Death and destruction continue to mount in the Middle East due to the Iran War that the United States and Israel governments initiated at the end of February. While Americans an ocean away have been spared the costs imposed directly by missile strikes and other military actions, they are being subjected to substantial economic harm from the war.
In the Wednesday episode of his Peter Schiff Show, economist and investor Peter Schiff laid out some of the details of the financial damage the Iran War is bringing to Americans, including arising from a resulting increase in the US national debt.
Starting off his discussion, Schiff noted that the Donald Trump administration has quickly increased the “down payment for the military for the war” that the administration is seeking from Congress. The amount sought has already multiplied four times from 50 billion dollars to 200 billion dollars. This is special new funding on top of the over trillion dollars spent yearly on what advocates of the spending call “national defense.”
Noting the US government’s “massive deficits” and 39 trillion dollars debt, Schiff explained that “we don’t have plenty of money lying around to pay for this war” or “to pay for anything.” After discussing US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s assertion that taxes will not be raised to pay war costs, Schiff warned that the war will be paid for via running up the US government’s debt further.
The willingness to pile more money on the US government’s debt to pay for the Iran War, argued Schiff, “proves that the biggest threat to the United States is not coming from Iran.” Instead, concluded Schiff, regarding the biggest threat to the US:
It’s coming from Washington, DC; it’s coming from the president of the United States; it’s coming from the Congress of the United States that is spending all this money. The debt is the threat. Inflation is the threat. That’s what the president should be concerned about. Instead of figuring out more ways to spend even more money and go deeper into debt, why don’t we try to figure out how to cut spending?
Continuing, Schiff asked, “instead of focusing on defeating an enemy that really doesn’t represent that much of a threat to us, why don’t we focus on what does — the debt itself?” Good question. Indeed, many people who voted for Trump who portrayed himself as the advocate for DOGE and peace expected the last thing he would be doing as president is piling on more debt to pay for choosing to fight wars across the world.
Watch Schiff’s complete episode here.
