American Exit Strategy: Book 1 by Mark Goodwin Read Free Book Online

$275 billion every month, $3.3 trillion a year through the combined QE or Quantitative Easing programs. I can't believe we can't scrape 21 billion a month out of that to fund SNAP. Don't get me wrong, I think the program is bloated and a completely bad idea. The government has no business in charity, even if it were charity. But it’s hard to use the term 'charity' to describe robbing one man of his hard earned cash to support another that contributes nothing to society. Charity is when he gives it freely, of his own accord. Nevertheless, you can't shut a program like SNAP down overnight. It has to be phased out over time to avoid systemic collapse."
    Sonny explained, "Nearly half of the $275 billion in monthly QE is going to service the debt. We owe $26 trillion dollars on the national debt. With an average interest payment of 11%, that is $238 billion a month. No one is purchasing new bonds. Most of the remaining $37 billion left over after interest every month is going towards rolling over existing bonds. If they don't do that, rates will go to the moon and the interest on the existing debt will be unserviceable."
    The two of them turned their attention back to the television. Patrick James was still talking. "Security personnel are coming out of the White House door in the Rose Garden. That probably means the President will be out directly behind them. A crisis like this could not have come at a worse possible time for the election. The Administration will want to carefully craft the damage control. I see Treasury Secretary Melinda Chang coming out the doors right now. White House Press Secretary Armando Sanchez is directly behind her. It appears he is going to give some opening remarks before President Al Muhammad makes his statement. We will listen in now."
    White House Press Secretary Armando Sanchez walked to the podium. He was flanked by Treasury Secretary Chang and Secretary of Health and Human Services, Gerald Brown. Sanchez positioned the microphone and began his speech. "We are issuing a brief statement for now and will hold another conference tonight where we will be taking questions from the press, but we will not be taking questions after this statement.
    Late last night, unforeseen events caused a temporary setback in funding for the Supplementary Nutritional Assistance Program.  Despite the glitch in the system, we were still able to fund the benefits at a reduced rate. SNAP benefits that are allocated to EBT card holders whose card number ends in the digit "1" received their reduced benefit at midnight last night. Tonight at midnight, card holders whose cards end in the digit "2" will be credited at the reduced rate as scheduled. Holders of cards ending in each subsequent digit will receive their reduced benefit on the corresponding day of the month. Let me be clear, funds are available to pay out the reduced rate benefits to each card holder on the day they are scheduled to receive their benefit credit. We anticipate having the funding complications ironed out by the 15th of the month. At that time, the balance of the funds promised to each American who depends on the SNAP program will be credited to their EBT card account. There is absolutely no reason for people to be panicking. Statements made in last week's debate have caused much confusion and anxiety. President Al Mohammad has promised that everyone will get the benefits they have been promised. We are simply asking the American people to remain calm and be a little bit patient as we work through this minor difficulty. If your normal benefits typically last you the entire month, you should have no problem getting to the 15th of this month on the reduced rate. At that time, you will receive the balance of your benefits. Once again, we want to emphasize how important it is to keep a cool head and not get caught up in the rhetorical fear mongering that was so rudely displayed in last week's debate. This irresponsible language has triggered some