As always, I’m indebted to readers in America, Britain, Canada, Australia, Europe, Asia, and beyond for filling my in-box with sharp insights and pertinent anecdotes every morning. And I would be entirely adrift were it not for my trusty sidekicks Tiffany Cole, Chantal Benoît, and Katherine Ernst and their dogged research and expertly compressed statistical summaries. They could be taking it easy in a cushy government union job, so I’m grateful to them for laboring down the Steyn salt mines instead.

NOTES

Prologue

1. Town hall meeting in Greeley, Colorado, August 21, 2010; available online at http://www.greeleygazette.com/press/?p=5029.

2. Terrence P. Jeffrey, “111th Congress Added More Debt Than First 100 Congresses Combined: $10,429 Per Person in U.S.,” CNSNews.com, December 27, 2010; available online at http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/111th-congress-added-more-debt-first-100.

3. Herbert Stein, “Herb Stein’s Unfamiliar Quotations,” Slate.com, May 16, 1997; available online at http://www.slate.com/id/2561/.

4. Herbert Stein, “Herb Stein’s Unfamiliar Quotations,” Slate.com, May 16, 1997; available online at http://www.slate.com/id/2561/.

5. Remarks to reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, April 8, 2010; available online at http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/35546.html.

6. Brian Riedl, “President Obama Set to Exceed President Bush’s Deficits,” The Heritage Foundation, February 11, 2009; available online at http://blog.heritage.org/2009/02/11/president-obama-set-to-exceed-president-bush%E2%80%99s-deficits/.

7. Remarks at Thompson Creek Manufacturing in Landover, Maryland, January 7, 2011; available online at http://m.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/01/07/remarks-president-december-jobs-report-and-economic-personnel-announceme.

8. White House, “Table 15.3— Total Government Expenditures as Percentages of GDP: 1948-2010”; available online at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals.

9. CBO report, “The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2011 to 2021,” January 2011; available online at http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/120xx/doc12039/01-26_FY2011Outlook.pdf.

10. CBO report, “The Long-Term Budget Outlook: Federal Debt Held by the Public Under Two Budget Scenarios,” June 2010; available online at http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/115xx/doc11579/06-30-LTBO.pdf.

11. Niall Ferguson, “Sun could set suddenly on superpower as debt bites,” The Australian, July 29, 2010; available online at http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/sun-could-set-suddenly-on-superpower-as-debt-bites/story-e6frg6zo-1225898187243.

12. CBO report, “The Long-Term Budget Outlook: Federal Debt Held by the Public Under Two Budget Scenarios,” June 2010; available online at http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/115xx/doc11579/06-30-LTBO.pdf.

13. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 2011; available online at http://www.rickety.us/2011/01/2009-defense-spending-by-country/.

14. Niall Ferguson, “Sun could set suddenly on superpower as debt bites,” The Australian.

15. US Treasury, “Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities,” March 15, 2001; available online at http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Documents/mfh.txt.

16. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 2011; available online at http://www.rickety.us/2011/01/2009-defense-spending-by-country/.

17. US Department of Defense, “Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China,” 2010; available online at http://www.defense.gov/pubs/pdfs/2010_CMPR_Final.pdf.

18. Sam Lister, ““NHS is world’s biggest employer after Indian rail and Chinese Army,” March 20, 2004; available online at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article1050197.ece.