Joining Truth for America for a repeat visit was Kevin Williamson, deputy managing editor of National Review, and a columnist for New Criterion. He also is an adjunct professor at the King’s College in New York City. A frequent commentator on politics and economics, he has appeared on the Glenn Beck Show, the Kudlow Report, the CBS Evening News, the BBC, Power & Politics, CNN’s Parker Spitzer, and dozens of talk radio programs.  His most recent book is “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism.”

The discussion turned to the pending vote on the debt ceiling, which sits at $14.3 trillion.  Williamson labeled the debt ceiling as “largely symbolic and that even if the debt ceiling is not raised the U.S. is not in any danger of defaulting on its debt.”

Williamson reminded listeners that President Obama voted against the raising of the debt ceiling when he was in Congress, but now is a leading advocate.

“Tax money will continue to come in even if the debt ceiling is not raised, but it may delay social security payments and could cause federal employees to be furloughed. We’re getting to the point where the bond market may be unwilling to buy up debt.  Right now the Federal government is buying up 70 percent of its debt.  This is illegal in the private sector. You would go to jail,” said Williamson.

One of the problems that is going to arise is that the interest rate on U.S. debt will go up dramatically, said Williamson. In addition, since many of the bonds are based on short-term notes, there may not be bond buyers willing to take it on.  If this debt level continues, it will soon account for 20 percent of the federal government’s total budget.  News that the S&P lowered its credit rating for the U.S. debt load wasn’t a big deal, according to Williamson, since most people anticipated that the S&P rating would be dropping.

“If the interest rate on our debt goes up to 8-9 percent, the debt load budget for the U.S. will resemble the Pentagon’s total budget. Even if you shut down the Pentagon and didn’t spend a dime on the military, it still wouldn’t be able to control the nation’s debt level,” said Williamson.
Williamson thinks that Paul Ryan has the right idea to address the debt level today before it’s too late. “You can’t keep kicking the can down the road.  We can’t let this administration just pass it onto the next administration,” said Williamson.

The culprit for our debt according to Williamson is the nation’s love affair with entitlements.  “If the entitlement plan can be fixed, this nation will be saved,” said Williamson.

“If the unemployment rate spikes, it will hurt the Democrats. Let’s face it. The truth is that government doesn’t create jobs.  Washington can’t manage the U.S. economy.  If it could, we wouldn’t have recessions or high unemployment,” said Williamson.

Finally, Williamson thinks that quantitative easing will end in June or early summer.  Quantitative easing refers to creating massive amounts of money out of thin air with the hope of getting the economy back on track.  Asbury refers to this as “vapor paper.”