THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 166, June 26, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
SPENDING INSANELY WHILE THE ECONOMY COLLAPSES
By Alan Caruba
AMERICA: A NATION IN ITS DEATH THROES -- SIGNS OF INTERNAL DECAY: THE NATION'S ORIGINAL VALUES
& VIRTUES ARE BEING JETTISONED. AMERICAN FAMILIES ARE BEGINNING TO DISINTEGRATE & MARRIAGE IS BEING
LEGALLY REDEFINED TO INCLUDE SAME-SEX UNIONS. THE U.S. GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSE TO THE 2008-2009 FINANCIAL
CRISIS HAS FAILED TO RESCUE & STABILIZE THE COLLAPSING AMERICAN ECONOMY -- THE FLOOD OF "QUANTITATIVE
EASING," GOVERNMENTAL MAKE-WORK PROGRAMS, & SIMILAR EFFORTS HAVE FAILED TO BRING ABOUT ECONOMIC
RECOVERY. INFLATION, UNEMPLOYMENT, & THE PUBLIC DEBT CONTINUE TO INCREASE. SPECIAL INTEREST POLITICS &
WASTEFUL, POLITICALLY MOTIVATED GOVERNMENT SPENDING PROGRAMS ABOUND. GOVERNMENT REGULATION OF THE
ECONOMY IS EXCESSIVE & IMPOSES AN UNREASONABLE BURDEN ON PRIVATE BUSINESS ENTERPRISES & THEIR CUSTOMERS.
U.S. ECONOMIC & ENERGY POLICIES ARE DISFUNCTIONAL, AS REGARDS ENSURING AMERICANS AMPLE SUPPLIES OF
AFFORDABLE ENERGY.
FULL STORY:
The United States of America is a sovereign nation-state, a constitutional federal republic that will celebrate the 235th.
anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the 223rd anniversary of the U.S. Constitution,
which became effective when the State of New Hampshire became the ninth State to ratify it in 1788.
By most indications, America is a nation in its death throes. Its original values and virtues are being jettisoned, and that
is always a sign of internal rot. The passage of a law legalizing gay, same-sex marriage in New York State is just one
example. New York becomes the sixth state to do so.
Families are regarded as the keystone to a healthy society. When they begin to disintegrate or are redefined as same-sex
unions, most observers conclude that a range of social problems will ensue.
The Census Bureau recently announced that married couples no longer head a majority of families in the United States.
They now represent only 48% of households, based on data from the 2010 census. It is the first time this has ever
occurred.
The 2008-2009 financial crisis was a wake-up call. The nation has been through such crises in the past, including the
Great Depression from 1929 until the start of World War Two in 1941. The present administration, Congress, and the
Federal Reserve System have responded in much the same way their counterparts of earlier eras did during their tenures,
and, not surprisingly, the economy has not responded to a flood of “quantitative easing,” governmental make-work
programs, and similar efforts.
As Ronald Reagan told us, government is not the answer, government is the problem.
Let me share just a few examples of what is so terribly wrong.
The U.S. Department of Transportation cancelled a $1.2 million federal highway program that would have sent employees
on a 17-day globe-trotting journey “to photograph different billboards” after ABC News told the Department it
planned to air a report on it. The program has been around for a decade, allegedly to study how other countries handle
their major highway networks, motorcycle safety, managing pavement, and “adapting to climate change.”
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently announced the awarding of $26.7 million in “sweat
equity” grants to produce at least 1,500 affordable homes for low-income individuals and families. Grants were made at a
time when there is an abundance of homes in the marketplace that have been emptied by foreclosure or the decision to
walk away from them because the mortgage costs more than the decreased value of the home. A total of four cities
received these grants. This same federal executive department handed out more than $31 million in grants to public
housing authorities, resident associations, and non-profit organizations. It appears to be a lame effort to keep people on
payrolls at a time of growing unemployment.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is giving $60 million in the form of $20 million each to three public universities in
Florida, Iowa, and Idaho (the first two states have political importance in the forthcoming election) as a “major scientific
investment in studying the effects of climate change on agriculture and forest production.”
Climate change is the new way of describing “global warming.” At a time when an estimated 14 million Americans are out
of work, the USDA is enriching professors of tree physiology and claiming that climate change will increase levels of food
contamination “from chemicals” such as the ones used to actually grow crops and protect them against weeds and insect
depredation.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, through its Forest Service Awards, has also given away nearly $3 million for
“renewable energy projects” at the same time the administration has tapped the Strategic Oil Reserve — intended for use
only for emergencies such as Hurricane Katrina — in a lame effort to lower prices at the gas pump. Secretary of Agriculture
Tom Vilsack claimed that “Biomass is a vital part of America’s clean energy future” while Congress was voting to
discontinue subsidies to ethanol producers that were costing Americans billions.
These are just three U.S. government departments that are giving away millions for useless, politically motivated grants
and other programs that drain the public treasury. The news, however, gets worse.
Wayne Crews, a vice president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Conservative think tank, is an expert on the
impact of federal governmental regulation of business and industry. He recently noted that the federal government --
“. . . is on track to spend more than $3.5 trillion this year. What
most people don’t know is that government costs about fifty
percent more than what it spends. That’s because complying
with federal regulations costs an addition $1.75 trillion —
nearly an eighth of Gross Domestic Product. And almost none
of that cost appears in the budget.”
“At the end of 2009, the Code of Federal Regulations was
157,974 pages long. In 2010, 3,752 new rules hit the books —
equivalent to a new regulation coming into effect every 2 hours
and 20 minutes, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”
While Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke was telling reporters he had no idea why the economy was stalled, growing
at an appalling rate of just over 1 percent annually, the government was continuing to throw money away in the name of
climate change, a green economy, and countless other giveaway programs labeled “discretionary spending.”
The author, Ayn Rand, warned that, “When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion — when you
see that, in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing — when you see that money is
flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors — when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work,
and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you — when you see corruption being rewarded and
honesty becoming a self-sacrifice — you may know that your society is doomed.”
-------------------------------------------
© Alan Caruba, 2011
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Alan Caruba writes a daily post at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. An author, commentator and business and science writer,
he is the Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about media-driven "scare campaigns" designed
to influence public opinion and public policy.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity