Implosion (41 page)

[198]
Charles Riley, “Fed: Household Down 23% in 2 Years,” CNN Money, March 28, 2011,
http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/24/pf/financial_crisis_outcome/index.htm
.

[199]
See chart, “Annual Business and Non-business Filings by Year (1980–2009),” American Bankruptcy Institute,
http://www.abiworld.org/AM/AMTemplate.cfm?Section=Home&CONTENTID=63164&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm
; also, John Hartgen, “Consumer Bankruptcy Filings Increase 9 Percent in 2010,” American Bankruptcy Institute, January 3, 2011,
http://www.abiworld.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=62756
.

[200]
Richard McCormack, “The Plight of American Manufacturing,”
The American Prospect
, December 21, 2009,
http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_plight_of_american_manufacturing
.

[201]
Blake Ellis, “Food Stamp Use Rises to Record 45.8 Million,” CNN Money, August 4, 2011,
http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/04/pf/food_stamps_record_high/index.htm
.

[202]
See Office of Management and Budget, “Fiscal Year 2012 Historical Tables: Budget of the U.S. Government,” p. 5,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2012/assets/hist.pdf
.

[203]
Ibid.

[204]
Ibid., p. 22.

[205]
See Congressional Budget Office,
The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2010 to 2020
, January 2010, Table F-1, “Historical Budget Data: Revenues, Outlays, Deficits, Surpluses, and Debt Held by the Public, 1970 to 2009, in Billions of Dollars,”
http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/108xx/doc10871/AppendixF.shtml#1096834
.

[206]
Ibid., Table F-2, “Revenues, Outlays, Deficits, Surpluses, and Debt Held by the Public, 1970 to 2009, as a Percentage of Gross Domestic Product.”

[207]
Ibid., Table F-1.

[208]
Ibid., Table F-2.

[209]
Cited by Katrina Trinko, “Obama: Not Always a Fan of Upping Debt Ceiling,” National Review Online, January 3, 2011,
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/256199/obama-not-always-fan-upping-debt-ceiling-katrina-trinko
.

[210]
See Congressional Budget Office,
The Budget and Economic Outlook
, Table F-1,
http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/108xx/doc10871/AppendixF.shtml#1096834
.

[211]
See “Debt Position and Activity Report,” U.S. Department of the Treasury, November 30, 2011,
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/pd_debtposactrpt_1111.pdf
.

[212]
See Patrick Tyrrell, “U.S. Debt Now Surpasses 2010 GDP,”
The Foundry
(blog), Heritage Foundation, August 5, 2011,
http://blog.heritage.org/2011/08/05/us-debt-now-surpasses-2010-gdp/
; see also “U.S. Debt Reaches 100 Percent of Country’s GDP,” FoxNews.com, August 4, 2011,
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/04/us-debt-reaches-100-percent-countrys-gdp/
.

[213]
Andrew Malcolm, “New National Debt Data: It’s Growing about $3 Million a Minute, Even During His Vacation,”
Top of the Ticket
(blog),
Los Angeles Times
, August 23, 2011,
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/08/obama-national-debt.html
.

[214]
One trillion seconds is 31,688 years; see “Billions & Trillions,” DefeatTheDebt.com, Employment Policies Institute,
http://www.defeatthedebt.com/understanding-the-national-debt/millions-billions-trillions/
.

[215]
Ibid.

[216]
Ibid. There are about 500 billion stars in the Milky Way; see April Holladay, “Seeing the Milky Way and Counting Its Stars,” January 2, 2006,
USA Today
,
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/aprilholladay/2006-01-02-milky-way_x.htm
.

[217]
Ibid.

[218]
Ibid.

[219]
See Paul Ryan, “The Democrats’ Spending Spree,” House Budget Committee fact sheet, February 3, 2011,
http://budget.house.gov/UploadedFiles/spendingspree.pdf
.

[220]
See Paul Wiseman, “U.S. Downgrade Raises Anxiety, If Not Interest Rates,” Associated Press, August 6, 2011; see also George E. Condon Jr., “What a Week: Afghan Deaths, S&P, and Debt Limit Debate Challenge Obama,”
National Journal
, August 6, 2011,
http://www.nationaljournal.com/whitehouse/what-a-week-afghan-deaths-s-p-and-debt-limit-debate-challenge-obama-20110806
.

