California – it’s one of the top states in the nation for lots of things, like gas prices, traffic, and blackouts. Visit California, and get a little glimpse into the future of any socialist nation.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s floated potential run for the White House in 2028 was likely thwarted by his handling of the anti-ICE riots gripping Los Angeles, conservative social media critics predict.

Newsom has been floated as a likely 2028 Democratic contender for the White House as he wraps up his second term as governor in 2026. Riots plaguing the city in response to the Trump administration’s efforts to remove illegal immigrants residing in Los Angeles, which come on the heels of massive wildfires that rocked southern California this winter, have left Newsom on precarious political ground, according to conservatives who are balking at his response to the LA chaos.

“Gavin Newsom’s odds of clinching the 2028 presidential race are practically nonexistent,” X user Angela Belcamino posted Monday. “Across the country, Americans are eyeing California’s struggles under his watch, convinced he’d unleash the same chaos nationwide if he ever won the White House.”

“Gavin Newsom’s handling of the LA riots should be considered an in-kind contribution to the @JDVance 2028 presidential campaign. Newsom is providing a lot of ad material for free,” one social media account posted on Sunda

“Notice how Newsom has no adverse commentary about the rioters – he saves all his venom for American authorities,” author and retired Army Col. James Hutton posted to X Sunday. “This is why he has no chance to be president one day. Most Americans tend to believe in this country.”

Many critics of the riots unfolding in Los Angeles argued that photos of the scene would live in infamy and dash any hopes Newsom may hold on running for president. Some users remarked that the photos depicting rioters surrounded by flames and smoke while waving a Mexican flag “will cost Newsom his 2028 presidential run,” and that the Trump administration couldn’t have asked for better” representation of California politics captured in photos.

Emma Colton, FoxNews

The communist behind the “organic” riots in Los Angeles and across the country are being funded by Neville Singham, according to DataRepublican and Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna.

Neville Singham is the man funding these riots. It’s not about illegal Hispanics. They’re just using them for propaganda. They are actual Communists. TY for the deep dive.

Hundreds took to the streets this weekend: blocking roads, attacking federal officers, even burning flags. But this wasn’t “spontaneous outrage.” This was organized. Funded. Coordinated. Here’s a breakdown of the groups, the money, and the people pulling the strings. Patience as I assemble the thread and verify information in real time

Hundreds took to the streets this weekend: blocking roads, attacking federal officers, even burning flags. But this wasn’t “spontaneous outrage.”

This was organized. Funded. Coordinated.

Here’s a breakdown of the groups, the money, and the people pulling the strings.

***Support The Liberty Daily and Mike Lindell — use code TLD at MyPillow.com and get up to 66% off!***

A number of NGOs have been implicated in this. Foremost is Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights or CHIRLA, and the photos of signs show they were printed by PSLWEB / Party for Socialism and Liberation.

CHIRLA has the EIN of 954421521. Most of its private funding appears to be from DAFs, which are the hardest to trace. However 34 million of its reported 45 million in revenue are from government grants.

In their most recent year, CHIRLA jumped from 12 million to 34 million in government grants. Nice!

However, this is probably from CA – “only” 450K in federal grants.

J.D. Rucker, Liberty Daily

President Trump went there!

Trump posted a video titled, “The Video Hillary Clinton Does Not Want You to See” that documented just some of the mysterious ‘suicides’ linked to the Clinton Crime family.

The video touched on the deaths of John F. Kennedy Jr., DNC staffer Seth Rich, Clinton White House Counsel Vince Foster, Clinton White House intern Mary Mahoney, and others connected to the Clintons.

In July 1999, Hillary Clinton’s senate rival and front-runner for NY senate seat John F. Kennedy Jr. died in a plane crash.

Mary Mahoney was a Clinton White House intern who could have been a star witness at the Clinton impeachment trials. She was executed at a DC Starbucks in July 1997.

In July 1993, White House Counsel Vince Foster was found dead of an apparent ‘suicide’ in Fort Marcy Park off the George Washington Parkway in Virginia.

In 1998, James McDougal, a key witness for White House prosecutors and financial partners with Bill and Hillary Clinton that led to the Whitewater scandal, died of cardiac arrest at the Federal Correctional Facility in Fort Worth, Texas, just before he was supposed to testify.

