When the European Union announced that it wanted to seize 10 percent of the bank deposits in Cyprus to fund yet another bailout, you know — you know — that certain budget-minded Democrats across the fruited plains must have started rubbing their hands together gleefully, and Nancy Pelosi was no doubt cackling like Nancy Pelosi. But the results must have been disappointing.
According to our friends at the Federal Reserve, there is only about $9.3 trillion deposited in U.S. banks, meaning that a 10 percent levy would produce only $930 billion — not even enough to cover last year’s deficit.
We could seize 100 percent of the bank deposits in the United States and not even come close to paying off the national debt.
If you still think that we do not have a spending problem, consider that the federal government alone is spending all of the money Americans have in the bank every two and a half years, and that states and local governments are spending a few trillion dollars on top of that.
In totally unrelated news, Paul Ryan’s balanced-budget plan is dead on arrival in the Senate.