Shareholders of America
Every citizen owns a share of this country. Before you vote, ask the question any prudent investor
would ask: who is building lasting value — and who is spending the inheritance?
“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” — Warren Buffett
THE ANNUAL MEETING. Every November,
America’s stockholders hold their annual meeting. We
don’t call it that. We call it Election Day. But the logic
is identical. When you buy a share of a company, you
are betting on its management — their discipline, their
honesty, their patience. When you cast a ballot, you
are hiring management for the most valuable
enterprise on earth: the United States of America.
Politicians are the managers. Citizens are the
owners. And like any board of directors, we have
every right to read the books before we renew
anyone’s contract.
The best investors judge managers not by the noise
of a single quarter but by what they leave behind.
Warren Buffett built a fortune by buying businesses
with durable “moats” — advantages competitors
cannot easily cross — and holding them for decades.
He never rewarded an executive for borrowing heavily
to pretty up this year’s numbers. Neither should we.
READ THE BALANCE SHEET. So open the
books. When fiscal 2026 closed on September 30,
total public debt stood at about $40.17 trillion —
roughly $293,000 for every American household. By
mid-October it was approaching $40.4 trillion. The
year’s deficit ran near $2 trillion, and interest alone is
on track to top $1 trillion. That is money spent not on
roads, schools, research or soldiers, but on yesterday’s
borrowing.
This is not a one-party problem. The debt has more
than doubled since 2016, under presidents and
Congresses of both parties. Any CEO who delivered
that record to a board would face one simple question:
what did we buy, and what will it return?
THE NATION THAT SAVED. Now look to
Norway. In 1996 it made a first deposit of roughly
$300 million in oil revenue into a national fund. By
June 30 of this year, that fund — the largest sovereign
wealth fund in the world — was worth about $2.39
trillion. Most of that value came not from oil, but from
investment returns. Compounding did the heavy
lifting.
The discipline is written into the rules. Norway’s
government may draw only about three percent a year
— roughly the expected return — so the principal is
preserved for children not yet born. Through the fund,
Norway owns on average about 1.5 percent of every
listed company on the planet.
A nation of five and a half million people
built a moat of savings. A nation of 340
million built a mountain of debt.
Which set of shareholders is better protected?
Which grandchildren will inherit an asset, and which
will inherit a bill?
HONESTY REPORTING Shareholders of America • Page 2
HONESTY REPORTING • honestyreporting@outlook.com • 402-619-7074 • Des Moines, Iowa
All opinions and articles herein are solely those of Honesty Reporting LLC.
THE COSTLIEST LINE ITEM. Defense is a
legitimate expense. Deterrence keeps the peace, and
no serious person argues otherwise. But the numbers
deserve the same scrutiny as any other budget line.
World military spending hit a record $2.887 trillion in
2025, the eleventh straight year of increases. The
United States spent $954 billion — a third of the
planet’s total. NATO members together spent $1.58
trillion.
Weapons depreciate. Some of them, if ever used,
would wipe out the shareholders entirely. Ronald
Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, adversaries at the
height of the Cold War, jointly declared that a nuclear
war “cannot be won and must never be fought.” There
is no recovery plan for that loss. No insurance policy.
No next quarter. No future generation to inherit
anything at all.
THE LEDGER
U.S. national debt, Sept. 30, 2026 $40.17 trillion
Debt per U.S. household » $293,000
FY2026 federal deficit » $2 trillion
Interest on the debt, FY2026 over $1 trillion
Norway’s wealth fund, June 30, 2026 $2.39 trillion
World military spending, 2025 $2.887 trillion
U.S. military spending, 2025 $954 billion (33%)
DIPLOMACY PAYS BETTER. Diplomacy is
cheap by comparison, and its returns compound.
Treaties honored, alliances kept and courts respected
build something no missile can: trust. When a nation
keeps its word and follows its own laws — with real
legal and ethical safeguards — other nations respect
its leaders and its people, and its own citizens respect
their government.
That respect is the deepest moat of all. It lowers
borrowing costs, opens markets, steadies allies and
keeps young Americans out of wars that never needed
to start. Disrespect, by contrast, is a liability that never
appears on the balance sheet — until the day it comes
due all at once.
THE BALLOT QUESTION. Before you vote, put
one question on the record to every candidate on your
ballot, Republican, Democrat or Independent:
“What will you leave in the account for my
grandchildren — a fund, or a bill?”
Ask whether they will cut waste, or only cut taxes
with borrowed money. Whether they will fund
diplomats as seriously as drones. Whether they will
keep America’s word to its allies and to its own
Constitution. A candidate who cannot answer plainly
has answered anyway.
THE LONG-TERM VOTE. Quarterly thinkers
chase the next headline, the next rally, the next
applause line. Long-term investors plant trees whose
shade they may never sit in. America was built by the
second kind — by people who dug canals, founded
land-grant colleges, and won a lasting peace with a
Marshall Plan instead of another war.
You are a stockholder in the greatest enterprise in
human history, and its management is up for election.
Vote like an owner, not a spectator. Vote for discipline
over debt, diplomacy over destruction, and honor over
noise. Vote for the America your great-grandchildren
will inherit — because they will inherit exactly what
we leave them.
THIS NOVEMBER, VOTE FOR YOUR
LONG-TERM FUTURE.
INVEST IN AMERICA. PROTECT THE
NEXT GENERATION.
Sources: U.S. Treasury “Debt to the Penny” via Independent Institute (Oct. 20, 2026)
and PrimeRates (Oct. 8, 2026); Congressional Budget Office; Norges Bank Investment
Management first-half 2026 results; SIPRI, Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2025
(Apr. 27, 2026); Reagan–Gorbachev Joint Statement, Geneva, 1985.