In 2015, Clinton White House Executive Chef Walter Scheib died of an ‘accidental drowning’ after he went on a hike on a trail in Taos, New Mexico. Scheib’s body was found submerged “in a mountain drainage flowing with surface runoff.”

In July 2016, DNC staffer Seth Rich was shot and killed in DC while he was walking home from a bar. It is believed that Seth Rich was the source of the Hillary Clinton/ DNC leaked emails published by Wikileaks. The Clinton/DNC emails published by Wikileaks greatly damaged Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.

In August 2016, Shawn Lucas, a Bernie Sanders supporter who sued the DNC for rigging the pri

Christina Laila, Gateway Pundit

One of the great things about the Internet Age is the opportunity to discover the words and ideas of people who don’t have publishing contracts or university tenures.  Usually written anonymously or under online handles, there is genius lurking everywhere (even in the comment sections of these articles).

One such jewel caught my eye recently: “Imagine a government operated so poorly they had to import an entire nation of new voters because they lost the citizen vote.”  Another argued, “If your country has enough money to give to other countries, your taxes are too high.”  If our celebrity intellectuals were as pithy as some of the unknown writers who drop pearls across the Internet, critical thinking skills would return to America in no time.

Both those observations above masterfully capture our predicament, don’t they?  Now that the USAID scandal has pierced the public’s consciousness, people from all walks of life are admitting that the U.S. government is little more than a money laundering operation for political and financial elites.  Congress creates spending bills that award trillions of dollars to bureaucratic agencies, “non-governmental” organizations, and foreign governments.  Agency employees take their cut, promise fidelity to the federal Leviathan, and allocate the rest to well-connected private businesses and third parties.  The NGOs take their cut, bribe voters and special interest groups, and advocate on behalf of the government and wealthy political donors.  Foreign governments take their cut, hand over their countries’ natural resources to multinational conglomerates, and start or manage wars that benefit the military-industrial complex.  

Spending bills include funds for NPR, PBS, and countless other state-funded propaganda organs — both inside and outside of the U.S. — so that an army of liars exists to parrot the federal government’s preferred “narratives.”  These “narratives” are monetized to enrich corporate firms and further empower central banks.  Endless stories about “climate change” justify new carbon taxes, central bank digital currencies, and the nationalization of entire industries.  Endless stories about why Americans should fight and die for a corrupt Ukrainian dictatorship justify new defense spending.  Endless stories about emerging pandemics justify lockdowns, censorship, and billions more for Big Pharma’s gene-altering “vaccines.”  At every step of the way, the Federal Reserve is ready to leverage its power over the U.S. government by conjuring new money with its magic wand that can be used to pay for all these boondoggles, unwinnable wars, and expensive misadventures.

In turn, the companies, banks, and financial elites who most benefit from the U.S. government’s money tree never forget to tip the politicians who allow the great American money laundering operation to continue.  Whereas the rest of us go to prison for profiting from insider trading, politicians (and their families and friends) get obscenely wealthy.  They invest in defense stocks before starting wars, invest in pharmaceutical stocks before releasing Wuhan bioweapons into the world, and invest in “green energy” companies before passing laws that subsidize solar panels, wind farms, and electric vehicles.  Politicians start family foundations that attract a remarkable array of “charitable” donors from the very industries that those politicians regulate, as well as from a slew of prominent foreign officials currying favor with the United States.  When those politicians run for re-election, they find that the same multinational corporations that benefit from the federal government’s regulatory and spending priorities are first in line to write new campaign checks.  

The Federal Reserve prints money; Congress sends that money to corporations, foreign governments, and special interests; and the people who profit in the real world send a cut of their new wealth back to the politicians.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  As another witty yet anonymous writer has observed online, “Statistically, a gun is much less likely to be used in a crime than a member of Congress.”

When enough people notice that the government’s various con games only make the rich richer, the poor poorer, the world more dangerous, and the country less safe, the corrupt corporate news media and the corrupt politicians announce together that the time has come for mass amnesty for illegal aliens.  As the social critic quoted above says, the Establishment Class simply “imports” new voters whenever American citizens see through the federal government’s scams and attempt to rein in its criminal misbehavior.

Congress and the Federal Reserve have been printing and spending money for more than a century.  The results have been devastating: inflation only increases; the value of the dollar only decreases; and the national debt only gets worse.  Generations of Americans have screamed, “Stop spending money that you don’t have.”  And the private bankers who use the Fed as a money spigot scream back, “Sorry, we can’t hear you over the sound of our money-printing machines.” 

