For a long time now, I've realized that the federal government is not operating in the best interests of the American people. This is not a partisan statement. I don't believe Republicans are helping Americans any more than Democrats are (though Democrats are pushing the envelope to irresponsible new heights right now). What the government has been doing for my entire life is to take more and more wealth away from it's citizens to use for itself. Yes, Bush implemented some tax cuts, but they weren't paid for. They added to the deficit, meaning they were not really tax cuts at all, but rather taxes deferred. They added to the already massive national debt (nearly $12 trillion now). We have to pay interest on that debt. The Bush tax cuts may have helped the economy overcome a recession in the short run, but they were detrimental over the long run. Ditto for every other set of deficits run up by every other presidential administration in my lifetime. They are nothing more than claims on future taxpayers. They are nothing more than a continuation of the nonstop fiscal irresponsibility of our federal government that has pissed me off for most of my life. They weaken the dollar and destroy the futures of our children. If you have been living under a rock and somehow don't understand this, try to remember the last presidential administration that ran a surplus for it's term. I defy you to do it. EVERY SINGLE ONE, for the last century, has been increasingly irresponsible, and now we have the most irresponsible administration of them all in power. Barack Obama is projected to run up over $9 trillion in debt, more than every other presidential administration in history COMBINED. That's my central problem with Obama, and it has NOTHING to do with partisanship. Don't listen to the rhetoric from the White House, look at the policies. If Obama became fiscally responsible tomorrow, if he actually started serving the long term interests of this country, I'd be his biggest fan. I'd be shouting 'Yes We Can' from the rooftops. Sadly, that is not the case. Obama is destroying our children's futures faster than ever. America cannot continue to survive this for much longer.
The government is engaged in such a massive ripoff of the American taxpayer that it is beyond the comprehension of most taxpayers to even understand it. The government weaves such an elaborate web of bullshit that most of us don't even realize it's happening. The most we can usually muster up is the vague and general feeling that something is drastically wrong. We don't have any idea how to fix it. It seems way beyond our control. We are the hapless victims of 'they.' "'They' are the ones who set things up this way." 'They' are the ones who always screw everything up. 'They' are the government. 'We' are the people, though we've almost forgotten that the government is supposed to work for us.
The examples are boundless. I could give you a hundred thousand examples of how you are being ripped off by the government if I had the time and space. It's ubiquitous. We aren't $12 trillion in debt because the government is looking out for us. John Murtha (D-PA) didn't spend $150 million in taxpayer funds for his own private airport because he's looking out for Americans. Congress didn't buy more Gulfstream jets because they are the heroes of the common man. Congress didn't steal the Social Security Trust Fund because they are helping YOU. Hell no. They are screwing YOU, royally. They just think you're too stupid to notice. There are literally a hundred thousand more examples of this. Every 1,000 page bill passed by Congress screws YOU to the wall by wasting your hard earned money. THEY think you are idiots, too stupid to notice.
The worst part of all is, THEY are right. You ARE idiots. You keep re-electing the same corrupt bureaucratic douchebags over and over. Only idiots would do that. Only idiots would watch their country being sold down the river and stand idly by, doing nothing. Only idiots would pretend one party is the answer and the other party is the problem. That's the shell game. That's what THEY want you to think. That's part of the con. YOU are the mark, and you better wake up before it's too late. It's almost too late already.
Right now, we have a majority government who is telling you that what's best for you is to have the government FORCE you to buy health insurance, and next up, they are going to tell you that adding over $1,700 to your annual utility bills is a really great idea. They are literally saying that putting $5-12 thousand in new expenses on the average American family is FOR THAT FAMILY'S OWN GOOD. And many of you are dumb enough to believe it. Yes We Can, my aunt fanny.
IDIOTS. And we have massive amounts of slanted media telling you why it is a REALLY GOOD IDEA for you to be an idiot. They are literally telling you that you are too stupid to balance a checkbook.
