Today's Poll Question: Is the Natalie Harp story Much Ado About Nothing?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Get ready to vote on today's daily poll question at smerconish.com.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:05)
But first, Michael explains it for you right here.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:08)
Welcome to The Smerconish Podcast from SiriusXM.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:11)
For Independent Minds.

**Michael Smerconish** (0:14)
Hello, hello. Hi, gang. Today is Thursday, it's the 20th of August, 2026, and our national debt has topped $40 trillion.
It's the very early morning hours of Thursday as I speak to you, and I'm contemplating whether to discuss this. Well, I am going to discuss it on radio today, but to what level, to what extent will I discuss it on radio today? Because I think it's a really important subject. And over the years, I've spoken to Michael Peterson, who is the CEO of the Peter Peterson Foundation. His father was so concerned about the country's fiscal future and our debt specifically that he left a billion dollars to establish a foundation to educate the public. You've probably seen their commercials about the debt. Haven't seen them recently.
I interviewed Michael Peterson about the debt. How many years ago was that? Let me just take a look. Three years ago. Not even three years ago. No, three years ago. Three years ago. Yeah, three years ago. And at the time, the debt was $31.4 trillion. Think about that. $31.4 trillion in January of 2023 Now we're at $40.05.
And at that time, he said to me, that's $94,000 in gross federal debt for every American. Today, the figure is $117,000. And federal interest costs now $2.8 billion a day. How can that be? $2.8 billion a day? Boy, that brings it home, right? And we've not had any conversation about this in 16 years. Simpson-Bowles was the last time that there was any conversation, and we never got an up or down vote. Anyway, that is your big story of the day today. That's my lead story. And as I put the newsletter to bed for today, I think instead of linking to a news story, I'm going to link to the Peterson Foundation because they've got some graphics that bring it home and make it understandable. And I think that's one of the problems. People here are in debt $40 trillion. But yeah, what does it mean to me? So yesterday, 29,411 votes cast. Should the US grow or shrink its footprint in the Middle East?
59.79% said shrinkage. 31.88% said keep it the same. 8.33% said grow. Why was I asking the question? Because it's kind of a perennial, you know, we get into this subject from time to time and talk about whether we've jeopardized ourselves in the name of safety by opening bases all around the globe. The reason I talked about it yesterday is because The Washington Post had a big report that the Pentagon is evaluating its military footprint in the Middle East. You know, eight sources, officials familiar with the matter, a lot of reporting, a lot of detail. Really interesting, Central Command normally stations about 40,000 troops across 20 sites in a 1,500-mile arc in the Middle East. And now they're thinking, and they were already having this conversation internally before war with Iran, but now they're wondering whether, especially since we've had so much damage to our bases, more than 200 US facilities have been damaged, according to The Washington Post, with a repair tab at 5 Bill. And they're wondering, you know, should we really be rebuilding? And I went into it in detail yesterday and I said, okay, you know, here's what our footprint looks like around the globe. Here's how that compares to China and Russia and our allies. Nobody has anything like this. The premise is that it makes us more safe. But does it really? And we had a really good conversation on radio yesterday as a result of that. But again, bottom line from our audience who voted, 60% said we ought to shrink our footprint in the Middle East. Today is the Natalie Harp story, much ado about nothing.
When I looked early this morning, it was running 55-45. I'm not going to tell you which way.

**SPEAKER_2** (4:26)
This is Smerconish Podcast from SiriusXM.

**Michael Smerconish** (4:29)
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