Authored by Ken Buck via The Epoch Times,
Despite a lot of talk about fiscal responsibility, lawmakers in Washington are continuing to run up the tab on America's already maxed-out credit card.
The U.S. annual deficit - the difference between the revenue that the federal government collects and what it spends each year - reached $1.8 trillion through the first 10 months of the current fiscal year. With two months still left to go, this year's deficit will exceed $2 trillion.
In non-pandemic years, the U.S. deficit has never surpassed $1.8 trillion in a single year.
Our economy is growing, unemployment remains low, and there is no national emergency forcing the government's hand. So, what gives? Why can't Washington get our fiscal house in order? As the president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget put it, this is "not normal."
High borrowing costs, which are a result of our country's yawning national debt (the cumulative total of each year's deficit), are a major driver. The U.S. Treasury yield, which is the interest rate the government must pay on bonds issued for debt, hit a 19-year high this month, 5.34 percent.
In other words, as the national debt continues to climb, creditors are wary that the federal government will be able to repay its obligations and therefore demand a higher return. That means more revenue - almost 20 cents of every tax dollar, higher than the previous record set in 1991 - now goes to paying interest rather than investing in our country.
The real problem, however, is Washington's unbridled spending spree. Democrats insist on more federal programs, even as the price tag for existing entitlements continues to grow, and annual shortfalls continue to mount. Federal spending increased by 5 percent this year compared to last, while revenue only grew 3 percent.
Sadly, even conservatives have gone along with the ruse. The Big Beautiful Bill, Republicans' landmark reconciliation package last year, promised to cut a lot of government waste and kept taxes low, but it failed to get to the root of the federal growth. Without serious entitlement reform, tax cuts leave the budget hole even larger.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Big Beautiful Bill would add $3.4 trillion to the national debt over 10 years, and as much as $4.5 trillion when factoring in interest payments.
Don't get me wrong, Republicans' tax cuts are a smart way to spur economic growth, which is one way to improve our country's finances. When the private sector can invest its money, rather than pay it to Uncle Sam, it creates jobs and economic activity - which fill the public coffers. The government doesn't create jobs; businesses do. When companies and workers do well, so does the government.
But tax cuts must be offset by meaningful spending reductions. Addressing just one side of the ledger is like damming half a river; it doesn't fix deficits.
Getting our annual deficits in check doesn't mean looking back; it requires looking forward. It's a live decision, one that's happening at the same time the administration is asking Congress for a 19 percent increase in discretionary spending - which would be the second-largest bump in at least six decades.
Lawmakers must look at our deficit-spending addiction holistically. To his credit, President Donald Trump's 2027 budget proposes cutting non-defense spending by 10 percent. However, those gains are more than negated in defense spending. That's a critical priority, but funding must be offset with significant spending reductions. That means programs that have long been a political third rail, including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
While slashing entitlement historically has not been a winning recipe for getting reelected, voters understand what's at stake, and they want leaders who will make the right decisions.
Over eight in 10 Americans are more concerned about the national debt now compared to a few years ago, and 85 percent want Congress and the White House to do more to address it.
The heightened awareness owes to voters' own understanding. Nine in 10 people realize that our country's debt problem is driving up costs of living and making personal borrowing more expensive.
Eliminating our country's annual deficits is achievable, and doing so will get our national debt on a path to be paid down. But it will take bold leaders who will set realistic goals and have the political courage to achieve them. That's a tall ask in Washington these days, but voters should demand it when they go to vote this fall.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.
Tyler Durden Thu, 09/17/2026 - 06:30On September 4, the US Treasury unveiled sanctions against a Turkey-based bank and two of its subsidiaries, accusing them of moving tens of millions of dollars on behalf of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and facilitating Tehran's movement of funds across the international banking system.
It did not take long for the Turkish government to sweep in and act to contain the damage and what some interpret as a national reputational hit, which was one of the opening salvoes in the Trump/Bessent 'Economic D-Day' and secondary sanctions (Operation Economic Outcast) targeting Tehran and entities still doing business with the Islamic Republic.
On Wednesday Turkey's banking regulator has taken over most shareholder rights of the US-targeted bank - the Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi - through the country’s state deposit insurer, TMSF (Savings Deposit Insurance Fund).
Turkish media notes that "The decision gives the fund the authority to exercise the shareholder rights attached to the stakes, while specifically excluding dividend rights."
The newly reassigned rights cover 99.98 percent of the shares in the bank, reports also detail.