When forced to explain the “virtues” of paper fiat currencies and central banking (i.e., banking that does not operate according to the natural mathematics of free markets), the bankers talk about all the “glorious” things that their funny money has been able to buy.  Neither WWI nor WWII could have lasted more than a few months without infusions of cash created out of thin air.  The enormous defense budgets over the last century would not have been possible without central banks quietly taxing citizens through inflation.  Without printing more money, governments would never have been able to create the cradle-to-grave welfare state that exists today. 

So, you see, if central bankers didn’t manipulate currency markets, there’s no way governments could afford to dabble in endless wars or take care of their impoverished citizens who no longer have any savings because of the diminishing value of their paper bills.  Here’s the good news for Americans desperate to earn a living: the war machine is always hiring.  If you make it out alive, government-run healthcare can treat your injuries and PTSD.  If you don’t, then the government saves a lot of money.  Hmm, do you suppose this is why D.C. politicians and warmongering pundits are so willing to send servicemembers into harm’s way without coherent battle plans, strategic objectives, or mission prioritization for their lives?

After all, if the federal government and its corporate friends need people to pick crops and fix things, they’ll just import new voters.  It’s what criminal enterprises do!

Someone on Twitter also asked me why I never criticize Trump. The answer is simple. I spent four years from 2016 to 2020 not only criticizing Trump but actively trying to bring him down. I was fully on board with Russiagate. I marched in the Women’s March. I went along with the lie that the Access Hollywood tape proved he was a sexual assaulter (though deep down I knew that was not true).

For the last ten years, there has been nothing but criticism of Trump day in and day out, 24/7, every second of every day. Do I think Trump was on Epstein Island? No, he’s already been cleared of it. If they had that kind of dirt on him, they surely would have used it. Instead, they had to try to frame him to impeach him, to vote him out. They raided Mar-a-Lago. They indicted him four times.

The reason I don’t waste my time criticizing him is that I support and vote for the Trump I know exists – the whole Trump. The good Trump, the bad Trump. The guy who says things he shouldn’t, the guy who might be in over his head with Putin. The flaws are part of the deal. This is like voting for a Great White Shark, saying, “Why don’t you care that he eats baby seals?”

Why don’t I care? Because I care more about ending “gender affirming care” and biological men playing in sports. I care about how the billionaire class has gutted America and the reliance on slave labor overseas. I like that Trump is strong enough to face all of this down and try to do something about it in the short time he has in office.

Why would I waste a second of that time criticizing him? What more can possibly be said by now? I went into my support willingly. If he did something I thought was unforgivable, I would say something. I am not in the “Trump cult.” There isn’t a “Trump cult.” Some people are fiercely loyal and protective of him because they watched him almost get shot in the head on live television. They love him but it isn’t a cult.

A cult would mean everyone takes the vaccine when Trump says to take it. That didn’t happen. A cult means everyone is commanded to obey and comply – that’s true on the Left, not the Right. A cult pushes a singular ideology everyone must believe — true on the Left, not the Right.

In the case of Musk, I think it’s personal. He feels abandoned by Trump. But more than that, he risked his whole business to help Trump win. He got very little in return for that. The Left destroyed his Tesla brand. They called him a Nazi. They burned his cars. Advertising plummeted on X. On top of that, Trump got rid of the EV mandate (I think). So yeah, he  feels burned.

But he’s still the richest man in the world. Hard to feel too sorry for him. He still crossed the line when he said Trump was in the Epstein files. He’s still a big baby who is overly sensitive and throws tantrums. I side with Trump because he is the one in power now and is in a precarious position. It’s not all about Elon.

That said, I am grateful to Elon. I have written about him a lot about him.

Daniel Greenfield

There are over 1 million foreign students in the United States. The largest group by far are Chinese students whose numbers have fluctuated between a third and a quarter of a million. These students are in America to gain training in this country, not only at top universities like Harvard, but at tech companies, before taking their knowledge and skills back to China.

Saudi Arabia, the tenth largest source of foreign students, had the single most famous foreign students of any country who didn’t win any Nobel prizes, but did successfully fly passenger planes into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, but didn’t quite make it to the White House.

Despite that, the Saudis continue to send tens of thousands of their students to America.

