Well now that the "political theater" is over and the government did NOT shut down (as if that makes a difference) we can sit back and analyze the big picture. I have and it's not good.
Besides the ridiculous rhetoric that was thrown around during the "budget battle" we also had a chance to see what really drives Washington D.C. I know we would all like to think that our politicians, our representatives, work for us but the truth is contrary.
We have a very serious crisis on our hands and nothing is being done about it. But what about the deal and all those cuts that just were agreed to you say. Well here is the truth: While the federal government "for the first time in history" is cutting $38,500,000,000 in spending in one fiscal year, in the past 7 days, the federal debt increased $54,100,000,000.
That's right folks. We spent more in the last week then this little "compromise" is going to address. It's the proverbial "two steps forward and three steps back" approach. We are drowning in debt and NOBODY is taking it serious. Let's not forget that this is for THIS year's budget and we STILL don't have it fully funded. The 2012 Fiscal Year Budget is already forecasted to be in the TRILLIONS.
Sure we've had some plans put forward to cut close to $6Trillion in the next 10 years but so far there has been no action taken on them. Thank you to Congressman Paul Ryan for having the guts to even make this suggestion. There have been others as well that have said that we need to cut spending DRASTICALLY and we need to do it now.
Obama's own Debt Commission has a plan: They recommend that spending not exceed 21% of gross domestic product and it also proposes close to $200 billion in domestic and defense spending cuts in 2015. That's a great start but it still doesn't get us to where we need to be.
We are spending (borrowing) $4 Billion A DAY. Cutting $38.5 Billion dollars is such a insignificant number that it's laughable. That basically means that stop spending money for about 3 weeks. Stupid isn't it?
Regardless of the number that we need to hit the whole plan and the whole roadmap for getting there will do nothing because there is a bigger problem that Congress and Obama have to worry about that will be an obstacle to getting anything done: dependency.
We have finally reached that point in America where a very large majority of people would rather have the government take care of them rather than let the government allow them to take care of themselves. We are drowing in debt because of our entitlement programs (MediCare, MedicAid, Social Security, etc) and unless we do anything about it nothing will change.
Right now MediCare is supported by 40 cents of every dollar that the government makes in tax revenue. By the year 2025 it is estimated that the whole dollar will be consumed. That is just for ONE PROGRAM. There is nothing left over for the other programs that the government CURRENTLY funds.
I keep listening to Congress and I keep waiting for SOMEONE to talk about tackling these main entitlement programs which are driving us to insolvency. So far, nobody wants to talk about it. The reason is very clear and it's a frightening scenario.
Who wants to tell seniors that they can no longer get assistance through MediCare? Or tell the next generation that Social Security is not available to them anymore? These are hotbed issues and they are programs that many politicians have built their careers around. Depending on their constituency some of these are more important than others. That is where the problem lies.
You see many Americans KNOW that we need to cut the size of government and many Americans KNOW that there are things that we are paying for now that we should not be. However, many don't want the cuts to affect them. They would rather it happen to someone else. The truth is it is going to affect ALL of us very soon.
The politicians are bought and paid for by many special interests and lobbying firms taht make their living making sure that the votes go their way. The American people like their standard of living and they don't like the fact that they may have to do without at some point in order to get our books back in order. The truth is we are running out of time to do something about it.
We need real action. We need to completely close whole departments of the government that siphon revenue at a massive expense to the rest of the budget. The government is TOO BIG and it is getting bigger. Yes, this will cause many to be put our of work but the harsh fact is we are there already. The public sector has grown larger in recent years while the private sector has shrunk. When you consider the fact that government does not produce anything that is a harrowing statistic.
Soon we will be FORCED to confront this. I've heard several politicians claim that they could care less about the debt because they are not going to be around to see the consequences of their actions. THIS ATTITUDE IS INEXCUSABLE. Yet, they continue to feed at the trough of the big money donors that put them there while WE the People get the shaft. Neither party is innocent of these charges by the way. There is enough blame to go around for both.
WE, as a country, need to wake up and attack this issue and we need to do it NOW. There is no more time. Enough rhetoric and political rangling. Something needs to be done and it needs to be done NOW. We are rapidly approaching a moment that none of us wants to see but it might be too late to stop it.
Understand that we can ONLY continue to print money to keep our economy going UNTIL the dollar is dropped as the world reserve currency. IF that happens we are done. There have already been calls by Russia, China and the IMF to look into another "more stable" currency than the dollar. Folks, if this becomes a reality it's game over.
