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There are no shortage of mile markers on the road to dystopia… and there’s no shortage of blame to pass around for the terminal velocity at which we are blowing past them. The fiscal ruination of the American Republic – and the ensuing obliteration of the American middle class – has occurred at breakneck speed over the last quarter century.
And it’s only accelerating from here on out…
Both parties are to blame… and frankly, so is former/future president Donald Trump.
Unlike a lot of media outlets who exclusively blame one party (or president) for the mess, FITSNews has from its inception condemned the profligate “bipartisanshit” of both Democrats and Republicans. We’ve also consistently pointed out Trump’s contributions to our nation’s unsustainable debt and untenable inflation – and pulled no punches in criticizing his broader failure to rein in the excesses of the Washington swamp during his first term in office.
But January 20, 2025 is a critical mile marker as Joe Biden leaves the Oval Office and gives way to Trump… who has been given a rare second act in American politics. I’ve written previously on the economic perniciousness Trump is inheriting, with concerns over inflation and deficit spending dominating that discussion.

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As Biden exits stage (far) left, it’s worth looking at some of the key final data points of his administration.
On Wednesday (January 15, 2025), the much-maligned U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the last monthly consumer price index (CPI) of the Biden administration – registering an uptick of 0.4% month-over-month and 2.9% year-over-year. While well below peak “Bidenflation,” that’s the highest monthly increase since March and the highest year-over-year uptick since July.
Price increases have now climbed for six consecutive months after retreating from historic highs reached in the spring of 2022 – when inflation reached its highest levels in a generation. Driving the uptick? The rising cost of food and energy.
All told, consumer prices under Biden soared by an astronomical 21.25% – which is the primary reason why neither he nor Kamala Harris are taking the oath of office next Monday. With average weekly earnings growth lagging well behind price hikes, real wages declined by 1.6% under Biden compared to the 6.8% uptick they experienced under Trump.
There was another depressing data point released this week. On Tuesday (January 14, 2025), the U.S. Treasury published its latest monthly statement. According to the document (.pdf), the federal government is already $711 billion in the hole for the fiscal year which began on October 1, 2025 – putting it a whopping $201 billion ahead of the previous year’s pace.
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RELATED | WHILE AMERICA TEETERS ON THE BRINK…
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This gusher of red ink – driven by an entitlement crisis and the soaring cost of borrowing – isn’t letting up anytime soon. If anything, it’s about to explode like a slit jugular. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will cost a combined $5.1 trillion annually by 2034, according to a report (.pdf) from the White House budget office. Meanwhile, interest payments on the national debt are expected to eclipse $1 trillion annually for the first time ever this year… and will soar even higher in the years to come.
In other words, the reckoning is upon us…
“For years, the national debt has been a massive – yet distant – problem. It was something for future generations to worry about, and so sadly – during the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s – generations of politicians of both parties simply refused to worry about it,” I wrote last fall. “Republican and Democrat alike, they continued to spend with reckless abandon – and are continuing to do so in this decade.”
As noted, FITSNews has been sounding the alarm on this crisis for more than a decade.
“Within a decade, America will be staring down between $800 billion and $1 trillion in annual interest payments on its debt,” I noted in a column addressing this issue published back in June… of 2013.
Count on this media outlet to continue its commitment to fiscal sanity in the decade to come… although for those of you unfamiliar with the interstellar boundary known as the “event horizon,” check your rearview mirror.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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4 comments
Sadly, even smaller governments and county government entities play a roll in their own destruction of America. Public libraries are still promoting drag queens, transgenderism, and alternate lifestyles
Charleston County library system is now saturated and run by far left transplants from radical states.
We let it happen with our failure to act earlier on.
If Trump’s promises of tariffs don’t turn out to be his usual bullshit wait and see what inflation is like then.
Don’t renew the tax cuts for the ultra wealthy and corporations and you will have $2 trillion more…
DOGE is a joke, Leon Mush has admitted that they won’t be able to cut that much. Surprise!
Well, at least Biden tried to make things better for the American people; and his deficits were a trillion dollars less than Trump’s deficits. Now we are about to embark on a new economic plan; cutting taxes for the richest Americans and paying for those tax cuts by cutting programs that benefit average Americans. And we have chosen the richest man in the world to decide which programs will be cut for the rest of us to pay for his tax cuts.
We have traded our freedom for oligarchy. Nothing will showcase that more than Donald Trump’s inauguration, where three unelected civilian billionaires will be seated on the stage with Trump, for no reason other than they are billionaires. It a clear message to the people; government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich is back in style. Over the next four years, you will need to hone your billionaire ass-kissing skills to the level of a Republican Congressman.