P. T. Barnum said it best. There's a sucker born every minute. The government operates off of this principle.
Here's one more tiny example of what I'm talking about. The city of Akron, Ohio, my hometown, has built a new library, a new convention center, an art museum, a ball field, an Inventor's Hall of Fame, is refurbishing several high schools, and is redoing it's central interchange, among many other projects. As a result, the city is deeply in debt (and Akron's unemployment rate is 10.7%). Now, shazzam, the city CAN'T AFFORD TO PAY IT'S POLICE OFFICERS AND FIRE FIGHTERS. 96 policemen are being laid off, and 38 firefighters are being laid off. Seriously, are you kidding me ? Are we THIS inept ? Are we going to let them get away with this ? Our city's actions are like a person going out and buying a Cadillac Escalade and a speedboat with the rent money. C'mon, we can't be THIS stupid. The police ARE the rent money in our society. They are the basics. They keep society stabilized. We NEED them. They are about half the reason that we even have a government in the first place. You don't buy luxuries while ignoring the basics, yet this is exactly what our local government has done. Inexcusable. And guess what, they are going to ask YOU to pick up the tab with the next round of tax increases they demand, to pay for the government's irresponsibility. And they are going to hit you with a flurry of political advertising blaming it all on someone else, anybody but themselves.
And about half of you will probably be dumb enough to buy it. AGAIN.
Then the Lame Stream Media scratches their heads, wondering what all the Tea Parties are about. Unbelievable. The phrase 'fiddling while Rome burns' comes to mind.
Wake up America. You are not being served.
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Very good and very salient points, King. We are not being served by our elected officials and haven't been for my entire life, which is a bit longer than anybody else here. Well, Rev always tried to be as old as I am but I doubt that.
Right now we can see just what you said about both parties with the debate over health care reform. There is no reform being suggested, however, although that is what they keep talking about. Take Medicare as a beautiful example. Somehow money is to be saved by cutting out all the waste in Medicare. Wouldn't that be about as good with a one or two page law aimed at cutting out that waste? Do we have to succumb to government control of health care just to cut out that waste and corruption? The whole thing is aimed at nothing but eventually getting to single payer health care just as Barney Frank and Barack Obama admit. They don't have the votes now but they think if they work their way into it slowly they will have the votes in the future, if they can just keep control of the government.
Good Post King. This is the essence of the Tea Party movement. The people are tired of spending gobs and gobs of money and getting nothing but a balooning deficit in return.
If Roy is correct…then the "movement" had to be Rip Van Winkling it the past 9 years.
But I suppose serious and hard working fiscal conservatives do need their sleep during Republican administrations. You know, they work so hard during Democratic presidents….they must be plum tuckered out when a Republican is president.
It's a little silly to argue that anyone spends more than Obama, Reverend. Preposterous, really.
"Just as no nation should be forced to accept the tyranny of another nation, no individual should be forced to accept the tyranny of their own government."
-Barack Obama's speech to the UN 9/23/09
Obviously this is a "do as I say, not as I do" moment of spectacular irony.
ooo… brb.. gotta see what the dailykos tells me i should think today…
"Why larry has no credibility", by The Reverend….
Bush doubled the national debt, adding more debt than all other presidents combined. Now, THAT was preposterous. Conservative response? Crickets. It's like the North Pole thing….fiscal-scold conservatives go dark during Republican presidencies.
The End.
Rev,
You're correct about Bush (and every other administration). I've complained about the Bush deficits endlessly, however, and in this very post. No crickets from me.
Soooo, you support Obama, the biggest deficit spender of them all…… why exactly ???? I didn't hear an answer to that.
Roy says, "There is no reform being suggested, however, although that is what they keep talking about."
Bingo. Just right. See my next post.
The "Irreverend." I love it.
That Obama quote must have come from one of the other Obama's. There have to be three or four of them at least, they contradict each other so often.
Rev, you know that there were conservatives unhappy with Bush spending. Your crickets comment is a lie. Just go back and look at Kings blog from that time and see him mentioning deficits.
