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Monday Miscellany, 2/16/26

Monday Miscellany, 2/16/26

Last updated on: February 16, 2026 at 6:00 am by Gene Veith

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Monday Miscellany, 2/16/26 2026-02-13T17:49:49-05:00 Gene Veith

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The government now owes more than the whole nation produces. Michigan defines opposition to abortion as sex discrimination. And a schism among the ICE protesters.

The Government Now Owes More Than the Whole Nation Produces

Back in 2018, I wrote a blog post with the panicked but descriptive title In 10 Years, the National Debt Will Be 96% of the Gross Domestic Product. That apocalypse was projected to happen in 2028, comfortably in the future then; but now just two years away.

But here it is 2026 and we are surpassing that milestone this year! According to non-partisan Congressional Budget Office figures for 2026, debt held by the public will be 100.6% of the entire Gross Domestic Product. And in ten years from today, in 2036, the percentage will have risen to 120.2%.

In dollar amounts for 2026, the government debt, which it must pay back including interest, is $32 trillion. The GDP, defined as “the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders,” is $31.9 trillion.

To review, the national debt is not the total of what everyone in the nation owes, with all of their mortgages, installment payments, and credit cards. It’s just what the government owes. This is in the form of treasury bills, treasury bonds, U.S. Savings Bonds, and other instruments. You are probably a moneylender to Uncle Sam if you have a pension, mutual funds, an IRA, or similar investments. Treasuries are popular because they are considered a safe investment since they are “backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government.”

Foreign countries own around 30% of U.S. debt. Of that, about 40% comes from Europe. Our biggest creditor is Japan, which has lent us $1.2 trillion. Next is our good friend the UK with $888.5 billion. Third is our adversary, China, to whom we are on the hook for $682.6 billion. Then comes Belgium at $481 billion. Number 5 is our close friend with whom we are feuding, Canada, at $472.2 billion. Those who think the USA doesn’t need other countries so we can treat them any way we want should consider how they are propping up our government’s finances.

Does this really matter? After all, this debt is mostly in the form of bonds, which mature at different times, so our obligations are staggered. When we need to pay them off, we can just issue more bonds, which always have customers eager to buy them. We can keep that up forever. Of course, paying off investments with the money from new investments, which are then paid off with newer investments is the definition of a Ponzi Scheme. Those are illegal, but maybe the government can get away with it. Eventually, though, Ponzi Schemes crash once they get so big there are not enough new investors to cover what earlier investors put in and everybody gets wise to the scam.

In the meantime, an unfathomable amount of money is going to prop up the government, money that could instead be invested in productive enterprises that would expand the economy dramatically. (For more discussion on this topic, go here and here.)

I close with what I wrote in 2018: Paying off the debt “would take every penny you and every other American earned [in a year]. The profits of Apple, Google, General Motors, and every other company; the year’s take in every pizza parlor and mom-and-pop business; the high-dollar investments on Wall Street; the cost of new homes and office buildings; our entire agricultural output in all of the fields of this vast land–all of this would be necessary to pay off what our government owes.” But in 2026, that would still not quite be enough.

Michigan Defines Opposition to Abortion as Sex Discrimination

The purple state of Michigan has amended its law against discrimination in employment so that the definition of “sex” includes “termination of a pregnancy.”

It also eliminated language that made clear that “pregnancy-related medical conditions” did not include “nontherapeutic abortions” and repealed its Abortion Insurance Opt-Out Act, which allowed employers not to cover abortion in health insurance benefits.

Two pro-life organizations have filed suit, claiming that the changes would force them to hire people who believe in abortion. The lawsuit states:

The [Michigan Department of Civil Rights] also confirmed under oath that the Employment Clause would require a mission-focused or religious organization to hire someone who disagrees with their views so long as the applicant could nonetheless explain the organization’s views,” the suit says. “Michigan’s House Fiscal Agency explained that the Employment Clause prohibits ‘discrimination and adverse employment actions based on whether an individual is considering having an abortion or on their decision to have an abortion.’”

