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Authors: Frederick Aldrich
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find more, and soon, everything we’ve done is in danger of collapsing. There’s nowhere to get that money other than China, and Baines is endangering that.”
Shum er leaned back in his chair, his hands knitted behind his head. “Mr. President, what you are talking about, if I understand you, isn’t som e thing new. There have always been those whose actions endanger the greater good. Sometimes it becomes n ecessary for the benefit of all to cause those people to reconsider their actions. I believe that Senator Baines can be persuaded to see the light.”
The president smiled broadly. Those who didn’t know Stuart Shumer well often assumed he was a mere functionary, one who was uncomfortable on his feet and preferred to work behind the scenes. But those in his inner circle knew him to be a highly skilled operative, capable of dealing with challenges and keeping promises. He was also someone whom it was very unwise to underestimate.
As the president’s motorcade pulled away into the night, there were a few offices where the lights still burned, offices whose occupants, like els e where across the nation, were putting in the extra effort it takes to stand out, to make money in hard times, to make a difference. One, directly across the street from Stuart Shumer , belonged to a successful real estate investor who buys and sells desirable prope rties i n Boston’s old warehouse area . S humer’s people had checked out everyone in the building across the street, including this one; it’s good policy to know who one’s neighbors are.
But the owners of the office across the street had successfully veiled the true ownership of their business. Real estate, in fact, did make them a great deal of money. But information was their real currency.
14
In the well of the Senate
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have grown so accustomed to speaking of such astounding sums regards our national debt and spending , that I believe we are becoming numb. The American people, to most of whom $1,000 is a good deal of money, have become glassy-eyed at the level of indebtedness that is being heaped upon their children and grandchildren. There are some in this chamber who cynically rely on precisely that to continue to enslave future generations.”
“Allow me to put this in terms that one of the hard-working wage earners who pay our salaries could relate to. If a taxpayer were to spend one dollar every second of every day, it would take eleven and one-half days to spend one million dollars. Spending one dollar every second of every day, it would take more that thirty-one years to spend a billion dollars. Likewise it would take 32,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.”
“Yet every few weeks we ask our countrymen to allow us to spend that much in addition to the trillions of dollars in debt that we have already heaped upon them. How in good conscience can we do that to our citizens and their families?”
“From 1791, the year in which the United States first took on debt, it took until 2002 to amass $5.98 trillion in debt. That’s 211 years! It took just seven more years to double that to $12 trillion. And just one more year to reach $14 trillion.”
“A well known Marxist professor at a prestigious University and friend to some in this administration has said that the way to change the government, to get rid of the Constitution, and move to Marxism/Socialism is to collapse the system.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are well on our way to doing exactly that. I, for one, do not intend to let this great nation become a Marxist state r e gardless of what this president and his Marxist college professor friends want. I do not intend to allow the far-left to dismantle the Constitution. And I do not intend to allow some members of this body to continue to push our spending skyward until this nation collapses from its debt. Today we are facing a threat the
Shum er leaned back in his chair, his hands knitted behind his head. “Mr. President, what you are talking about, if I understand you, isn’t som e thing new. There have always been those whose actions endanger the greater good. Sometimes it becomes n ecessary for the benefit of all to cause those people to reconsider their actions. I believe that Senator Baines can be persuaded to see the light.”
The president smiled broadly. Those who didn’t know Stuart Shumer well often assumed he was a mere functionary, one who was uncomfortable on his feet and preferred to work behind the scenes. But those in his inner circle knew him to be a highly skilled operative, capable of dealing with challenges and keeping promises. He was also someone whom it was very unwise to underestimate.
As the president’s motorcade pulled away into the night, there were a few offices where the lights still burned, offices whose occupants, like els e where across the nation, were putting in the extra effort it takes to stand out, to make money in hard times, to make a difference. One, directly across the street from Stuart Shumer , belonged to a successful real estate investor who buys and sells desirable prope rties i n Boston’s old warehouse area . S humer’s people had checked out everyone in the building across the street, including this one; it’s good policy to know who one’s neighbors are.
But the owners of the office across the street had successfully veiled the true ownership of their business. Real estate, in fact, did make them a great deal of money. But information was their real currency.
14
In the well of the Senate
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have grown so accustomed to speaking of such astounding sums regards our national debt and spending , that I believe we are becoming numb. The American people, to most of whom $1,000 is a good deal of money, have become glassy-eyed at the level of indebtedness that is being heaped upon their children and grandchildren. There are some in this chamber who cynically rely on precisely that to continue to enslave future generations.”
“Allow me to put this in terms that one of the hard-working wage earners who pay our salaries could relate to. If a taxpayer were to spend one dollar every second of every day, it would take eleven and one-half days to spend one million dollars. Spending one dollar every second of every day, it would take more that thirty-one years to spend a billion dollars. Likewise it would take 32,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.”
“Yet every few weeks we ask our countrymen to allow us to spend that much in addition to the trillions of dollars in debt that we have already heaped upon them. How in good conscience can we do that to our citizens and their families?”
“From 1791, the year in which the United States first took on debt, it took until 2002 to amass $5.98 trillion in debt. That’s 211 years! It took just seven more years to double that to $12 trillion. And just one more year to reach $14 trillion.”
“A well known Marxist professor at a prestigious University and friend to some in this administration has said that the way to change the government, to get rid of the Constitution, and move to Marxism/Socialism is to collapse the system.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are well on our way to doing exactly that. I, for one, do not intend to let this great nation become a Marxist state r e gardless of what this president and his Marxist college professor friends want. I do not intend to allow the far-left to dismantle the Constitution. And I do not intend to allow some members of this body to continue to push our spending skyward until this nation collapses from its debt. Today we are facing a threat the
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