Publicly available figures indicate that Golden Global Investment Bank is a small and young bank, having €498 million ($574.5 million) in total assets, and was only founded in 2019.
In the wake of the US action, US Ambassador to Turkey and Trump special envoy for the broader region Tom Barrack had sought to calm the Turkish government by saying Washington is only targeting specific financial institutions and this is not meant as a shot against Turkey itself.
"This designation is aimed at the conduct of one entity, not at a nation, not at a banking system, and not at an ally," Barrack wrote on X.
He further declared it would be "a serious error" to interpret the measure as a judgment on the Turkish ally as a whole.
The country's Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek had simply acknowledged last week that Ankara had taken note of US Treasury announcements - suggesting some kind of serious house cleaning could soon follow.
OFAC alleges the bank was created to help Iranian oil revenues reach Turkey from China, where exchangers converted the funds into cash and gold, and accuses it of opening correspondent banking to Iranian institutions through accounts under Quds Force control. There are reports saying the bank has officially rejected the charges against it.
Tyler Durden Thu, 09/17/2026 - 05:45Update(1135ET): The Houthis have released new footage which appears to confirm the earlier Saudi F-15 jet shootdown, with aircraft falling in the Marib area. The footage shows militants celebrating near the wreckage.
Below is the clip as released by Ansar Allah officials, which has since been given confirmation by some foreign and international outlets. It suggests that the Houthis have locally-made ability to down advanced aircraft, which should seriously worry Riyadh and Washington.
مشاهد نوعية لإسقاط طائرة مقاتلة سعودية من نوع F15 وحطامها في محافظة مأرب - 16 سبتمبر 2026م pic.twitter.com/rk0suliePT
— الإعلام الحربي اليمني (@MMY1444) September 16, 2026According to the latest on the fighting in Yemen, clashes are intensifying:
Yemen’s pro-government Southern Giants Forces say that they are engaged in clashes with Houthi forces on the Kahboub front near the Bab al-Mandeb strait.
The government-aligned forces claim in a social media post that they have inflicted heavy personnel and equipment losses on the Houthi forces.
Global oil prices continue climbing amid a slew of negative headlines:
From bad to worse for the coalition:
Looks like the Yemenis weren't lying about downing a Saudi jet today. pic.twitter.com/2t4tTYoa6F
— Russians With Attitude (@RWApodcast) September 16, 2026* * *
Yemen's Ansar Allah (Houthi) movement has claimed to have shot down a Saudi fighter jet in a Wednesday statement, saying they utilized domestic made munitions to do it.
"The Yemeni Armed Forces, with Allah's aid and grace, succeeded in shooting down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet while it was carrying out hostile operations," Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree announced.
Royal Saudi Air ForceHe said the fighter jet had been targeted "using a locally made" missile over Marib - after the Saudi coalition has launched some 450 strikes. The area of the alleged downing is some 75 miles east of Sanaa.
Saudi authorities have not acknowledged any shootdown and have not immediately commented on the claim.
Overnight, the big news out of the conflict focused on Saudi claims that it had intercepted a Houthi drone targeting Yemen in a "heinous" act targeting Islam's holiest site.
However, the Houthis are vehemently denying sending a drone on Mecca. "Our operations target its oil facilities and military bases, which are far removed from the sacred sites," Saree said further.
The Houthi military spokesman called out the "fabrications and lies propagated by the criminal al-Saud regime cannot deceive anyone."
Missile alerts had been issued for the population of Mecca, and plenty of old and fake social media videos purported to capture footage of a drone inbound on Mecca, but so far no clear evidence has emerged of the alleged targeting.
But the Saudi claims were enough to get Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to condemn Wednesday "in the strongest possible terms the dastardly and heinous" the alleged attack on Mecca.
"The people of Pakistan are saddened and perturbed by this outrageous act," he said on X.
Unconfirmed image of downed jet posted by Iranian state media:
On Wednesday morning, Yemeni Army confirmed that it had shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter aircraft over Marib Province. pic.twitter.com/4nk1d1DYi6
— IRNA News Agency ☫ (@IrnaEnglish) September 16, 2026Pakistan and Turkey just recently this summer signed a comprehensive "Mecca Defense Pact", and the Saudi claims that Mecca was targeted by drone are perhaps intended to secure the help of allies in dealing with the advancing Houthis menace while a Red Sea 'siege for siege' policy is still in effect. As for the lates developments to emerge Wednesday, via Newsquawk:
Houthis say they carried out two military operations, targeting Saudi Aramco in Yanbu with dozens of ballistic missiles and drones and Khamis Mushait Air Base with a number of ballistic missiles.
