Many a democracy has been upended by excessive government spending - and, unfortunately, America, despite the latest budget agreement, is well on its way to fiscal and, perhaps, democratic collapse.

As long as those receiving government benefits are much smaller in number than those paying for the benefits, politicians are more dependent on the taxpayers than on the beneficiaries. But the United States has reached the point at which there are more people receiving government checks than paying income taxes.

As the political balance shifts away from taxpayers to recipients, the pressures to increase government spending accelerate until finally the golden goose is fully plucked and the economy collapses.

President Obama is the agent and spokesperson for the taxtakers and not the taxpayers, which is why he keeps arguing for tax increases and saying it is only ‘fair' that the rich pay more.

America's most quoted philosopher (and baseball player) Yogi Berra once said, "You can see a lot just by looking" -- simple wisdom that President Barack Hussein Obama is not likely to heed. In order to see, you have to want to look at the truth that's actually out there.  

With reality so different from how our president wishes to portray it, he has little interest in seeing things as they really are.

The president delivered a "Kumbaya" appeal this past week (9/25) to the current session of the United Nations General Assembly.
In his speech, Obama quoted South African leader Nelson Mandela, saying, "To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."

This from an American president who is now forcing American employers to buy condoms and abortion pills for their employees, even if it is against that employer's religious convictions.

Or from a nation where poor children are forced to attend public schools where teaching traditional, religious values that they desperately need are prohibited.

Or where the people of the state of California voted to define marriage as between a man and a woman, only to have this referendum overturned by a federal court.

When someone asks, "Do you want the good news or the bad news?", which do you choose to hear first?  I always choose the bad to get it over with, so that's what the HFR is doing today.

Bearer of the bad news is economist David Malpass, whose nail-on-the-head analysis of the economic/political mess we're in - And The Crisis Winner Is?  Government - appeared in this morning's (12/16) Wall Street Journal. 

Malpass is making it unavoidably obvious:  The 2010 Republican House Majority under John Boehner has been worthless.  He is also making it painfully obvious that the Tea Parties are as worthless as the Boehner Republicans.  They have accomplished exactly nothing in Washington.  Nothing. Nada, zilch, zero.  What a flame-out.  Evil always triumphs when good people do nothing, and they are doing nothing. 

So brace yourselves for the longest year of your lives: 2012.  More joblessness, more economic decline, more deficit spending, more government intrusion into everyone's life and business, more anger and parasite demands from the Moocher Class, more demonization of the Producer Class, with the Grin of Evil that inhabits the White House laughing in our faces 24/7. 

Okay, okay, okay, okay, thanks for the downer, Jack, just what I needed at the end of the week - so what's the good news?

There has been much discussion about whether the Democrats or Republicans gain a political advantage from the debt-ceiling-increase mess. An equally interesting and, perhaps, more important question is who has a vested interest in this financial chaos.

First, a few facts:

*It is estimated that between Aug. 3 and 31, the U.S. government will receive revenues of approximately $172 billion and have expenses of $307 billion, leaving a deficit for those days of about $135 billion. The revenues will be sufficient to pay Social Security and interest on the debt, but not many of the other obligations.

*The 12.4 percent Social Security payroll tax paid by employers and employees goes to buy special-purpose government bonds that are held by the Social Security Trust Fund. The Trust Fund holds about $2.4 trillion in these bonds, so it would be many years before they are exhausted. The only way there would not be enough revenue to cover the Social Security checks is if President Obama decided to spend the money on something else.

*Mercatus Institute research fellow Veronique de Rugy has identified an additional couple of trillion dollars of U.S. government physical and trust fund assets that could be legally sold to cover budget shortfalls.  See the section on "Liquidating Existing Assets" in the link.

A Vatican source has disclosed to To The Point a psychological trauma of John Paul II. Whenever Vatican investigators brought the results of their vetting process regarding an individual’s candidacy for bishop, cardinal, or other office, and they revealed he was a homosexual, John Paul II would refuse to believe it.

He did so because accusing someone of homosexuality was a standard practice of the Communist government in his native Poland regarding anyone it regarded as an enemy of the state. From his ordination as a Catholic priest in 1946 to elevation to Archbishop of Krakow in 1963 and Cardinal in 1967, the then Karol Wojtyla witnessed this personal destruction repeatedly. So traumatized, he summarily dismissed such accusations as Pope, and would approve the elevation of anyone so accused.

This is why the Catholic Church, from Bishops in Boston to the Vatican itself, is riddled with homosexuals today. As the Dean of the College of Cardinals and the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Ratzinger learned who the homosexuals are in the Vatican and the almost 3,000 dioceses in the world. As Pope Benedict XVI, he will encourage their departure from the priesthood.

Why didn't I ever think to call Russian dictator Vladimir Putin The Gremlin In The Kremlin?  It took the London Telegraph to come up with the cleverest headline of the week.  At last, Russians are realizing what a punk Putin is, who tries so achingly hard to be a macho-man.  (You know I have personal experience over what a lightweight he is.)

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Meanwhile, the hammering of Newt continues.  What's really gone viral - particularly in Iowa - is this video hit comparing Newt's values to those of Kim Kardashian.  Ouch!

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It's a contest as to who should be the HFR Hero of the Week.  We report, you decide. 

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Now for the HFR Word of the Week.  Rehypothecation.  It's literally a trillion-dollar word.  To understand why, we need to talk about Cameron and Corzine.

Have things stopped getting better?

Americans had become used to ever-increasing living standards, but there is evidence that for many people, life is not improving. There is also a growing pessimism about the future with surveys showing that Americans do not think their children and grandchildren will be better off.

Last week, there was a most interesting discussion between two of the world's leading tech gurus - George Gilder and Peter Thiel - at FreedomFest in Las Vegas. Mr. Thiel argued that, in many areas, progress has stopped or almost stopped.  Mr. Gilder was more optimistic.  Yet both agreed on what the obstacle to progress is.