So being able to “explain the organization’s views” is to count as adherence to an organization’s mission! Furthermore, says the lawsuit,

“Michigan’s law thus requires them to recruit and hire those with pro-abortion views, restricts these groups from explaining their pro-life requirements to applicants, and requires these groups to offer abortion coverage in their insurance plans because they generally offer insurance to their employees,” claims the lawsuit.

“The First Amendment protects Right to Life’s and PRC’s First Amendment freedoms to join with others to further a common cause and to refrain from participating in activities that contradict their beliefs. Michigan’s law infringes on these bedrock freedoms. For that reason, it is unconstitutional as applied here.”

In contrast, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer said, “No one in Michigan should face discrimination because they exercised their constitutional rights, including their right to reproductive freedom by having an abortion.”

The Supreme Court, in overturning Roe v. Wade, ruled that there is no right to an abortion in the U.S. Constitution. Whitmer must be referring to the Michigan state constitution, which was amended to allow abortion on demand.

A Schism Among the ICE Protesters

As the ICE operation in Minnesota shuts down but as protests continue across the country, it’s telling to note a curious controversy that has arisen between the white activists and the immigrant groups they are championing.

So reports Asra Q. Nomani in a story for Fox News entitled “White saviors”’ use of whistles causes bitter internal rift inside anti-ICE movement, with the deck, “Organizations from Seattle to Maryland tell predominantly White activists to quit ‘White Savior’ behavior during ICE operations.”

The mostly white activists blow whistles to create a cacophony that is part of their protest. This is a tactic urged by groups such as the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Democratic Socialists of America modeled after the tactics of European socialist and communist labor unions. The loud noises call attention to the protests, alert the crowd when a “bad guy” is spotted, disrupt police operations, pressure opponents to leave, and create a sense of revolutionary disorder.

But immigrant groups, consisting mostly of Hispanics, absolutely hate the whistles. They have been issuing statements against them. Said a Seattle immigrant-led group,

“We show up with care and accountability, not noise or panic.”

“It is not about being the loudest, the bravest, or the most visible person on the scene or confronting immigration agents. It is a commitment to non-violence, discipline and harm reduction, centering the well-being of the most vulnerable immigrant and refugee committees in Washington.”

Maryland immigrants explained why:

The Maryland coalition warned that whistles can “escalate already volatile ICE agents,” “make it harder to document and capture information,” “increase the likelihood of aggression toward bystanders or the detained person” and “create confusion” for community members and children.

They also pointed to disproportionate impacts on “Black and Brown communities” that are already “overexposed to chronic noise pollution,” which they linked to PTSD, anxiety, sleep disruption and heart disease.

Perhaps most pointedly, the group rejected the symbolism itself. Whistles, it said, are historically associated with military and police operations, including “repression, raids and disappearances,” especially in developing countries.

“They were not tools used by communities under oppression,they were tools used against them,” they said, emphasizing their point in bold.

In the new clash between immigrant-led groups and mostly white activist allies, immigrant leaders warned that the tactics meant to signal solidarity can just as easily reproduce the sounds of “state power.”

Some of the immigrants are more pointed, telling their more affluent allies, “This is not an action movie. You are not in a one-on-one fight with ICE. And you are not the center of this situation.” Others expressed irritation at what they called the “White Savior syndrome,” the sense that these privileged white progressives think they are saving the poor brown people.

But many of the whistle-blowers are pushing back, rejecting the immigrants’ plea to cut the noise. “We believe in whistles,” a white Seattle protester said; “people want whistles. Nothing change [sic] no matter what WAISN [an immigrant group] says.

Nomani reported, “A separate comment derided long-term nonprofit workers as drinking the ‘koolaid,’ labeling nonviolent, disciplined approaches as ‘fed coded.'” That is, supporting ICE by being insufficiently radical.

Again we see the divide between the educated, affluent, elite who constitute the base of the radical progressive movement and the blue collar, working class minorities whose interests the activists claim to be fighting for, but who can’t stand the activists’ condescension.

Gross Domestic Product

Michigan pro-life lawsuit

pro-abortion laws

whistles at ICE protests

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