“Well, that can be expected with government spending,” Beau said. “We had double digit inflation in the eighties.”
“No I mean double digit inflation like Mexico had in ninety-four and ninety-five. We have had double digit inflation each of the last two months.” Ruben laughed. “You might say the dollar isn’t worth a peso. The country is in a full depression and unemployment is over thirty percent.”
“Damn, I didn’t know,” said Beau, shaking his head. “Don’t you watch CNN?”
“Not really. When I do it just makes me mad.” He sighed then continued. “Anyway, I was asking about you, Ruben! How is everything?”
“Oh… well… I bought an old van and with that allowance gone and taxes on the house up, it’s hard to make it. Just glad I didn’t buy one of those $50,000 new ones. Gas is over five bucks a gallon. Gonna sell the van next month — if I can.”
Beau laughed. “And I thought things were bad under Bush.”
“So did I, but things have definitely gotten worse. Obama is spending three times what Bush spent.”
Although the numbers were shown as 1.5 trillion added to the debt each year it was actually more than two trillion in debt each year Obama was in office and also the reason Congress failed to pass a budget so they wouldn’t be required to show actual numbers.
Shaking his head Ruben continued, “You know, I used to get real pissed off at you for bad mouthing every politician, but something you said still sticks in my mind: ‘as long as we only have a Republican or a Democrat — we have no choice.’ It really seems true now.” Ruben chuckled, “What did you call them? Oh, yeah. A Republi-cant and a Demo-crap.”
Beau laughed. “It always seemed to me politicians could claim victory even in defeat.”
“True. The balanced budget Congress finally passed a couple of years ago just about ruined this country. With a new tax the government increased spending to cover all the entitlements. That wasn’t enough. Then they decided to protect all Americans’ 401-k by controlling them. They immediately borrowed against the savings and spent the money. Even with all of this Congress gave themselves a fifteen percent pay raise to cover inflation. And they made it retroactive. You know Obama is having the National Guard seize weapons from all gun owners. I don’t see how they could do it; there’s nothing left.” Ruben sighed.
With a knowing shrug Beau said, “You would have thought Americans would have seen what was coming with the Social Security all spent. The tax was just another way to spend more money. They will spend and tax until it’s too late. When President Bush increased the deficit to near eleven trillion it was already too late.”
“I hate to sound cynical but I think it’s already too late now. A few days ago the news reported that almost all of the taxes collected go to pay interest on the National Debt. We owe over twenty trillion and the interest just went over ten percent which means the interest on the debt exceeds the taxes collected. As far as America’s financial health goes it’s a flat liner. ”
Beau laughed. “Ruben, you surprise me.”
Ruben said, “There’s more. Obama tried to blame it all on Bush but when he cut welfare you’d have thought Civil War had broken out in the United States.” Ruben shook his head and sighed, “I’m afraid it’s too late.”
Beau nodded. “I heard there were a lot of riots.”
“More than a lot.”
“I never did find out what they were over. They weren’t race riots?”
Ruben shook his head. “No. The unions, welfare. They aren’t getting what they’ve been getting, and tax protest riots. Protests that got out of hand. Made those Los Angeles riots seem like a picnic. North, east, and west — seems no big cities were spared. Not too much in the south but even Houston had riots over welfare.” Ruben snickered, “But they didn’t last long here in Corpus. Miami is still in chaos. In fact, people don’t travel much in southern Florida. The president had to send the military into places like Miami, Washington D.C., Detroit, Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles and should have sent them into a half dozen others. They say it’s safer to travel in Mexico than it is in Southern Florida or Los Angeles.
“Hell and the bombings keep happening. There have been too many and even more discovered before they exploded. The threats of bombings have federal employees real skittish.
“The attacks were blamed on militia and other radical groups. Rumor had it the CIA knew about one bombing but didn’t do anything so their previous muffed actions would seem more justified. The president attacked two militia outfits in retaliation: one in Louisiana and one in Wyoming. Each of those was worse than that old Waco fiasco. In Wyoming more than fifty of the ATF forces were killed. Some of the militia even managed to escape. Right after that, anti-militia groups sprang up and they started killing members of the militia on the street.
“But the real problem is a group that calls themselves the ‘Minutemen.’ They plan to free America from the terror of Congress and have demanded trials of treason against all members of Congress except for twenty-nine specified in their documents.”
“Twenty-nine?”
“Yeah, the ones that voted against the bailout the last year of Bush. They exonerated Ron Paul from Texas but demand the trial and execution of all the other congressional leaders including the President and his czars.”
“I did hear about Obama’s czars.”
“Let me tell you they are really out of control, including Pelosi and Reid.”
Beau sighed, “You can guarantee Congress will protect themselves from that.” Beau noticed when Ruben shook his head no. “What is it?”
Ruben took a deep breath, “About a month ago a Representative in Minnesota was hung on his front porch.”
“My God. I didn’t know.”
“No one knows. They’re trying to keep it quiet but most military personnel know what happened. They caught the guy. He was from Alabama. Seems the Congressman took away some jobs and moved them to Minnesota. That guy lost his job because of the Congressman. A sign was stuck to the Congressman’s chest, with a knife. It read; ‘This is for the treason committed against the United States of America.’ Below that was scribbled, ‘Hope and Change coming, 506 to go.’”
“What does 506 mean?”
“It means the members of Congress. Minus the twenty-nine the Minutemen like. They are telling us, ‘One down five-hundred and six to go.’”
“I heard the country was in turmoil but I didn’t know it was that bad.”
Ruben turned to Beau, his face stern and troubled. “Soldiers are quitting in droves. The government has already taken away most of our benefits but at least they still pay the pilots. There is no reason to join and no reason to stay. At this rate it won’t be long before we have no military. In fact we don’t have much now. The military hates Obama and that son-of-a-bitch made sure we didn’t get to vote in 2012.”
“That’s not good.”
“Ex-cons can join the service and they’re talking about letting prisoners join to shorten their time in prison. And those in the military are kicked out if they are a little overweight. Our numbers are dropping drastically.”
“That’s no good at all.”
“You have no idea,” said Ruben. “We need somebody to represent the people but no Democrats or Republicans. They’re all liars.”
I heard Pelosi, Reid and Boxer were behind a lot of the financial problems.”
“Yeah and all the other czars. And Treasury Secretary Geithner said America should have infinity for our financial debts. He should be called the Bankruptcy Secretary. Yeah and I should too so I can spend Monopoly money on whatever I want. Every one of Obama’s men are communists.”