Washington is playing a very dangerous game of Russian Roulette with our country and at some point our luck is going to run out. We have spent TOO MUCH for so long now that many in Congress don't know any other way. If there was a way to "clean house" it would be the best possible thing we could do.
I fear that the track is set and the momentum towards insolvency is increasing at an alarming rate. We need people of courage to step up and make some very hard choices and WE need to demand that it be done for the sake of our country. WE need to be involved with this process and WE need to hold their feet to the fire.
If we do nothing we will be left with exactly that in the near future: nothing.
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TruePatriot1
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And when the government says no more products or service from these companies, they run to their congressman and stated to these reps, please keep these project running, we will donate money to your campaign, and we will not lay people off from their jobs.
We the people need to know where thes cuts or pro
We need to talk about revenue side of the budget. Heard nothing about this issue yet. If it means increasing taxes, so let it be. We bend giving tax cuts for last 10 years. Revenue Needs to be Increase.
"We only need one thing from the government: protection from foreign enemies. The rest we can do ourselves. THIS is what The Founders had in mind. That is freedom."
It would be interesting to see you provide evidence that statement is true, or even factual, or even close to factual. You appear to be certain, so it seems making that case would be easy for you.
Are you sure of what you're saying, or just imagining what you wish was true?
Write a post detailing the evidence, at least to some significant degree. For example, explain why the Constitution itself goes far beyond what you claim was the Founder's had in mind.
Simply put -- you speak as if you know, so prove it.
First, our level of debt is a relative thing. The indebtedness of the USA has to be weighed against the indebtedness of other countries. In this case, most of the European countries and Japan have significantly higher levels of indebtedness than we do. Although over time our indebtedness has increased, but then the other countries have had the same trend. The net result is that the US is still the leading world economic power and a safe haven for overseas investment, as people in other countries see the US as being comparatively better off than our financial competitors.
One of the things that no one ever talks about with our indebtedness is the relation of our government debt as opposed to private debt. Pimco, the world's largest bond trader (= debt) recently did a study of the composition of America's indebtedness. They found that all of the federal, state, and local debt put together constituted only 14% of the total debt load that this country has. Credit card debt accounts for another 14% of our national indebtedness. That means that 72% of all debt is in private (corporate) hands. What does that mean? Well, for one thing that means that companies take out loans for buying property, plant, and equipment to make new things down the road.
However, there's a more sinister component in this 72% of private indebtedness that wasn't combed out of Pimco's picture. And a significant component of that debt is in the hands of the banks, investment houses, and hedge funds. Possibly more than 50% of all of the debt in the United States is in the form of exotic financial instruments and derivatives. After all, when investors put money into stock market or commodity options, they are calling for the right to buy or sell a certain stock or commodity at a certain price in the future. And options are structured so that their purchase price represents 10% or less of the purchase price of the thing to be bought or sold by the option. And let's not forget that CDOs and other exotic financial instruments were responsible for bringing on the crash of 2008.
This is where the real danger to our well being lies. Just as speculation and a lack of supervision by the government led to the problems back then, the way the economic cycle operates, it's only a matter of time before the shit hits the fan one more time. And when it will happen, then we'll be in a much worse hole than we are right now.
As I explained in my most recent blog, the standard response may very well be to do the exact same things that were attempted this last time under the Bush and Obama administrations. However, when this happens everyone will be aware that the old solutions were tried and nothing really happened to prevent anything like that from occurring beforehand. At that point, the world economy may very well collapse. And when it does, American interest rates could go to the moon, and the valuation of our dollar will quickly fall to the value of the peso. If you've read my post, you'll know what the consequences of such a financial catastrophe would be for our society.
Lastly, the Congressional Budget Office had a study on the history of American public indebtedness. It found that over 60% of all of the US government debt in our history came from three presidents:
Ronald Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush, & George W. Bush
The Tenth Amendment makes explicit the idea that the federal government is limited only to the powers granted in the Constitution. (Providing health care or forcing citizens to have it is not covered I'm afraid.)
"The Tenth Amendment is the foundation of the Constitution."
- Thomas Jefferson
Some quotes from The Founding Fathers:
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
- Thomas Jefferson (Sounds like welfare and unemployment benefits)
To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
-Thomas Jefferson (Tax payer funded abortion)
I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.
-Thomas Jefferson (Not a fan of BIG government)
"The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."
-Thomas Jefferson (Where do I start?)
I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labor and in our amusements. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.
- Thomas Jefferson
It is to be remembered that the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws. Its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects.
