My Solution
In a comment to my last post, a friend of mine asked what I would do. I think there are really 2 things that could be done immediately. They are as follows:
1. Decrease the amount of federal spending
2. Decrease taxes, all taxes
Unfortunately, our representatives in congress feel the only way to stay elected is to ensure money is spent on projects in their home states. I'm reminded of this quote from a book I just read.
We are trying to get out of a problem caused by spending money we don't have, by spending money WE DON'T HAVE. If we can go through that withdrawal period, and stop spending money we're either printing, or borrowing from the Chinese, (BTW, China just announced they aren't going to buy any more 30-year US bonds. So who's going to buy our debt? The Fed? Yup! Holy crap!) we can take care of this problem now rather than passing it on to our children and their children.
This bill is not a stimulus bill, it is a spending bill. In fact, it's my understanding a large part of the money won't be spent in the first 4 years, how can that be considered stimulus? It is taking money from the citizens of the country and redistributing it. This "spending" bill is a step toward socialism.
1. Decrease the amount of federal spending
2. Decrease taxes, all taxes
Unfortunately, our representatives in congress feel the only way to stay elected is to ensure money is spent on projects in their home states. I'm reminded of this quote from a book I just read.
Of course the Founders would understand exactly what this generation is doing to itself. It is the very essence of human nature to pursue this disastrous course once the appetite has been created to demand it. As a result, American taxpayers now discover themselves playing a role almost identical to that of an addict on hard drugs. The addict denounces his "habit" and despises the "pusher" who got him into it, but when he is confronted with the crisis of needing a "fix" he will plead tears of anguish for the narcotic remedy.
The "fix," of course, is not a remedy at all. The real remedy is "withdrawal." The addict must escape from the tortuous cycle of vicious repetition witch is not solving his problem but compounding it. If withdrawal is painful, at least it is not prolonged. The problem is primarily a matter of will power---the determination to change.(Cleon Skousen, The 5000 Year Leap)
We are trying to get out of a problem caused by spending money we don't have, by spending money WE DON'T HAVE. If we can go through that withdrawal period, and stop spending money we're either printing, or borrowing from the Chinese, (BTW, China just announced they aren't going to buy any more 30-year US bonds. So who's going to buy our debt? The Fed? Yup! Holy crap!) we can take care of this problem now rather than passing it on to our children and their children.
This bill is not a stimulus bill, it is a spending bill. In fact, it's my understanding a large part of the money won't be spent in the first 4 years, how can that be considered stimulus? It is taking money from the citizens of the country and redistributing it. This "spending" bill is a step toward socialism.
1 Comments:
Just to play devil's advocate again, here are my thoughts.
First, this isn't a problem caused by over-spending. It's a problem caused by deregulation and fast and loose business practices in the business sector. This crisis started with the collapse of the housing bubble and has been taking other industries with it. Over the past years, rules have been lifted and tweaked to benefit the businesses and to think that these businesses will not take advantage of every loophole out there to make more money is pollyann-ish. They will bend these rules, and more than not break them to make more money. And the money they make is not going to filter down to the workers. It will go to multi-million dollar bonuses and office remodeling.
Second, won't a tax decrease will only cause more debt by bring in less money? There have been tax decreases for the past eight years, along with rebates, stimulus checks, etc. We are more in debt now than before these were enacted and the economy has tanked. This fiscal policy didn't work for the past eight years, and the thought that an extension of this strategy would work seems unlikely.
That being said, is will whole-heartedly agree the government is LOUSY at spending money. One of the proposed projects was for $200+ million to re-sod the National Mall? I'm sure there would be landscapers out there willing to do this work half that. But who else is going to decide what to do with this money? You give tax breaks to citizens and companies. Spend less to pay for them. You break even. And hopefully those people will spend their money to re-invigorate the economy. But it is unlikely. It had no lasting effect last time around, why would it work now? And when programs like Medicare and Medicade are cut, and the roads and bridges are crumbling under our feet, the streets aren't safe because there are not enough police, and the schools are continuing to fail, I don't expect to see each and every one of us stand up and hand over some of our tax breaks to help pay to fix these problems. And I can guarantee that the business will not be doing it either.
There is no easy answer. Oddly enough, millions of Mormons willingly pay 10% of their income to the church. These funds go to building construction, the cost of leadership and humanitarian projects. Sounds like tax and spend to me, and yet these same Mormons are primarily conservative Republicans who are against government spending and lower taxes. Why the difference in opinion. Because they trust their church's judgement.
What we really need is a government we can trust as well.
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