[221]
Zachary A. Goldfarb, “S&P Downgrades U.S. Credit Rating for First Time,”
Washington Post
, August 5, 2011,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/sandp-considering-first-downgrade-of-us-credit-rating/2011/08/05/gIQAqKeIxI_story.html
.

[222]
Ashe Schow, “Our Debt Has Reached 100% of GDP,”
Heritage Action
(blog), Heritage Action for America, August 4, 2011,
http://heritageaction.com/2011/08/our-debt-has-reached-100-of-gdp/
.

[223]
See Congressional Budget Office,
Federal Debt and Interest Costs: A CBO Study
, December 2010, p. 20,
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/119xx/doc11999/12-14-FederalDebt.pdf
; see also Brian Riedl, “CBO Baseline Shows Staggering Debt,” National Review Online, January 26, 2011,
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/258115/cbo-baseline-shows-staggering-debt-brian-riedl
; see also Paul Ryan’s comments on ABC News: “Look at these numbers. We are going to have a $25 trillion dollar debt in ten years.” Jonathan Karl and Gregory Simmons, “ABC News Exclusive: eet the Budget Boss, Rep. Paul Ryan,” ABC News, January 26,2011,
http://paulryan.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=221696
.

[224]
Paul Ryan, “A Roadmap for America’s Future,” House Budget Committee, introduction,
http://www.roadmap.republicans.budget.house.gov/Plan/#Intro
.

[225]
Ibid.

[226]
These statistics come from the Board of Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance Trust Funds. See Wade Dokken,
New Century, New Deal: How to Turn Your Wages into Wealth through Social Security Choice
(Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2000), p. 62.

[227]
“Abortion Statistics: United States Data and Trends,” National Right to Life, January 27, 2011,
http://www.nrlc.org/Factsheets/FS03_AbortionInTheUS.pdf
.

[228]
See “Combined OASDI Trust Funds,” Congressional Budget Office fact sheet, March 2010,
http://www.cbo.gov/budget/factsheets/2010b/OASDI-TrustFunds.pdf
. For more, see “A Summary of the 2011 Annual Reports,” Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees,
http://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/index.html
.

[229]
Stuart Butler et al., “Saving the American Dream: The Heritage Plan to Fix the Debt, Cut Spending, and Restore Prosperity,” The Heritage Foundation, Special Report #91, May 10, 2011, chart 2, “Hiking Taxes to Pay for Entitlements Would Require Doubling Tax Rates,”
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2011/05/Saving-the-American-Dream-The-Heritage-Plan-to-Fix-the-Debt-Cut-Spending-and-Restore-Prosperity
.

[230]
Ibid.

[231]
Ryan, “A Roadmap for America’s Future,” introduction,
http://www.roadmap.republicans.budget.house.gov/Plan/#Intro
.

[232]
Ryan, “A Roadmap for America’s Future,” “Reforming the Budget Process” section,
http://www.roadmap.republicans.budget.house.gov/Plan/#budgetreform
.

[233]
See Butler et al., “Saving the American Dream.” The Heritage Plan quotes CBO projections extensively.

[234]
J. T. Young, “The Road to Greece,”
Barron’s
, January 22, 2011,
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424052970203676504575618561763058500.html
.

[235]
Ibid.

[236]
Ibid.

[237]
Cited by James Pethokoukis, “So How Goes Bin Laden’s War on the U.S. Economy?”
U.S. News & World Report
, September 11, 2007.

[238]
Ibid.

[239]
Cited by Randall B. Hamud,
Osama bin Laden: America’s Enemy in His Own Words
, (San Diego, CA: Nadeem Publishing, 2005), pp. 163–164.

[240]
Cited in “Ahmadinejad: Doom Will Befall U.S. Economy,” Press TV, April 23, 2008.

[241]
Cited in “Iran Threatens to Close Strait of Hormuz if Attacked,” MEMRI, Special Dispatch #2029, August 19, 2008.