-James Madison
“If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one…but an indefinite one….”
-Thomas Jefferson in a letter written to Edmund Pendleton in 1792
“To contract new debts is not the way to pay old ones.”
-George Washington, 1799
It is quite clear from these quotes how The Founders envisioned the country to be governed: limited government, limited power, ultimately to SERVE the people. Not the other way around. That is how far we have come from the original intent.
The Tenth amendment is entirely redundant. It doesn't grant any powers to the states the rest of the Constitution doesn't say or imply. As Madison said during the debate on the tenth:
“Interference with the power of the States was no constitutional criterion of the power of Congress. If the power was not given, Congress could not exercise it; if given, they might exercise it, although it should interfere with the laws, or even the Constitutions of the States.”
In other words, it was already a fact that what the Constitution did not claim for the Fed was left to the states OR...and wingies tend to forget -- to the people. The people. Not the people of the several states. The people express that power through Congress.
So, the tenth is a double-dose of limiting states. And yes, the tenth does address what the Constitution was meant to do -- form a more powerful Fed, thus limiting states.
Congress also debated whether to include "expressly" before "delegated" in the tenth and rejected that idea.
The idea of the Constitution is to create a stronger Federal government. This was because the Articles of Confederation didn't work, and according to Washington almost cost America the Revolutionary War.
The Constitution is about expanding Federal power, and "limiting" means the Const. "limits" that power. The Bill of Rights "limits" what the people may ask of or force upon - the people -- negative liberties. "Limited" doesn't mean "small," as some goobers are fond of thinking.
Madison's idea about the Fed being limited to A1 S8 specifically delegated powers was instantly rejected by Congress and presidents and the court. If you'll read A1 S8, you'll see that it also does not limit fed power to the "enumerated powers." Even Madison presided over the federal single payer healthcare and insurance plan, so...not listed in A1 S8. It seems that his words were misunderstood, or he was not very bright. I believe it's the former.
A few of your Jefferson "quotes" are fabrications. Google a couple to find out.
Jefferson did also say that when there are unemployed Americans and uncultivated lands, the idea of the right to property needs re-figuring --- "socialism!"..Not really, but to you guys...
Jefferson did, in Virginia, get a law passed to force owners of large estates to not leave all property to the first born male -- primogeniture, nor maintain the whole of the land in perpetuity -- entails. More socialism?
Jefferson also feared the power of corporations, and hoped they did not end up with too much power. This was common among most Americans then. Now, it's the right wing's idea of how government should be run.
The tenth amendment, and the Constitution in whole, was about limiting, not expanding state power. That's simple US History 101 stuff, DJohn.
Further, quotes...both actual and fabricated by Rwing nutballs...are no substitute for studying history. You still remain clueless as to the whole of it, or even a sufficient minimum understanding.
Of course, you made the claim the Founders (as if they all held the same thoughts) wanted Fed gov limited to defense. You failed to prove it, and didn't even really attempt to do so. At least in evidence or by applying simple logic. As such, you spoke with no idea of what you were saying, and went on to prove it.
I challenged what you said because I knew better, and knew you couldn't prove it. You were played.
Now hit the books or "limit" your words to things you know.
-To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; (Interesting, no longer than TWO years)
-To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; (Only Congress can declare war. A rule abused by both parties in government)
The statement that I find that best lays out the limits of the Federal Government can be found in Federalist #45, James Madison: "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State."
Federal Government - "Few and defined"
State Government - "numerous and indefinite"
The 10th Amendment Movement is well on it's way:
* During 2009, "state sovereignty resolutions" or "10th Amendment Resolutions" were introduced in the legislatures of 37 states; in seven states the resolutions passed (Alaska, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Tennessee).
* During 2010, resolutions were introduced or reintroduced into the legislatures of 21 states; the resolution passed in seven states (Alabama, Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, South Carolina, Utah, and Wyoming).
* A state sovereignty resolution has been prefiled for the upcoming 2011 session of the Texas Legislature (a prior 2009 resolution did not pass).
14 resolutions passed and counting...
"Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." George Washington
I don't disagree with you about the power of corporations. While I don't think they are inherently evil I do believe that once you inject the bankers into the equation you have a marriage made in Hell.
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." Thomas Jefferson
THIS is exactly why we need to get rid of The Federal Reserve.
Because you don't know what you're talking about. You manifestly don't know what you're talking about. You're massively uninformed and wrong. You have stabbed truth in the gut. Etc, etc, etc...
