Money for what?

As it is about tax time again, I think these thoughts need to be expressed. Before I start into the main meat of this piece, I am going to throw out these statistics:

The U.S. debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio as of December 2022 is now 129% which is very close to what it was at the end of World War II. In other words, it would take everything the U.S. produced in 1.29 years to lower our debt to zero; that’s $100,000 per every living person in the U.S. Ukraine’s debt to GDP ratio as of December 2022 is now around 80%.

And because this is also about Russia, its debt to GDP ratio is around 18% as of December 2022.

And yet again the U.S. government is more concerned about the Ukrainian border than the millions of people flowing over our Southern border. If the House passes the bill that has made it through the Senate, an additional $60 billion could be sent to the Zelenskyy government. It is well known that Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. How are U.S. taxpayers going to know where these funds are going to end up?

Some of this money could be laundered through agricultural oligarchs indebted to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund by selling assets such as the most productive land in the world to U.S. hedge funds.

This was happening long before the war started in February of 2022, according to the Oakland Institute, an independent policy think tank. An article from that website dated Feb. 21, 2023, titled “Amidst Chaos of War, A New Report Exposes the Stealth Take-over of Ukrainian Agricultural Land,” brings this possibility to light. A quote from this article: “This is a lose-lose situation for Ukrainians. While they are dying to defend their land, financial institutions are insidiously supporting the consolidation of farmland by oligarchs and Western financial interests.”

I could go on and on about this subject, but if this is concerning to you get on the internet: 1. Search oaklandinstitute.org; 2. Once inside open the issues tab at the top; 3. Open the land rights tab; 4. Scroll down and look for the Ukrainian article; 5. Off to the right side there are other important articles that can be opened explaining all of this.

I hope each one of you farmers and ranchers think about this as you make out that check to the U.S. Treasury this spring. I know I will be. You can also contact our elected officials in Washington, D.C., at the Capitol Switchboard, 202-224-3121, with your thoughts.

Ken Morris

Fairfield, MT