You might not believe it. But America was actually debt free one time. It was way back in 1835. And it happened thanks to President Andrew Jackson. He was the first and only president to pay off the national debt completely. One biographer wrote that the former president “viewed debt as a ‘moral failing,’ a sort of black magic.” Tragically, America is now trillions of dollars in debt and congress acts like it’s just the cost of doing business.
But trillions of dollars of debt is actually evil.
Because the root cause is the love of money. Not money. The love of it. So when a government collects trillions of dollars from its citizens, and still manages to run up trillions of dollars of debt, something ain’t right. To say the least.
President Jackson understood how debt enslaves you to your creditors. And he knew that being debt-free helps assure American independence. Thankfully most Americans agreed with him at that time.
There were some who did not agree. And President Jackson had to endure an assassination attempt. I read this account about how that went:
While campaigning against the evils of national debt and central banking, Jackson miraculously survived an assassination attempt when an assassin’s two pistols both misfired. Shadowy interests tied to the central bank were almost certainly behind the effort.
However, Jackson survived and went on to “End the Fed” of his days. He successfully bested the central bank. And the powerful interests behind it, and shut down the Second Bank of the United States.
After that, he also repaid the federal debt in full, which was no easy task.
But he couldn’t do it with an increase in federal income tax. Because it didn’t exist at the time. Matter of fact, it would have been unconstitutional.
These days, the Federal Reserve just prints more currency. But President Jackson couldn’t do that to pay off the debt. He got the money to pay off the debt mostly from. import tariffs and excise taxes. And he did something outlandish. Would you believe he cut federal spending? Yeah, by a lot. And he even vetoed spending bills. Now that’s crazy talk.
Crazy like a fox.
Because it worked. In January 1835, America was debt-free for the first time. And only time. But since too many people have an unquenchable love for money, America was in debt again and only about a year. And it has never been debt-free since then. I bet President Jackson would be appalled at our debt load now. But not surprised.
Because I also bet he understood the Biblical teaching on the love of money.
Most people, today, hear the phrase, trillions of dollars, And don’t really have a clear idea of how much that is. I saw this interesting breakdown:
Suppose you had a job that paid you $1 per second, or $3,600 per hour.
That amounts to $86,400 per day and about $32 million per year.
With that job, it would take you 31.5 years to earn a billion dollars.
With that job, it would take you over 31,688 YEARS to earn a trillion dollars.
Now, multiply that by however many trillions our national debt adds up to, some say up to 30 trillion, and you can see what an evil thing it is. Because it enslaves every man woman and child in America for who knows how long. There are only a couple of ways out of it. But I don’t see politicians willing to go in those directions at all.
Even if you earned one dollar every second, it would take you over 1 million years to pay off America’s debt. And that’s if it never got any bigger. And hopefully you can see that wouldn’t be very likely.
Yeah, I read this little factoid that backs that up:
The US federal government has the largest debt in the history of the world. And it’s continuing to grow at a rapid, unstoppable pace.
There is a such thing as debt forgiveness. But that’s almost definitely never gonna happen in this evil world. And we probably can’t count on Congress or the president to do the right thing. So I sure hope there’s another solution somewhere. Don’t you?
Oh wait. I just remembered….
Our God Is LPRGL
The world is…obsessed with death and dying.
They’re drowning…in bitterness and crying.
It’s such an awful shame.
They could call upon the name of Jesus.
As followers we say
We know He’s the only Way that frees us
From the sins we hide deep inside. They… can’t please us.
Our bodies…become the dust that scatters.
If that’s it…then nothing really matters.
We may as well give in
When we feel the world begin to seize us.
Who needs all that guilt and blame
You get calling on the name of Jesus?
But it’s not like that. It’s a fact…Jesus sees us.
He’s living and He’s life…He’s personal to talk to…
Relational with every son and daughter.
He’s good and so much more…. He’s loving to the core…
Jesus is the Living Water.
And each time a soul is saved all the angels above sing….
Our God is living, personal, relational, good… and loving.
Our souls know. infinity is calling.
But temptation…can keep our spirits falling.
So we need to fix our eyes
On the true eternal prize of Jesus.
When we stand before the throne,
He knows our lives, alone, won’t appease us.
No, we need the blood of the lamb…we need Jesus. © 2008 TF
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