Try reading A1 S8 again. It obviously doesn't limit Federal scope to the "enumerated powers." Only a fool would try insisting it does. "General welfare" is one indicator. The "necessary and proper" clause is another absolute rejection of the idea of limiting to enumerated powers. That should be stunningly obvious to anyone who isn't stunningly oblivious.
Again, the main purpose of the Constitution was to expand federal power, give it supremacy, which naturally limits the power of the states. A no-brainer for most who know this simple truth. You cannot prove otherwise. Your attempt at an insult doesn't affect me in the least. It's just another sign, among many, of your extremely willful ignorance and desire to have your simple-minded ideology reinforced. You don't have any thoughts that haven't been put in your mind by others.
The latest Tenther movement is just an extension of the right wing's series of excuses for the failure of their ideas, and a cover for their destruction of the economy. First, blame the "liberals," which is funny, considering the Founders were liberals, as is the Constitution. Now it's blame the Fed gov...states rights! As if those stupid, destructive, America-weakening ideas would work if the Constitution was nullified, and power to enact stupid, destructive policies was shifted to the states.
What deceptively goes under the name of "conservatism" is the biggest financial fraud in the history of America. It's no different in result than Soviet Communism was to Russia. Pure economic failure, therefore a destruction of freedom and liberty. "Anti-globalists" whose ideas have sold America to...globalists. Evidently, globalism is bad, except when it's a matter of "free market" function.
Blame the right wing. Observe that 13 trillion of our debt was piled on only after the "Conservatives" took control of the GOP and the White House.
I see you dig up yet more quotes. More junk, really, as you have no attachment to the history or realities involved.
Again, quotes are for wimps and lazy people who allow others to fill their minds with ideological crap. You merely attempt knowledge by producing a volume of quotes. That does fool some, but shouldn't fool anyone.
Quit being a victim. It's unbecoming. You don't have a clue.
The idea you're fit to discuss this with me, or anyone, is pretty funny.
You imply the states AND the people are the same thing. Again, pure goofy buttbabble. The Constitution begins with "We, the people." not "We the states" or "We the people of the several states." The tenth does lump the states and people into a single entity. Yours is as much a deficit of English comprehension as it is a symptom of ideological hogwallow.
Give up. Find a new hobby. You can't even align your "thoughts" with your quotes. This is humorous, as you don't have a serious, or even factual argument to make.
The quotes are important because they give us insight into what the thoughts of these men were and why they did what they did and risked what they risked.
The Founders would be horrified to see what we have done with their ideas. We do things contrary to The Constitution and then we justify that they needed to be done for the "welfare" of the people.
The Founders envisioned a country where citizens could live out their lives in relative peace and prosperity while not having to worry about any foreign governments trying to take that away.
FREEDOM. What a concept!
Instead we now have career politicians who get rich on the backs of the taxpayer while taking money from interested groups that will help them to stay in their life of luxury by getting re-elected and living out the better part of their adult lives in Congress.
We fought a war against a king only to see our own people set up their own "kingdoms" to rule over us. Congress, as well as most government officials, live by another code. They are not concerned with the common people. Only themselves. Democrats continue to enslave the Black Community while all the while proclaiming that they are there to protect them from the evil GOP.
The Neo-Cons strive for global dominance while trying to fracture the right into several camps in order to weaken it. WAKE UP buddy. There IS no Left/Right, Red/Blue, Liberal/Conservative. That is one big country club up there and they just play up their angst for the cameras.
The truth is the global elite have their eyes set on America as it's next big prize and they are coming for it.
"The idea was that those who direct the overall conspiracy could use the differences in those two so-called ideologies [marxism/fascism/socialism v. democracy/capitalism] to enable them [the Illuminati] to divide larger and larger portions of the human race into opposing camps so that they could be armed and then brainwashed into fighting and destroying each other." -Myron Fagan
We are being bankrupted because THAT is the stage of the plan that we are in. Next will be the removal of the US Dollar as the world's reserve currency which is already being debated and called for by some of our "allies" in the world.
The ONLY way out of this is if the PEOPLE stand firm and beat them back. As long as we continue to be focused on the Left/Right paradigm they have us right where they want us.
"The case for government by elites is irrefutable." Senator William Fulbright, Former chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stated at a 1963 symposium entitled: The Elite and the Electorate - Is Government by the People Possible?
"The real rulers in Washington are invisible, and exercise power from behind the scenes." Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, 1952
You are grossly unstudied and clueless. The idea is to read history, not read your ideology INTO history. You have nothing of value to say on this subject. The more you say, the further from sanity you get. It's like somebody loaded a few bits of history and a smattering of political terms you don't understand into a blender and hit the high speed button. Ideological mush.