Here is an example from October 2008: http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/da_kings_men/2008/10/15/a-deficit-disorder/
Once again I have to do the googling for you.
It's well documented and universally accepted that Bush spent too much, Reverend. Obama's spending much more, however.
King sez…."The "Irreverend." I love it."
wouldn't it be more correct to say Not Reverend?
And I suppose that the invisibility of Tea Parties and 9-12er's before 2009 is all just a coincidence?
I support Obama because, though handed a very difficult situation, he is setting forth reality-based solutions to destructive policies long in need of change. It would not have mattered one iota who was elected president last November…..the financial disaster left from Bush/Cheney would still have been….a financial disaster.
And I'm still waiting….for a coherent answer to how the deficit increases affects the average citizen. I'm a patient man.
Rev,
How is it possible that you read this blog and not know the answer to the question about how deficits affect the average citizen ? That is incomprehensible to me.
We currently pay over $400 billion in interest on the debt that accumulates from those deficits. That $400 billion could pay for a number of things, including universal health care coverage, in addition to many other things. Instead, we are talking about jacking taxes up even higher, crippling our businesses further, and ultimately heaping ever more costs on the average person to do it. Or, if we didn't have all the debt, future taxes could be far lower, putting more money in everyone's pockets.
Second, when we run deficits, we are either 1) printing money, which devalues the dollar, weakening everyone's purchasing power, or 2) we borrow the money, as we've been doing from China. That puts us in China's debt, and debts have to be repaid. Who repays those debts ? Ta-da, the TAXPAYER.
Third, and most important of all, future generations will have to pay for OUR debt. That is massively irresponsible, and will ruin the prospects of our children.
I really can't believe you don't understand this. You shouldn't even be writing a political blog if you don't. Akron University has a pretty decent Macroeconomics 101 course. Take it.
And if that was too complicated for you, answer this question for yourself.
Are you better off having a million dollars in the bank, or being a million dollars in debt ?
King, I am sure that with so few years left to pay debts I would prefer the million in the bank but I fail to see how jacking up taxes will allow people to pay off their debts but then I stopped the liberal Democrat kind of thinking in 1972 when they nominated a socialist for President.
It should be painfully obvious that the (not a ) revrum lacks the ability to do any critical thinking at all, and is woefully ignorant of actual history. He also likes to play the finny game of taking things out of context so that he can continue bashing Bush (talk about a regressive retard!) and the right, while defending someone and an administration that makes Bush look like an amatuer when it comes to spending and growing the government. He's also very good at ignoring the fact that the right was pissed as hell about his and a GOP majority Congress liberal-lite domestic spending policies.
But then, conservatives knew that a leftist-run administration….whether it was led by that insane piece of crap named algore, or that American-military bashing, lying piece of cowardly snot from Massachussets, would not only have spent more widly than Bush…and would have surrendered to the the jihadist-lovers in Congress, leaving saddam in power.
Hey unrevrum, you've had your head stuffed up that dark place since the first time you ever posted on a forum, and nothing has changed.
Roy,
Being younger than you, I was only 18 in 1972, and still suffering from the liberal delusionary mindset, I'm sorry to report. I was in college, and I voted for that socialist president. It was the first time I voted. I wasn't cured of my liberal delusion until the aftermath of the Vietnam War, which resulted in millions of deaths. The other changing event was the disaster known as Jimmy Carter. Those two events woke me up.
Wasn't it the late Irving Kristol who said he was liberal until he was "mugged by reality." That pretty much describes me.
The only supporting piece of information in this otherwise empty rant is that Akron OH has laid off police and firefighters. Otherwise you simply keep repeating yourself. That's poor writing.
To respond to the single substantive point in this entire pointless waste of hard drive space, what were the dates in which this ball field and museum were built? Are these not profit generating enterprises financed by a committee of private investors and subsidized by a city bond which earns interest for Akron?
Screaming "wake up" while perhaps cathartic for the screamer – has really become overused, by everyone.