With Bangladesh in 13th place, Iran in 14th, Pakistan in 16th, Turkey in 19th and Indonesia in 22nd, a lot of foreign students come from the Muslim world and were involved in the pro-terrorist riots calling for the destruction of America, Israel and all of Western civilization.

Notably, few of America’s foreign students are westerners. No European nation even shows up in the top 10 countries for foreign students. The UK is in 15th place and France is only in the 20th. Only Canada, right across the border, is in the top 5, but accounts for only 2.6% of foreign students. Nigeria accounts for three times as many foreign students as France, Iran sends more foreign students than the UK and Pakistan far more than Spain. While most American students who study abroad go to Europe, European students are not going to America.

International students are mostly non-westerners and that’s by design. The Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, after extensive lobbying by Ivy League colleges, began bringing third world students to America to counter Communist influence. Beneficiaries included Barack Obama Sr and Shyamala Gopalan, the mother of Kamala Harris, along with other radicals, who found positions in the United States and left behind radical children who undermined America.

Whatever benefits we may gain from foreign students are more than outweighed by 8 years of Obama and by the destruction wreaked by the wayward children of other ‘international students’. And those benefits are at the heart of the debate taking place right now.

Outrage and protests followed the Trump administration’s crackdown on foreign students. America, we were told,

We are told that “international students” pay their way, but that’s not actually true.

In 2023, around 20% (or 207,788) of foreign students benefited from university subsidies, 1,684 foreign students were funded by the U.S. government and 2,351 by other domestic sponsors.

Only 56.8% of foreign students were mostly using their or family money to pay their way.

(Federal student aid is also extended to ‘refugees’, Afghans, Ukrainians, Haitians and any number of other groups seen as distressed, also victims of human trafficking, children of foreign domestic abuse victims, and anyone who spends enough time complaining about their life.)

It’s hard to track exactly how much student aid is going to foreign nationals, but it very likely outweighs the very limited impact of foreign student spending on the broader economy outside of a few college towns in Boston, D.C. and a handful of big cities in California and New York.

What is painfully clear is that the costs of foreign students, whether it’s 9/11, the Hamas campus riots, Obama administration, a hypothetical Kamala administration or Chinese intellectual property theft far outweighs whatever limited benefits they provide to anyone outside Harvard, Yale, Columbia or Georgetown. America doesn’t need international students, colleges do.

And as has been obvious for a long time: what’s good for colleges, isn’t good for America.

American taxpayers subsidized wealthy nonprofit institutions. These institutions demand an unlimited flow of foreign students to further enhance their revenues. And these foreign students, whatever tuition they pay or don’t pay, are benefiting from taxpayer-subsidized institutions.

It’s a good deal for Harvard, but it’s not a very good deal for America.

The original idea of bringing foreign students to America was that they would learn about ‘democracy’ and our way of doing things, then go back to their countries imbued with the American spirit. This hasn’t worked very often because foreign students are usually members of foreign elites, like the Obamas or Kamala’s family, who despise America. Rather than teaching the rest of the world about America, we import foreign and domestic enemies into our country.

Foreign students haven’t Americanized the world, they’ve radicalized, Islamized and terrorized America. Many of those third world students who moved here undermined America and even those who went back home, returned with an insider’s understanding of our weaknesses.

And American campuses, in their current state, are hardly likely to do anything other than radicalize foreign students and teach them to hate America. The original purpose of the foreign students programs introduced under Eisenhower and Kennedy failed even as the number of foreign students shot up from 400,000 in the 1990s to over 1 million.

Instead of making America or the world, foreign students set up Muslim Brotherhood operations, Chinese spy organizations and radical groups calling for the destruction of America.

There’s a place for foreign students in America, but the Trump administration is right to closely scrutinize Chinese students and the social media of students from Islamic terrorist states like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan, while trying to cut back on the number of foreign students.

The truth is that America doesn’t need foreign students, foreign students need America..

Daniel Greenfield

The U.S. government has an interest problem.

Just how bad is it?

Really bad.

Most people intuitively understand that massive budget deficits aren’t sustainable. They recognize you can’t live indefinitely on a credit card.

Granted, it is fair to say government finance isn’t the same as personal finance, nevertheless, Joe Sixpack’s intuition is on target. Uncle Sam can’t keep borrowing and spending at the current pace forever. Eventually, the debt bubble will pop, and that moment looms closer with each passing day.