For what it's worth, it's safe to say the Founders -- educated men all -- would brand you a braying ass.
Of course, there is big trouble coming. However, socialists like PJoR work hard to obfuscate the simplicity of check book arithmetic and the consequences of overspending $2.3 trillion in revenue by $1.5 trillion year after year after year. . . . .
They attempt to prove that the Founders had a federal government in mind that could address every social problem. They want you to believe that 'General Welfare' just as easily encompasses funding a nationwide interstate highway system as it does writing a check to a man who claims to be unemployed.
In the end, they will want you to reject the notion that the Founders believed that those who govern least govern best. They will try to make you forget that the Founders desired a less intrusive government than the one from which they freed themselves.
Of course, what's at risk for socialists is entitlement spending. Hence, they're defensive these days. We must make huge cuts; and, since we spend $3 on entitlements for every $1 on defense (as an example), it's not hard to predict which sectors of the budget will have to bear the brunt of such trimming.
It's likely you will feel like a lonely voice crying in the wilderness here. You will be surrounded by those who believe that a beautiful society can be had simply by throwing lots of tax money at its poor and disadvantaged. Collectivists cannot see how this reduces the freedom of those who supply such funds and how this corrupts the spirits of those who receive such funds.
Best of luck.
Chris
Thankfully WE in the TEA Party are so far ahead of even the media on this we knew what would happen before it happened. Why would the MSM be praising Speaker Boehner? Because THEY know that these cuts are symbolic and will do nothing. Watch for Obama to try to steal the thunder in his speech this week. He'll TALK about all the cuts he wants to make to get the sheeple out there to buy into the fact that he understands the problem. Then watch the actions he takes.
Social Justice is going to be the next big push for the progressives. After all health care is now a civil right!!!
PaulJ, among many others here in progressive central, will never accept the Truth, due to the hardcore socialist that they are. They will spin, lie, circumvent and double talk to the point of mass confusion, which is what liberal progressives are about, mass confusion. They will never accept YOUR facts, yet THEIR facts are the gospel truth. Wow, that is an oxy-moron, using socialist and gospel in the same sentence. Debating a socialist is like beating a dead horse; I think the horse will come back to life before a socialist sees the light. Keep your course Steady and True.
These are liberal progressive commandments that I found:
When your friends cannot explain why they voted for Democrats,
give them this list. They can then pick their reasons from this “TOP 12″…
1. I voted Democrat because I believe oil companies’ profits of
4% on a gallon of gas are obscene, but the government taxing the same gallon of gas at 15% isn’t.
2. I voted Democrat because I believe the government will do a
better job of spending the money I earn than I would.
3. I voted Democrat because Freedom of Speech is fine as long as
nobody is offended by it and it adheres to the liberal point of view.
4. I voted Democrat because I’m way too irresponsible to own a
gun, and I know that my local police are all I need to protect me from murderers and thieves.
5. I voted Democrat because I believe that people who can’t tell
us if it will rain on Friday can tell us that the polar ice caps will
melt away in ten years if I don’t start driving a Prius.
6. I voted Democrat because I’m not concerned about millions of
babies being aborted so long as we keep all death row inmates alive.
7. I voted Democrat because I think illegal aliens have a right
to free health care, education, and Social Security benefits.
8. I voted Democrat because I believe that business should not
be allowed to make profits for themselves. They need to break even and give the rest away to the government for redistribution as the Democrats see fit.
9. I voted Democrat because I believe liberal judges need to
rewrite the Constitution every few days to suit some fringe kooks who
would never get their agendas past the voters.
10. I voted Democrat because I think that it’s better to pay
billions to people who hate us, for their oil, but not drill our own
because it would cause the progressives who have a vested interest in green energy to lose billions.
11. I voted Democrat because while we lived in the greatest, most
wonderful country in the world, I was promised “HOPE AND CHANGE”.
12. I voted Democrat because my head is so firmly planted up my
ass, it‘s unlikely that I’ll ever have another point of view.
Chris, you're in your IQ element here. Better you piss and moan here than get your ass kicked again (and again and again and again) on a blog somebody reads. You've been reduced to this because you can't hang with the adults. You think "the Founders" is just another slogan...you also don't know anything worth knowing.
Tommy is another patriot-fakir with nothing upstairs.
To all....better you make up history than trying to understand it. You can't understand it anyway.
cue the crickets.................