However it gets done, the balanced budget amendment is the only way to stop the Washington spending.
We, the elderly, are most often cited as the problem. We consume too much and don’t pay our fair share. And, we are growing fast as the Baby Boomers age. All of that is only partially true. Every quarter when I send in my estimated tax payments to the state and federal government, I feel I am still redistributing my wealth. I will never in my lifetime break even with money received from Social Security and Medicare vs. taxes paid. And, taxes still being paid.
When I write those checks I think about the worthless Department of Energy that has never contributed one thing to our energy needs. Billions wasted.
I think about the Department of Homeland Security run by an imbecile and set up solely due to government incompetence. The alphabet soup of security agencies can’t be expected to share information, so another is set up to duplicate what they do or don’t do. Billions more wasted.
I think about ethanol and the billions put in the hands of Archer Daniels Midland. For no reason.
I think about Freddie, Fannie, and the FHA and how they destroyed the housing market and the billions we still dump into them. Now the government is about to let them become landlords and rent the millions of houses they can’t sell. Want to guess how that will work out?
I ponder the stimulus bill, cash for clunkers, incentives to buy houses for first time homeowners, and those billions.
Then there’s all the farm subsidies. To corporations. Or, the food stamps and other government checks going to convicts who game the government. The Medicare and Medicaid fraud. The billions wasted on the post office and Amtrak.
The billions poured into foreign aid. Us putting up most of the freight for the United Nations. A group that always votes against us. The billions we spend on the EPA only to have them attack business and drive away jobs chasing the Gore BS.
When I think about all these things it seems like it is income redistribution. Not from me to the poor, but from me to the growth of government. To support government workers who don’t show up for work, who make more than the average private sector employee, who have better benefits than the elderly, and who produce nothing of value.
Throughout the budget debate little is said by either party about the things I resent writing those checks to finance. It’s always on the “backs of the poor.”
When someone wants to get serious about the real waste in government, I will really be able to write a check and feel like I”m helping someone who’s down and out. Right now, I’m just supporting bad government. Bad government that is getting worse and growing.
I guess, based on Pelosi, Biden, and McCain, I’m a Hobbit, an extremist, or a radical, because like the rest of the Tea Party supporters, I want this changed.