[242]
I first heard these five vital interests defined clearly and effectively when I worked at the Heritage Foundation in the early 1990s. I’m grateful to my Heritage mentors on national security: Edwin Feulner Jr., Burton Yale Pines, Kim Holmes, and Jim Phillips. Along these lines, I would commend to your attention the following recent Heritage report outlining threats against the U.S. and how best to defend against them—“A Strong National Defense: The Armed Forces America Needs and What They Will Cost,” April 5, 2011,
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/04/a-strong-national-defense-the-armed-forces-america-needs-and-what-they-will-cost
.

[243]
“Putin Threatens to Aim Rockets at U.S. Bases,” Associated Press, February 14, 2008,
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23162722/ns/world_news-europe/t/putin-threatens-aim-rockets-us-bases/
.

[244]
Alena Chechel et al., “Putin Denounces American Parasite While Russia Increases Treasuries 1,600%,” Bloomberg, August 19, 2011,
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-18/putin-slams-u-s-parasite-after-1-600-jump-in-russia-holdings.html
.

[245]
For more details, see my book
Epicenter
(Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2006, 2008).

[246]
Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev famously vowed to the American people, “We will bury you.” For more details, see the Pulitzer Prize–winning book by William Taubman,
Khrushchev: The Man and His Era
(New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004).

[247]
For more, see “Modernisation in Sheep’s Clothing,”
Banyan
(blog),
The Economist
, August 26, 2011,
http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2011/08/chinas-military-power
.

[248]
See Miles Yu, “Inside China: Spy Chief on Chinese Threat,”
Washington Times
, June 8, 2011,
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jun/8/inside-china-408425229/
.

[249]
Patrick Tyler, “As China Threatens Taiwan, It Makes Sure U.S. Listens,”
New York Times
, January 24, 1996,
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/24/world/as-china-threatens-taiwan-it-makes-sure-us-listens.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm
.

[250]
Joseph Kahn, “Chinese General Threatens Use of A-Bombs If U.S. Intrudes,”
New York Times
, July 15, 2005,
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/15/international/asia/15china.html
.

[251]
For more details on the Iranian threat, see my book
Inside the Revolution
(Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2009).

[252]
“Tehran Threatens West with Homicide Attacks,” Fox News, April 16, 2006,
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,191910,00.html
. Marie Colvin et al., “Iran Suicide Bombers ‘Ready to Hit Britain,’”
The Sunday Times of London
, April 16, 2006,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article706132.ece
. “Iran: We Have 70,000 Suicide Bombers Ready to Strike Israel,” Associated Press, January 5, 2009,
http://www.haaretz.com/news/iran-we-have-70-000-suicide-bombers-ready-to-strike-israel-1.267497
.

[253]
John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed,
Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think
(New York: Gallup Press, 2008), pp. x–xi.

[254]
According to a 2007 Pew Research Center poll, 28 percent of Egyptian Muslims say they believe suicide bombings against civilian targets are sometimes or often justified; 17 percent of Turkish Muslims agree, along with 10 percent of Indonesian Muslims, 14 percent of Pakistani Muslims, 29 percent of Jordanian Muslims, and 46 percent of Nigerian Muslims. See Andrew Kohut, “Muslims in America: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream,” Pew Research Center, May 22, 2007,
http://pewresearch.org/assets/pdf/muslim-americans.pdf
, accessed June 24, 2008.

[255]
George Tenet,
At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA
(New York: Harper Collins, 2007), p. 260, citing a
Time
article from December 24, 1998.

[256]
Ibid., p. 269.

[257]
See Sheikh Nasir bin Hamd al-Fahd, “A Treatise on the Legal Status of Using Weapons of Mass Destruction Against the Infidels,” May 1, 2003; cited by Tenet, p. 274.

[258]
Tenet, pp. 259–260.

[259]
Porter Goss, interview with the author, February 12, 2008.

[260]
“Mullen: Debt Is Top National Security Issue,” CNN, August 27, 2010,
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-08-27/us/debt.security.mullen_1_pentagon-budget-national-debt-michael-mullen?_s=PM:US
.

[261]
See Elizabeth MacDonald, “U.S. Debt a National Security Issue,” Fox Business, October 11, 2010,
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2010/10/11/debt-national-security-issue/
.