid statements by various White House spokesman, the State Department, and even the President himself in response to these specific tragedies and the general threats poised by ISIS have been vague, confusing, contradictory, and sometimes downright silly. (You do know that the members of ISIS are Muslims right? The White House apparently isn’t even sure on that one.)

Though the sharpness of the rhetoric by both Obama and Secretary of State Kerry has increased somewhat in the last day or two, only very limited airstrikes have been carried out over the last few weeks and in a stunning statement Obama admitted that his administration has ‘no strategy yet’ for dealing with the ISIS strongholds and bases of power in Syria. And according to the State Department ISIS isn’t even at war with the US. Tell that to James Foley and Steven Sotloff and the blasted to bits ISIS fighters around the Mosul dam. Very similar statements were made in regards to pre 9-11 Al Qaeda, and the seeming hesitancy to acknowledge the truth of the situation by the current administration is somewhat disturbing.

In stark contrast to the muddling mediocrity oozing from Washington, potential presidential wannabe Vice President Joe Biden took to the road, and took it upon himself, to take a very hard stand against ISIS in regards to their latest outrages against the civilized world.

Biden on Wednesday delivered a fiery response to the killing of American journalist Steven Sotloff, calling ISIS barbarians and letting them know that the U.S. will “follow them to the gates of hell.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X495NDYvvmI

…They somehow think that it’s going to lessen U.S. resolve, frighten us, intimidate us. But, if they think the American people will be intimidated, they don’t know us very well…

…The American people are so much stronger, so much more resolved than any enemy can fully understand…

…When people harm Americans, we don’t retreat. We don’t forget.  We take care of those who are grieving, and when that’s finished, they should know, we will follow them to the gates of hell until they are brought to justice. Because hell is where they will reside. Hell is where they will reside.

With the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination in his hoped for future, this speech may be the first breakout attempt by Joe Biden to distance himself from the many failed policies and numerous disappointments of the Obama administration and appear more in line with public opinion and outrage. Can you imagine Barack Obama saying or acting like this in regards to an enemy other than House Republicans or Fox News? The taint of the Obama era is not something you want sticking with you if you going to run for president, and it will be a burden to either a Clinton or Biden candidacy.

This may be the new face of a new Biden who sounded more like a Bush-era neocon evoking 9-11 and bin Laden than a ranking member of an administration that ran and won a campaign based on abandoning Iraq at our earliest convenience. We are seeing the results of that failed Obama/Biden campaign pledge and policy play out now before our eyes and it appears that ‘Crazy Uncle Joe’ is trying to get ahead of the entire issue by going out, talking tough, and being his own man.  Any way you look at it, he is articulating and peddling something that sounds significantly different from the official vacillating White House line.

If you find the preparation of live lobsters a daunting one, do not fret as they are really easy to make. Approaching live lobsters should be like approaching corn on the cob – all you need to do is place the product in boiling water and wait for them to cook. The process will take approximately thirty minutes in total when using these step-by-step instructions. It is incredibly simple using a quick tutorial to cook lobster tails and using this guideline you will be able to serve the gourmet lobster for dinner without difficulty!

Step #1: Buy A Fresh Lobster

Lobster is one of the rare food products that need to be cooked from a live state. When purchasing a live lobster, it is essential that you purchase the item from a reliable source and that the lobster is alive when purchased (they are still moving). If you lift a lobster and the tail curls under the body, then the lobster is alive – check for this before paying for the item.

The most well-known type of lobster in the US is the Maine lobster because of their sweet meat. While they are available all year, Maine lobster tends to be more affordable during the spring and summer months. A live lobster generally presents with a mottle green-blue-brown appearance and this needs to be checked before purchase. It is also recommended that you buy the lobster on the day you plan to cook it storing it in seawater or wrapped in a wet cloth over ice in the fridge until cooking.

A top tip when buying a lobster is to purchase a one-pound lobster per person being served. A single lobster tends to provide five to six ounces of meat per serving.

Step #2: Preparation And Boiling Lobsters

For two one-pound lobster, you should bring eight-quarts of salt water to boil in a large twenty-quart kettle with a lid. The size of the kettle or canning pot is vital because the lobster needs to fit in the pot when the lid is closed. Hold the lobster behind the eyes and run it under cold water, then plunge the lobster head-first into the boiling salt water and cover the pot.

