Is This What You Voted For?

Speaking in Roanoke on July 13, 2012, suppose President Obama had said, ‘The government doesn’t build things by itself, it gets help from people like you! Our government can’t do anything without your stalwart financial support!’ His words of wisdom would have reverberated around the Globe!

 

However, what he did say was, “If you’ve got a business – you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”  The implication was that individual achievement has never succeeded without bureaucratic intervention.

 

It is true that the ‘self-made man (or woman)’ is an illusion because of the support of employees, advisors, friends and supporters. But to imply that private enterprise is helpless without government is oblivious delusion. As President Reagan once said, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

 

Although our government has quasi-commercial ventures, most government budgetary items are expenditures. The USPS, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Amtrak and other government-operated enterprises are simply money pits of lost opportunity by misguided planners, inadequate managers and misleading politicians.

 

In general, government’s job is to develop and propagate an environment that allows private citizens, employees and employers, to create added value. Incremental (stimulus) funds that are spent for and by government are dollars squandered that can’t be spent by private enterprise and investment.

 

Every penny of public infrastructure is paid for with money that came from individuals and commercial entities. Government workers estimate the cost of infrastructure items, receive bids and engage contractors to complete the construction. The project is paid for with money that was taken from taxpayers. The people, not the government, fund infrastructure like roads and bridges. There may be a controversy about which came first, the chicken or the egg but there is no question that the moneymakers came before the money takers!

 

When the government collects our money, the reasonable expectation is that elected and appointed officials will spend those funds in the best interest of the public. Upon investigation, this capital is often not spent for the highest and best use. Examples of waste and fraud abound.

 

In many of our cities, counties, states and federal government, spending exceeds revenues.  Taxpayers are blind-sided after-the-fact by accumulated entitlements and other public debt. Rather than reign in spending, these officials often insist on tax increases. At some point, the politicians that were elected to serve the people start making demands on the taxpayers!

 

An example is the proposed federal budget, produced annually by The President of the United States. The most recent budget that includes forecasts for 2012 through 2021 shows expenditures of about $45.9 Trillion and receipts amounting to $38.7 Trillion. That’s a shortfall of $7.2 Trillion ($7,200,000,000,000)!  The total debt will then be more than $23 Trillion when added to the present outstanding debt. The debt will be more than $65,000 per person in 2021, assuming a US population of 350 million.

 

Government leaders disregard our concerns about unsustainable spending coupled with high unemployment, the costly new healthcare law (deceptively named the ‘Affordable Care Act’), the languishing economy (GDP of 1.5%, 2nd Qtr. 2012) and the surge in government employees.

 

The steps for getting our overwhelming debt under control are to recognize and publicize the problem at all levels of government, cap the debt limit, produce a balanced budget and do it NOW! This is probably unachievable considering the pressure from special interests and the outlandish lengths career politicians go to for votes.

 

If you think we elect politicians to generate huge debt and deficits of 18%, raise your hand! If you did not raise your hand, think about whom you are going to vote for in future elections.

 

– Dick Baynton

 

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