We’re starting to see warning signs.

After Moody’s downgraded the U.S. credit rating, bonds sold off, causing interest rates to spike. The 10-year Treasury yield surged to nearly 4.6 percent, and the 30-year approached a level not seen in nearly 18 years. This reflects waning demand for U.S. Treasuries.

And it makes sense. Would you loan your drunk uncle with a spending problem more money?

The slide in demand for Treasuries exacerbates a growing problem for the federal government. In simple terms, it means the government’s borrowing cost is rising. The more interest Uncle Sam has to pay, the more money has to borrow, creating an upward spiraling feedback loop.

How Much Is the Government Spending on Interest ?

Interest expense is already getting out of hand.

Interest on the national debt cost $101.7 billion in April alone. That brought the total interest expense for the fiscal year to $684.1 billion, up 9.5 percent over the same period in 2024.

So far, in fiscal 2025, the federal government has spent more on interest on the debt than it has on national defense or Medicare. The only higher spending category is Social Security.

Uncle Sam paid $1.13 trillion in interest expenses in fiscal 2024. It was the first time interest expense had ever eclipsed $1 trillion. Projections are for interest expense to break that record in fiscal 2025.

The United States has the highest debt interest payment to GDP ratio of any developed economy. It’s currently around 4.6 percent. That’s ahead of Greece at a mere 2.5 percent.

How’s that for “America First?”

The Interest Problem Is Only Going to Get Worse

Interest expense is rapidly increasing because debt that was financed when the Fed had rates pushed to zero is maturing. The federal government can’t just pay those bonds off. It must borrow more money to pay back prior borrowers. This maturing debt is being refinanced at much higher rates.

And there is a lot of debt to be refinanced coming down the pike.

There are nearly $700 billion in Treasuries on the Fed’s balance sheet alone with maturities of one year or less, and another $1.45 trillion maturing in the next five years.

In all, about a third of the public debt, totaling $9.3 trillion, will mature by the end of Q1 2026. More than $3.1 trillion set to roll over in that period was issued more than two years ago, meaning it will be refinanced at much higher rates.

Analyst Greg Weldon calls this a debt tsunami.

The projected 10-year net interest cost is $13.8 trillion. That is more than the entire national debt before 2010.

Where Is the Off-Ramp Here?

Where is the off-ramp?

There isn’t one.

This highway is going off a cliff, and we passed the last exit a long time ago.

Some people think the Federal Reserve can intervene with rate cuts and mitigate Uncle Sam’s interest problem. But the fact is, the Fed has little control over the long end of the yield curve. This was apparent when Treasury yields spiked even after the Fed cut rates last year.

That leaves one option – monetize the debt.

What does that mean?

In a word — inflation.

I’m talking about quantitative easing (QE). The Fed can ease the pressure on the bond market by buying Treasuries and holding them on its balance sheet. This “demand” pushes prices up and yields down.

In effect, QE turns Uncle Sam’s debt (Treasury notes and bonds) into cash. This enables the U.S. government to borrow more money at lower rates than it otherwise could under normal market conditions.

This is exactly how the government was able to borrow so much money during the pandemic. Between the time it launched QE in March 2020 and May 2021, the Fed purchased a staggering $2.44 trillion in U.S. government bonds. In effect, the central bank monetized more than half of the U.S. debt accrued.

No other entity bought more U.S. bonds than the Fed – not foreign investors, not U.S. banks, and not even U.S. corporations and individuals.

In effect, the Fed put its big fat thumb on the bond market.

The problem is that the Fed runs QE with money created out of thin air.

With a few keystrokes, the central bankers at the Fed transfer money that never existed until that moment to a bank or financial institution in return for securities.

The central bank then holds these assets on its balance sheet, having injected the newly created money into the banking system. The effect is to increase the money supply, incentivize borrowing, and drive interest rates lower. Banks can take this newly minted cash and make loans. This increases overall liquidity in the financial system and theoretically stimulates lending, boosting the broader economy.

Keep in mind, inflation properly defined is an increase in the money supply. So, when the Fed creates money out of thin air, it is driving inflation.

Ironically, QE also incentivizes debt, which is exactly how we got into this situation to begin with.