The damaged Saudi East-West pipeline could still take five to six weeks to come back online, according to some estimates.
* * *
Tyler Durden Thu, 09/17/2026 - 05:01Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,
A Dutch 'activist' who climbed Winston Churchill's statue in Parliament Square, sprayed it with "Zionist war criminal," "Globalise the Intifada" and Hamas-style red triangles, then argued the graffiti didn't count because it could be washed off, has walked out of Southwark Crown Court a free man.
The bill for cleaning the monument ran into thousands. The man who did it has escaped criminal charges.
Olax Outis, also known as Caspar San Giorgi, 39, defaced Churchill earlier this year while wearing a red boiler suit reading "I support Palestine Action." Prosecutor Peter Ratliff told jurors he sprayed the words 'Free Palestine' and red triangles on the front, and 'Never Again Is Now' on the rear. On the plinth he scrawled 'Globalise the Intifada,' 'Stop the Genocide' and 'Zionist war criminal,' plus a Dutch line he later rendered as 'The Hague sends their regards.'
UPDATE: The Dutch Palestine Action fan who vandalised Winston Churchill's statue with slogans like "Globalise the Intifada" and red triangles was just found NOT GUILTY of criminal damage. This country's legal system is a nasty joke. pic.twitter.com/HYmjUTnZGy
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) September 15, 2026A Greater London Authority heritage warden saw him doing it and called the police. Officers were there within two minutes. Specialist cleaners were not far behind. Court figures put the damage at £11,970 when he was first charged. Later reporting on the restoration bill listed more than £7,000, including police barriers at £612 plus VAT and an emergency clean and restore at £6,504 plus VAT.
He denied criminal damage. The paint was washable, he said. He was "sending a message to parliament." He was "preventing a crime." The jury agreed he was not guilty.
In the dock he was unrepentant. "I'm proud to be a citizen of The Hague," he told them. "If I had a larger canvas and more time, I would have written if Keir Starmer doesn't come to The Hague, The Hague will come for him. My wish is to see him on trial in The Hague." On the verdict itself: "Whether you convict me or not is not too much of a concern for me. Whether I get acquitted, deported, imprisoned for years, I can be proud of having spoken about injustice and I have accounted for my actions. I will accept your judgement."
'It is pathetic! It is astonishing! I cannot believe the country we live in.' @MartinDaubney fumes at confirmation that the man who painted 'Free Palestine' on the Chrurchill statue in Westminster being cleared of criminal damage. pic.twitter.com/t4pWNeXiu8
— GB News (@GBNEWS) September 15, 2026He had already claimed the stunt online. He had come to Britain, he said, to "deface a statue of one of history's most well-known war criminals, Winston Churchill." Churchill, in his telling, was "the Keir Starmer of his time."
Downing Street called the vandalism "completely abhorrent" in February and said Churchill was "a great Briton" who "must be held to account." The Home Office called the vandals "a disgrace." The Greater London Authority said it was "appalled." Six months later a jury decided the spray cans did not amount to a crime.
'Many people find it an abhorrent form of protest.'
Social policy analyst Dr Rakib Ehsan reacts to an activist being cleared of 'desecrating' the Winston Churchill outside of Parliament. pic.twitter.com/w8hNxroiDg
Heidi Bachram, whose husband's relatives were murdered and taken hostage by Hamas, blasted the decision, urging "This country's legal system is a nasty joke,"and adding "He should have been deported." A foreigner, she noted, can "paint a threat to Jews on the statue of our greatest leader with the added red triangle to make clear it isn't the 'peaceful' version of Intifada and GET AWAY WITH IT."
This is the closing speech of Olax Outis where he says he should have done something more "spectacular". Like burning down a weapons factory as a group did in Czech Republic. This is extraordinary and I cannot comprehend this man is walking free. pic.twitter.com/vstz61VJwr
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) September 15, 2026What I don't understand about the jury sympathising with this guy is his blatant disingenuousness. Here he complains about not getting an interpreter while speaking in almost perfect English. We live in Bizarro World. pic.twitter.com/plMYxyn3E5
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) September 15, 2026You won't even get convicted as along as it's 'protest'. I wonder if this would have happened if it were far right messages though.
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) September 15, 2026This is a disgusting ruling that will only embolden far-left thugs to vandalise our national hero's statue time and time again.