Boil for fifteen minutes exactly beginning timing as soon as the lobster enters the water; however, heat may need to be adjusted to maintain a steady boiling temperature. For a larger lobster, you may need to increase the boiling time. Once the boiling has been completed, drain the lobsters.

A top tip when boiling lobsters is that the lobster turns bright red and the tail turns underneath the body when finished; however, you can also pull off legs or long antennae. Legs and antennae should be removed easily when a lobster is boiled correctly.

Step #3: Removing The Meat

When the lobster is cool enough to handle, place it on its back and remove the tail by twisting the body and tail in opposite directions. Using kitchen scissors remove the membrane from the lobster tail and expose the meat. Remove and discord the black vein running throughout the tail and then take the meat from the tail.

Meat from the claws can be removed by pulling the claw meat from the shell with a small tug. Twist the large claws from the body to remove them and break the claw open with a nutcracker. Crack the shell on the remaining body and remove the lobster meat using a small fork.

The video below also shows you how to prepare perfect lobster tails on the grill for July 4th.

By Jeff Szymanski, AMAC

Yoga classes for bureaucrats. Brown snake eradication program. Congressional pensions. Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund. Those are actual lines in recent federal budgets totaling $150,000, $668,000, $38 million, and $65 million respectively.

All are “chump change” compared to $363 billion (with a “b”) to be spent this year on interest on the debt. That’s $53 billion higher than last year, a 17% increase. Interest payments are now 8% of the budget and increasing, crowding out vital programs and priorities.

What do Americans get for $363 billion? Absolutely nothing. Interest is the price paid for decades of spending beyond revenues, as finance charges on credit cards pay for privileges to spend beyond one’s income.

The federal budget deficit will hit $984 billion for the year ending September 30 and could top $1 trillion. Add interest to spending on the four largest programs— Social Security, Defense/Veterans, Medicare, and Medicaid, and you reach 82 percent of the entire budget. These are precisely the programs politicians say must not be touched. Even Social Security, self-funded through payroll taxes, ran a deficit in 2018. That will continue until it reaches insolvency in 2034. Past surpluses are allowing it to continue without benefit cuts now.

What if you eliminated every item other than “The Big Four”? While no one would advocate that, you still could not reach balance. And “everything else” is a lot—air traffic controllers, parks, disease research, FBI, and federal courts and prisons, to list a pittance of programs and agencies. The Congressional Budget Office projects the U.S. will pay more in interest to service debt than it will spend on Defense in five years.

All past deficits equal today’s $22 trillion national debt, $66,000 for every citizen and $178,000 per taxpayer. Tax cuts, wars, and economic stimulus have each added trillions. Both parties deserve blame.

The insanity cannot continue much longer. Consider a mortgage where a borrower pays interest only and keeps passing the loan down generation to generation such that no one pays back principal. What bank would ever agree to never getting its money? Or, picture lending money to an individual or business that comes back for more funds each year. At some point, any sane person would fear not getting back what was lent (let alone interest owed) and put a stop to further lending.

Creditors of the U.S. government will reach the same conclusion. Fully 45 percent of debt held by the public is owned by foreign investors. China is the largest single holder. Creditors will demand higher interest rates as the risk increases to loan the U.S. money. The catastrophe to our entire financial system will be when investors simply have no confidence in lending to the U.S. government at all.

What then? “Then” is too late.  AMAC advocates for reducing federal spending now and has even taken the tough but necessary stand to preserve and modernize Social Security. AMAC now calls for the creation of a fund to eliminate the debt and strengthen our nation.

First, Congress and the President must do their part and balance the budget. That stops adding to the $22 trillion. Second, citizens can do their part. The debt cannot be eliminated in years or even decades. But we can start with “America’s Security Fund”.

AMAC urges America’s Fortune 500 companies help save the country. A “we didn’t cause this problem” is no excuse. As an integral part of the economy, companies must be involved. If each contributed $1 million, $500 million would be collected. A $2 million contribution yields $1 billion. Individuals could contribute on tax forms with an added line.

Contributions to “America’s Security Fund” would not be tax deductible and could be spent for debt reduction only after the federal budget is balanced. The fund would be overseen by a Board, chaired by the Treasury Secretary and prominent Americans from the public and private sectors, academia, unions, large corporations, and business.

Publicity is vital. Research shows people donate to causes if they know others are doing so. AMAC will inform its membership. We look to government, civic and religious groups, and businesses to aid in this enterprise. America’s future depends on it.