The overall long-term impact of QE is overwhelmingly negative. It distorts interest rates, incentivizes massive

Maharrey levels of debt, creates misallocations of economic resources, and blows up bubbles throughout the economy. Eventually, the bubbles burst, and the debt becomes unsustainable, leading to a bust.

So, yes — the national debt matters. And the proverbial chickens will come home to roost. It’s just a matter of time. They are playing a game of kick the can down the road. The question is: how long is the road?

Mike Maharrey, Enter State

The U.S. government has an interest problem.

Just how bad is it?

Really bad.

Most people intuitively understand that massive budget deficits aren’t sustainable. They recognize you can’t live indefinitely on a credit card.

Granted, it is fair to say government finance isn’t the same as personal finance, nevertheless, Joe Sixpack’s intuition is on target. Uncle Sam can’t keep borrowing and spending at the current pace forever. Eventually, the debt bubble will pop, and that moment looms closer with each passing day.

We’re starting to see warning signs.

After Moody’s downgraded the U.S. credit rating, bonds sold off, causing interest rates to spike. The 10-year Treasury yield surged to nearly 4.6 percent, and the 30-year approached a level not seen in nearly 18 years. This reflects waning demand for U.S. Treasuries.

And it makes sense. Would you loan your drunk uncle with a spending problem more money?

The slide in demand for Treasuries exacerbates a growing problem for the federal government. In simple terms, it means the government’s borrowing cost is rising. The more interest Uncle Sam has to pay, the more money has to borrow, creating an upward spiraling feedback loop.

How Much Is the Government Spending on Interest

Interest expense is already getting out of hand.

Interest on the national debt cost $101.7 billion in April alone. That brought the total interest expense for the fiscal year to $684.1 billion, up 9.5 percent over the same period in 2024.

So far, in fiscal 2025, the federal government has spent more on interest on the debt than it has on national defense or Medicare. The only higher spending category is Social Security.

Uncle Sam paid $1.13 trillion in interest expenses in fiscal 2024. It was the first time interest expense had ever eclipsed $1 trillion. Projections are for interest expense to break that record in fiscal 2025.

The United States has the highest debt interest payment to GDP ratio of any developed economy. It’s currently around 4.6 percent. That’s ahead of Greece at a mere 2.5 percent.

How’s that for “America First?”

The Interest Problem Is Only Going to Get Worse

Interest expense is rapidly increasing because debt that was financed when the Fed had rates pushed to zero is maturing. The federal government can’t just pay those bonds off. It must borrow more money to pay back prior borrowers. This maturing debt is being refinanced at much higher rates.

And there is a lot of debt to be refinanced coming down the pike.

There are nearly $700 billion in Treasuries on the Fed’s balance sheet alone with maturities of one year or less, and another $1.45 trillion maturing in the next five years.

In all, about a third of the public debt, totaling $9.3 trillion, will mature by the end of Q1 2026. More than $3.1 trillion set to roll over in that period was issued more than two years ago, meaning it will be refinanced at much higher rates.

Analyst Greg Weldon calls this a debt tsunami.

The projected 10-year net interest cost is $13.8 trillion. That is more than the entire national debt before 2010.

Where Is the Off-Ramp Here?   

Where is the off-ramp?

There isn’t one.

This highway is going off a cliff, and we passed the last exit a long time ago.

Some people think the Federal Reserve can intervene with rate cuts and

There isn’t one.

This highway is going off a cliff, and we passed the last exit a long time ago.

Some people think the Federal Reserve can intervene with rate cuts and mitigate Uncle Sam’s interest problem. But the fact is, the Fed has little control over the long end of the yield curve. This was apparent when Treasury yields spiked even after the Fed cut rates last year.

That leaves one option – monetize the debt.

What does that mean?

In a word — inflation.

I’m talking about quantitative easing (QE). The Fed can ease the pressure on the bond market by buying Treasuries and holding them on its balance sheet. This “demand” pushes prices up and yields down.

In effect, QE turns Uncle Sam’s debt (Treasury notes and bonds) into cash. This enables the U.S. government to borrow more money at lower rates than it otherwise could under normal market conditions.

This is exactly how the government was able to borrow so much money during the pandemic. Between the time it launched QE in March 2020 and May 2021, the Fed purchased a staggering $2.44 trillion in U.S. government bonds. In effect, the central bank monetized more than half of the U.S. debt accrued.