Would the same injustice have been done if it were Gandhi's or Mandela's statue that had been defaced? https://t.co/MjwUN4oeh4
WANKER who did this, desecrated Winston Churchill found not guilty of criminal damage arguing in court the paint washed off.
A Green light for these bastards to do the same to anything else.
Imagine if you threw some of that on a Mosque, your feet wouldn't touch the floor.... pic.twitter.com/pYiYrgKwiG
That is the two-tier point, and it is not a slogan. The Met and Greater Manchester Police spent last winter warning that "globalise the intifada" could get you arrested. The same words went up in red on Churchill's monument. The man who put them there told a jury the paint came off. The jury said not guilty.
None of this sits in a vacuum. Churchill is being taken apart in official rooms while activists take him apart in the square.
Last week it emerged the Bank of England had spent more than £85,000 researching how to get him off the £5 note. Consultants told officials that portraits of notable Britons were "elitist and divisive," a "backward-looking vision of the UK that carries too great a risk of division and controversy." Hedgehogs and puffins are waiting in the wings. Nigel Farage called the plan "absolutely crackers." Kemi Badenoch called it "erasing our history."
The same city that cannot convict a man for spraying "Zionist war criminal" across Churchill is being lectured by the UN's racial discrimination committee to put up statues of people of African descent as atonement for slavery - as if Britain had not banned the trade, spent blood and treasure suppressing it, and already spent years ripping down or boxing up its own monuments.
Sadiq Khan's Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm was built for that mood. Churchill's statue was boarded up in 2020. The lecture has not stopped.
Churchill's statue today in London. I'm speechless. pic.twitter.com/lU6Y37my7e
— Antonello Guerrera (@antoguerrera) June 12, 2020They even installed the punchline. On Trafalgar Square's Fourth Plinth last week City Hall unveiled Tschabalala Self's five-metre Lady in Blue - sold as an "everywoman," a "symbol of confidence and purpose," and, in the CNN version, a win because it is "not another White man." It stands in the ceremonial heart of the capital, opposite Nelson, paid for out of the same public art machine that treats British victory as an embarrassment.
Picture the same red paint poured all over that figure. The press releases write themselves. The outrage would be industrial.
Tyler Durden Thu, 09/17/2026 - 05:00In a rare development, Belarus - which forms a 'Union State' with Russia, has received partial US sanctions relief after it agreed to free 25 political prisoners.
President Trump's envoy, John Coale, revealed to reporters in the Belarusian capital Minsk: "We agreed to an interim deal, and as a show of goodwill Belarus will release 25 people and in exchange the United States will lift sanctions on two companies."
Kremlin.ru/ White HouseThe deal follows a much bigger amnesty for prisoners brokered by Washington that occurred last March. At that time the Lukashenko government freed a huge amount - 250 people.
"We will continue to improve U.S.-Belarus relations and are working to secure the release of more people in the very near future. We are not finished!" Coale had later posted on X.
One regional outlet has outlined what the Belarussians are getting in return:
The two companies to be removed from U.S. sanctions are Lakokraska, a manufacturer of paints and industrial coatings, and Bellesbumprom, a state-owned industrial concern that oversees the forestry, pulp and paper sectors. Sanctions against them have been in place since 2008 and 2023, respectively.
Coale also promised Lukashenko on Tuesday to get U.S. banks to hand back tens of millions of dollars in frozen Belarusian assets.
Back in September of 2025, there had been an initial breakthrough deal which centered on the release of 52 prisoners deemed held on political grounds, such as based on speech or political activism.
Russia's aviation sector has also long been sanctioned, leading to the potential for unsafe travel or possible aerial disasters - as aging fleets are in need of regular servicing, often dependent on access to US and Western parts. This is something Minsk has also sought to grain relief from Washington for.
President Trump has in the recent past indicated that he looks forward to meeting with President Lukashenko in the future, in a sign of a likely further thawing of relations.
BREAKING:
Belarus has freed 25 political prisoners. They are now in Lithuania.
U.S. special envoy John Coale published a photo of those released.
Among them are journalists, musicians, lawyers, and other well-known protest figures. pic.twitter.com/5CH31mdVgJ
More broadly, this is also part of US efforts to reverse spiraling bilateral relations with Moscow, given that Russia and Belarus work hand and glove in defense, economic, and political areas. Belarusian territory has long been a staging ground for Putin's 'special military operation' in Ukraine as well, and hosts Russian tactical nukes - which Europe has long kept a very close eye on.
Tyler Durden Thu, 09/17/2026 - 04:15