A reclusive billionaire, anti-tax crusader and major financial backer of Donald Trump has been named as the anonymous private donor who gave $130m to the government to help pay US troops during the federal shutdown that is now in its fourth week, according to the New York Times.
The donation, which equates to about $100 per service member, appears to be a potential violation of the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits federal agencies from spending funds in advance or in excess of congressional appropriations – and from accepting voluntary services “except in the case of emergency involving the safety of human life or the protection of property”.
Potential penalties for violations include both administrative and criminal sanctions such as suspension or removal from duty, fines and imprisonment.
Let’s say China wants to buy some Russian tanks. What do they pay Russia? Russia wants Rubels which were illegal to take out of Russia for several hundred years, and China has Yuan which Russia doesn’t want.
However China has US debt bonds which are equivalent to US dollars. So China hands Russia some US bonds and Russia gives China their tanks.
Now expand that to include every single developed country and you can start to see the issue.
The other issue back in Andrew Jackson’s day was that the US dollar was such a new currency that no one wanted dollars so we couldn’t trade with anyone else, kneecapping our own economy that was based on trade.
Ah so other people are trading our debt around. But if we paid that off couldn’t they just trade with the USD that they received?