Well, President Biden got his $1.9 trillion – that’s $1,900,000,000,000.00 – “American Rescue” “stimulus” package.  That’s roughly $5,757.00 for every person in America, if we count the 10 million or so here illegally.  Much, if not most, has little or nothing to do with the pandemic.  Every penny of it is borrowed. 

There is an interesting website called the U.S. Debt Clock.  As I wrote this early on the morning of March 8, 2021, the national debt was well over $28,026,290,000,000 and climbing rapidly.  The debt per taxpayer is approaching $224,000.  The debt for the typical family of 4 is over $339,000, and even at today’s super-low interest rates, the yearly interest on that is around $8,000 per family per year.  Keep in mind, that’s what every child is burdened with as soon as he’s born, and the burden that every person migrating here takes up, wittingly or not.  It’s also the burden that every person leaving (or dying) lays down.

If we paid down the national debt at the rate of $100 billion per year, it would take over 280 years to pay it to zero.  Meanwhile, we would still be paying interest at the rate of many thousands of dollars per taxpayer per year. Our grandchildren, great-grandchildren and many generations after them will be paying for our profligacy.  They will, undoubtedly, thank us for the opportunity.

Herbert Stein’s Law says, in one of its formulations, tongue only slightly in cheek, that what can’t go on, will stop.  Eventually – we don’t know when, and can’t – our lenders will realize just how broke we are and start lending their money to other, more credit-worthy borrowers.  That will be the beginning of the greatest credit crunch in all of history, and how it ends, no one knows, although it’s a good guess that the dollar will wind up as worthless as a Weimar deutschmark.  The lawyers working that bankruptcy will get plenty rich, but don’t be surprised if they prefer to collect their fees in renminbi.

Our fate is still in our hands.  But for how much longer?

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Word comes that the Supreme Court has found for the plaintiff in a free-speech case against Georgia Gwinnett College.  A student proselytizing for his Christian faith was repeatedly harassed by the school’s police and administration for violations of school policies that had the effect of chilling free speech.  He sued, and the college dropped the policies.  Sensing the

possibility of a precedent-setting case, an outfit called the Alliance Defending Freedom pursued the matter.  Lower courts ruled for the college, declaring the case moot since the policies in question were no longer in effect.  The Supreme Court slapped that down hard, ruling 8-1 for the student, and declaring that even though the monetary damages were nominal (the student asked for rescission of the policies and $1 in damages), the wrong was still real and demanded legal judgement.

The defense was almost laughable, since the school had already tacitly admitted it was wrong by changing the policies even before the case went to court.  They argued that silly little matters like this one could get really expensive for the losers since they are often on the hook for attorney’s fees, which can run into the tens of thousands of dollars.  This was wrong, they said, because the cost was disproportionate to the actual injury.

Nonsense.  Sometimes, as in this case, the injury isn’t measured in dollars, but in loss of freedom.  Sometimes a kind word can resolve a dispute, but other times it takes a 2 x 4 across the skull, or a deep dive into a man’s wallet.  If the right is important enough – and free religious speech no doubt meets that criteria – then making intransigents pay is more than justified.

Georgia Gwinnett College and its ilk will now think twice and three times about violating inalienable and Constitutionally-protected rights.  Sounds to me like justice was done.

Speaking of which, isn’t it time to move to the English Rule – loser pays all costs?  Nothing would be more effective at stopping trivial and/or spurious lawsuits which are little more than legalized extortion, or stiffen the spines of those who know they are in the right.  The incentive would be for reasonable men to sit down and work things out over an adult beverage or two.  Or tea, if that’s your thing.

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The recent brouhaha at East Tennessee State University over the men’s basketball team kneeling during the playing of the National Anthem meant that the termination of the women’s basketball coach was largely overlooked.  Which just shows that, at ETSU, having a losing basketball team will get you fired, but having a team of losers won’t.

• Kenneth D. Gough © 2021