Dear Reader,

Happy Wednesday! Thanksgiving eve.

Today I want to talk about an article that caught my eye:

Ninety state officials urged President Trump and Congress to tackle the national debt crisis, warning, “a painful age of reckoning” looms.

Debt is something we talk about quite a bit here.

The letter demands that Trump and members of Congress approve a plan by July 4, 2026 - the nation’s 250th anniversary - to put the Federal Government on track to reach a balanced budget.

It reads, “without a decisive change in course, we will not only face a very painful day of reckoning, but a painful age of reckoning we never want to see.”

The officials, mostly from red states, signed the letter, a copy of which the New York Post published.

First of all - great letter.

I am a big fan any time people want to raise the alarm about debt.

I just don’t understand how more people aren’t alarmed by it!

However…

It’s spineless to do it now.

After the budget was already done.

This smells like posturing for midterms.

It doesn’t mean anything now.

If you really believe in something like this, bring it into the budget process and fight over it - have some skin in the game.

So, the timing is disappointing.

But I’ll take it.

The biggest, most significant threat to our national security is our debt.

Full stop.

I learned that from Henry Kissinger in the nineties.

I remember Admiral Mike Mullen saying the same thing. And Hillary Clinton. 

U.S. indebtedness is a big handicap.

The Brookings Institute wrote that the United States will, “have to face a day of reckoning on its debt or else watch long-term economic growth decline.”

That’s true.

The U.S. has the capacity to grow at 5% a year.

But we only grow at 2% to 3% a year.

That’s sluggish. It’s like an airplane carrying too much weight. It takes off a little slower, can’t reach great altitude.

It’s really crazy when you think about it - 

In 2010 the national debt was $13.5 trillion. Now, it’s $38 trillion.

It was under $16 trillion when President Trump won the election in 2016.

Trump and Biden and now Trump again have blown out our debt.

The United States now spends more money on interest payments than national security.

What’s most concerning about this is that for most of U.S. history our country has borrowed for emergencies - wars, severe downturns.

Let’s say the country borrows money during a massive recession; pumps money into the system to get our economy to turn around.

Right now, we’re borrowing money during economic growth, which is very crazy.

So we have to ask ourselves:

What happens when there’s a major economic downturn?

Will we be able to borrow money?

Will we go to the bond market, to our foreign lenders, and hear, “we’re not lending you money unless you make a few changes”? 

If that happens, will those changes be harmful to our long-term national security?

We are putting ourselves into a seriously compromised position here.

And it really sticks in my craw how our leaders are just not focused on this.

Look, I’m not trying to ruin Thanksgiving. This is just a very important thing.

It can’t be all wine and roses, or, as they say in politics, guns and butter.

It’s guns or butter.

We forgot what that is - we forgot what it’s like to struggle.

I’m reminded of my favorite JFK line I say to my kids all the time:

“We choose to do these things not because they are easy but because they are hard.”

Like I tell my kids, everything good is hard.

If I can wax poetic for a minute here, fantasy is for us to really get behind a leader that actually inspires that kind of, “let’s tighten our belts and fight for the greater good of the country” sentiment. Instead of just this endless consumerism.

But, we have to play the ball where it is - not where we want it to be.

That’s why we just updated our dollar protection guide. Inside, we recommend:

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The first thing to do is check your 401k, IRA and any other retirement accounts for the 16 funds on my “red flag list.”

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Step 3: Hunt for special situations:

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Get our dollar protection kit today, before the December 10th deadline.

That’s what I find myself thinking about right before this Thanksgiving holiday.

Anyway, I am grateful to be here. Grateful for you.

Talk soon.

"The Buck Stops Here"