U.S. deficits

Here's a look at the disastrous U.S. spending over the past three years. These figures represent the money already spent or will be spent. All of the deficit spending is funded with borrowed money.

* $1.4 trillion FYE 2009 federal deficit.

* $1.6 trillion FYE 2010 federal deficit.

* $1.4 trillion FYE 2011 federal deficit.

The three-year total federal deficit equals $4.4 trillion. It is largely conceded that most of the $4.4 trillion was wasted, not spent for constructive purposes, but merely supported an unearned standard of living. Nevertheless, the $4.4 trillion increase in debt over three years remains and must be serviced.

The federal budget deficits remain at unconscionable levels:

* $1.5 trillion per year.

* $125 billion per month.

* $4 billion per day.

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China has as its objective to become the most powerful nation in the world, both economically and militarily. It intends to accomplish this outcome through global economic superiority. China appears to have resumed its double-digit GDP growth after an economic slowdown in 2009. It continues to accumulate huge foreign trade reserves, currently $2.4 trillion, by generating trade surpluses, and China uses those surpluses to buy and in other ways lock up natural resources and other valuable assets around the world.

China is resisting pressure from the U.S. and elsewhere for an increased value of the yuan which would adversely impact its ease of exporting. China will not jeopardize its economic growth by allowing its currency to rise by any meaningful amount which is leading to currency conflicts with other trading nations. It is expanding its industry by expropriating intellectual property and trade secrets from foreign joint venture partners at essentially no cost by threatening access to its markets. China is rapidly building its military power, including a deep water navy.

The ambitions of China are well known. Its efforts are focused. Its economic and geopolitical power is growing. With a minimum of government and bureaucratic interference, the U.S. must put its economic house in order by returning to sound, fundamental economic principles which in the past have allowed the U.S. economy to become the envy of the world. If we fail to take corrective measures very soon, China will realize its objective of world dominance.

We always knew that socialism did not work, but what we did not understand was how rapidly a hard-core socialist could trash our balance sheet with debt that will be almost impossible to service.

-- Owen Roberts, Private Newsletter

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The left loves to go wild claiming that Rupert Murdoch, a famous conservative, owns a few news outlets. The left is also aghast that well known righty Roger Ailes guides Fox News. Ailes's ideology makes his network a compromised product, they claim. It's all a travesty of "news," and "proof" that those agencies are contaminated by right-wing ideology say lefty detractors. So, with the news that George Soros is buying one hundred political "reporters" for National Public Radio (NPR), one waits with baited breath for the left to decry the fact that a famous anti-American leftist is buying and influencing the "news." One will likely wait in vain, too.

In fact, The New York Times doesn't even mention the left-wing ideology of the foundation that is supplying $1.8 million to NPR so it can hire political reporters across the country.

The left-wing Open Society Foundations is donating the large sum to NPR for a project being called "Impact of Government." The project is planning to add at least 100 reporters across the country to cover local statehouse politics to fill the holes left by the firing of so many local reporters due to the contraction in the field of journalism over the last decade.

One might look at this plan and imagine that it isn't such a bad idea. If states have lost reporters ready to hold local politicians accountable, why is it so bad for $1.8 million to be spent to fill that gap? But in the New York Times piece one can see why this donation should raise eyebrows instead of making folks feel at ease that the plan is merely helping fill a reporting gap.

Ms. Schiller said the journalists would not be part of typical statehouse coverage, but instead would work on enterprise journalism that looks at how state government decisions play out over years and extend beyond a single state's borders.

What exactly does "enterprise journalism" mean? This sure smacks of agenda journalism as opposed to mere reporting, doesn't it? And even if that isn't the intent, the rhetoric here is suspicious.

But what makes this all even more suspicious is the source of the $1.8 million donation. The Open Society Foundations was founded by well-known anti-American George Soros. Yet, nowhere in the news is this made clear to readers.

-- Warne Todd Huston

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For the first time in more than 35 years, the U.S. military has met all of its annual recruiting goals, as hundreds of thousands of young people have enlisted despite the near-certainty that they will go to war.

The Pentagon, which made the announcement Tuesday, said the economic downturn and rising joblessness, as well as bonuses and other factors, had led more qualified youths to enlist.

The military has not seen such across-the-board successes since the all-volunteer force was established in 1973, after Congress ended the draft following the Vietnam War. In recent years, the military has often fallen short of some of its recruiting targets. The Army, in particular, has struggled to fill its ranks, admitting more high school dropouts, overweight youths and even felons.

Yet during the current budget year, which ended Sept. 30, recruiters met their targets in both numbers and quality for all components of active-duty and reserve forces.

"We delivered beyond anything the framers of the all-volunteer force would have anticipated," Bill Carr, deputy undersecretary of defense for military personnel policy, said at a Pentagon news conference.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are considered by experts to be an unprecedented test of the volunteer military's resilience. Its ability to bring fresh recruits into the force is critical not only to increasing the overall size of the Army and Marine Corps but to ensuring that additional units are available to rotate into conflict zones. Some Army units sent overseas recently have been deployed at less than full strength.

-- Ann Scott Tyson

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The big aircraft maker Boeing Co. says "cost pressures" from the new health care law are part of the reason it's asking employees to pay more for their medical benefits next year.

In a letter mailed to employees late last week, Boeing said deductibles and co-payments are going up significantly for some 90,000 nonunion workers. The company cited three major reasons for the cost shift, including untamed health care inflation, the effects of the new law and lifestyle issues -- including being overweight and lack of exercise.

Gary Rust is chairman of Rust Communications.