Kelly J. Bullis: Is another financial crisis looming?

Today, we celebrate the 73rd anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that started World War II for the United States.

I came across an interesting statement the other day. Perhaps you saw it too…

“During the 3-1/2 years of World War 2 that started with the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and ended with the Surrender of Germany and Japan in 1945, the U.S. produced 22 aircraft carriers, 8 battleships, 48 cruisers, 349 destroyers, 420 destroyer escorts, 203 submarines, 34 million tons of merchant ships, 100,000 fighter aircraft, 98,000 bombers, 24,000 transport aircraft, 58,000 training aircraft, 93,000 tanks, 257,000 artillery pieces, 105,000 mortars, 3,000,000 machine guns, and 2,500,000 military trucks. We put 16.1 million men in uniform in the various armed services, invaded Africa, invaded Sicily and Italy, won the battle for the Atlantic, planned and executed D-Day, marched across the Pacific and Europe, developed the atomic bomb and ultimately conquered Japan and Germany. Many weapons were designed, tested, and mass produced by the tens of thousands in that short 3-1/2 year span of time. All of this without the aid of computers. Now contrast that to the still failed full functionality of the Federal Obamacare website.”

When you put something in that perspective it really helps to see, “Uh Houston, we have a problem!”

So I ask myself, why is the federal government still having so much trouble putting together a simple website? Perhaps it’s connected to the same federal government that pays out more than $2 trillion in entitlements (welfare, food stamps, medicare, etc.) each year, and has to borrow about $8 trillion a year (more than $7 trillion is new debt to pay off the old debt plus interest that came due) to keep from running out of money. Don’t get me going on the definition of a “Ponzi Scheme.” Look it up.

So, with poor website building, paid for with gobs of your tax dollars, all the other wasteful federal spending out of control, and Congress unwilling to stand up to the occupant in the White House to pass real tax and spending reform, what can you expect in the coming year regarding tax law? The answer is, “About the same as you have seen in 2014.” There are some currently expired tax law provisions (such as Section 179 Expense deduction) that may not be fully reinstated, while others (such as the Sales Tax deduction) are probably going to be renewed. In planning for 2015, at least “tax stability” is mostly in place, even though the tax rates are painfully too high for many.

The bigger “unknown” that will be hard to plan for will be what will happen when there are not enough new buyers of U.S. government debt to cover the old debt that comes due each year.

When that happens, hopefully the sleeping giant known as America can awaken once again. Just as war with Germany and Japan was looming on the horizon in the fall of 1941, we need to see the current financial crisis that is looming on the horizon today. I hope it won’t take a “financial Pearl Harbor” to awaken us.

Did you hear? “Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.”

Kelly Bullis is a Certified Public Accountant in Carson City. Contact him at 882-4459. On the web at BullisAndCo.com Also on Facebook.