No other entity bought more U.S. bonds than the Fed – not foreign investors, not U.S. banks, and not even U.S. corporations and individuals.

In effect, the Fed put its big fat thumb on the bond market.

The problem is that the Fed runs QE with money created out of thin air.

With a few keystrokes, the central bankers at the Fed transfer money that never existed until that moment to a bank or financial institution in return for securities.

The central bank then holds these assets on its balance sheet, having injected the newly created money into the banking system. The effect is to increase the money supply, incentivize borrowing, and drive interest rates lower. Banks can take this newly minted cash and make loans. This increases overall liquidity in the financial system and theoretically stimulates lending, boosting the broader economy.

Keep in mind, inflation properly defined is an increase in the money supply. So, when the Fed creates money out of thin air, it is driving inflation.

Ironically, QE also incentivizes debt, which is exactly how we got into this situation to begin with.

The overall long-term impact of QE is overwhelmingly negative. It distorts interest rates, incentivizes massive levels of debt, creates misallocations of economic resources, and blows up bubbles throughout the economy. Eventually, the bubbles burst, and the debt becomes unsustainable, leading to a bust.

So, yes — the national debt matters. And the proverbial chickens will come home to roost. It’s just a matter of time. They are playing a game of kick the can down the road. The question is: how long is the road?

“‘For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?’” (Matthew 6:25).

For Christians to worry is to be disobedient and unfaithful to God. Nothing in our lives, internal or external, justifies our being anxious when God is our Master.

Worry is basically the sin of distrusting the promise and providence of God, and yet it is a sin Christians commit perhaps more frequently than any other. In the Greek, the tense of Jesus’ command includes the idea of stopping what is already being done. We are to stop worrying and never start again.

The English term worry comes from an old German word meaning to strangle, or to choke. That’s exactly what worry does—it’s a type of mental and emotional strangulation that probably causes more mental and physical afflictions than any other single cause.

The substance of worry is nearly always extremely small compared to the size it forms in our minds and the damage it does in our lives. It’s been said that worry is a thin stream of fear that trickles through the mind that, when encouraged, will cut a channel so wide that all other thoughts will be drained out.

If worrying is a pattern in your life—stop now. In the days to follow you’ll learn why you should trust your Father and stop worrying.

Ask Yourself

Would you categorize yourself as a worrier? If so, what do you think has driven you to choose the perceived relief of worry over the actual relief of trust in God? If not, what has tipped your heart in favor of less worry and more confidence and contentment?

From Daily Readings from the Life of Christ, Vol. 1, John MacArthur. Copyright © 2008. Used by permission of Moody Publishers, Chicago, IL 60610, http://www.moodypublishers.com.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened to block federal tax payments from his state on Friday, escalating tensions with President Donald Trump amid reports that the White House may cut federal funding to California, Breitbart reported.

“Californians pay the bills for the federal government. We pay over $80 BILLION more in taxes than we get back. Maybe it’s time to cut that off, @realDonaldTrump,” Newsom posted on X Friday.

The constitutional authority of Newsom to withhold federal taxes on behalf of individuals, businesses, and other entities within the state appears not to be clearly defined.

Breitbart News reported that the Trump White House might cut federal funding to California due to its opposition to the Trump administration’s policies.

Despite a significant budget deficit and requests for federal aid — including $40 billion for fire relief — Newsom continues to challenge Trump administration policies through lawsuits, aiming for nationwide injunctions.

The administration’s potential move to withhold funding comes from broader tensions between the federal government and the state of California. The Trump administration has expressed frustration over California’s frequent legal challenges and policy defiance.

Trump threatened to cut California’s sports funding due to its opposition to a federal transgender policy.

This week, the U.S. Department of Transportation suggested reclaiming billions spent on California’s high-speed rail project.

California Democrats believe they can oppose federal policies yet still receive federal funds due to the state’s significant contributions to federal revenue. They also dismiss linking disaster aid, like wildfire relief, to political compliance.

A tax revolt led by the state could revive memories of the “nullification” doctrine advanced by some Southern states before the Civil War. Analysts have pointed out that such a move could backfire by triggering a tax revolt against the state’s sky-high taxes on Californians.

Jim Thomas ✉

Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.

Editor’s Note: Aren’t federal taxes paid directly from the individual to the feds ? I didn’t think the state was a middleman.  I think Newsom is walking on thin ice.  A/D