From the “Free Press” today, Monday February 17, 2025

“Niall Ferguson: J.D. Vance Picked a Fight in Germany. Will He Get One in China?”

“The United States has a world-spanning array of overseas commitments and a defense budget exceeding $850 billion by some measures. It also has a debt that exceeds $28 trillion, which costs $881 billion a year in interest. This means that for the first time since the 1920s it is in breach of Ferguson’s Law, which states any great power that spends more on debt servicing than on defense risks ceases to be a great power. (More on this in a forthcoming essay.)” See the below link for more on  Ferguson’s Law.

https://www.hoover.org/sites/default/files/research/docs/HAHWGWorkingPaper-202501-Ferguson%27s%20Law.pdf

We are walking past the graveyard not addressing our profligate spending that is generating our deficits, which can’t be fixed with taxes. Both parties refuse to address the cost of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, although for different reasons.

As much as I dislike Trump’s “transactional” fireworks of ideas and disrespectful attitude towards those who disagree with him, cutting spending is in his top goals.

I also like the others: Border security and deporting all those with expired visas, criminal prosecutions, deportation orders, pressuring “sanctuary cities with a threat of reduced funding, etc.; Pressuring Europe to stand up and spend money on defense so we don’t have to spend as much;  Driving out DEI, woke cancellations of speech, boys in girls sports, etc.; and lastly pushing school choice-teachers must be held accountable for the progress of students towards numeracy and literacy that ranks in the top of the globe.

Peace

Braver Angels and No Labels