THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIV, Issue # 9, January 17, 2012
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
THE U.S.A. IS ON A SUICIDE WATCH
By Alan Caruba
WHAT BINDS TOGETHER THE FINANCIAL & ECONOMIC PROBLEMS OF THE U.S.A. & THE WEST: THE COMMON THREAD OF INFANTILE BEHAVIOR &
THOUGHT -- THE WISHFUL THINKING THAT UNDERLIES WESTERN GOVERNMENTS' ECONOMIC & FISCAL POLICIES -- GOVERNMENT AS "BIG DADDY," THE ETERNAL
SOURCE OF MONEY FOR EVERYTHING -- FAILURE OF GOVERNMENT TO ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO PROVIDE FOR OLD AGE & POSSIBLE ILLNESS -- THE FAILURE TO END
GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS & AGENCIES THAT NO LONGER SERVE A USEFUL PURPOSE & WHOSE ELIMINATION WOULD REMOVE COUNTLESS OBSTACLES TO
ECONOMIC GROWTH -- GOVERNMENT SPENDING, THE U.S. NATIONAL DEBT, & THE GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT -- BIG GOVERNMENT STATISM & GROWTH OF A
VIABLE ENERGY INDUSTRY
FULL STORY:
In 1991, the Soviet Union, arguably the greatest experiment in Communism (extreme, thoroughgoing State Socialism), collapsed. After Mao Tse-tung died in 1976,
his successors in China moved to shift its Communist economy to an economic system that embraced market mechanisms and other principles and practices of
Capitalism, while retaining an overall policy of Statism, i.e., centralized governmental control and direction of the economy, both in the public and private sectors.
Following World War Two, the recovering nations of Europe were rescued from Communism by the Marshall Plan, but adopted Communism-Light in the
form of watered-down State Socialism. The United States of America was already headed in that direction, creating programs that we now call “entitlements.”
For most of the
American nation’s history, such “entitlements” did not exist.
What binds together the financial problems of the West is the common thread of infantile behavior and thought. One might call it wishful thinking. Instead of
encouraging people to provide for old age and possible illness, politicians decided to turn government into Big Daddy, the eternal source of money for
everything.
Need to go to college, start a business, or plan for retirement? Government would be there to help. All this ignored the need to actually pay for these programs.
In the case of Social Security, Congress began to dip into its funding to pay for other programs! This is what children do.
One can look around the world and see what a failure both Communism and Socialism have been. Governments spending more than their tax and other
revenues have suffered grievously from this path to default, and that includes the United States of America. It can be argued that, with few exceptions -- the
Reagan years come to mind — Presidents have been poorly served by their economic advisors.
Politicians make poor economists because, in America, members of the U.S. House of Representatives must think of getting reelected every two years and U.S.
Senators every six years. Moreover, being politicians, they believe that the more federal largess they can bring back to their respective states and then brag
about it is the one true path to reelection.
At the very beginning of the nation, Thomas Jefferson said it best. “I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting
the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”
How many commissions and special committees have earnestly produced reports intended to deal with a government grown too large? At the federal level,
some two million or more Americans are employed promulgating a deluge of regulations and pushing paper.
Now President Barack Obama says he wants to streamline the federal government.
The real issue is not “streamlining” government agencies by gathering them together under one roof and one administrator, but the failure to end government
departments and agencies that no longer serve a useful purpose and whose removal would also remove countless obstacles to economic growth.
In April, 2011, Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute warned 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 actually costs about 50% more than what it spends. That’s because complying with federal regulations costs
an additional $1.75 trillion — nearly an eighth of GDP. And almost none of that cost appears in the budget.”
The United States of America, the greatest engine of wealth the world has ever seen, is bankrupt. The U.S. national debt exceeds the Gross Domestic Product,
the sum total of all revenue generated by goods and services.
The President has asked that the debt ceiling be raised another trillion or so, and Congress will comply. That, I submit, is insane.
I also submit that, since Barack Obama was sworn into office on January 20, 2009, the nation has been witness to the economic insanity personified in the man
and in the Democratic Party-controlled Congress that was his partner until 2010, when the control of the House of Representatives was wrested away by the
Tea Party movement and its support for Republican candidates.
The only constant in life is change. America’s demography has changed. We have, thanks to medical care and other advantages, a much older segment of the
population than ever before, but the nation from the 1930s to the 1960s had committed itself to ensure they would have Medicare and Medicaid at a time when
people more often than not died in their 50’s and 60’s. We now have an average life expectancy of 78 years. My parents lived into their 90s.
Politics, not economics, continues to make it impossible to revise and restructure both Medicare and Social Security to reflect this reality. Instead, we had
Obamacare foisted upon us, a program which took trillions from Medicare and imposes rules that will let elderly heart attack or stroke victims die rather than pay
for a level of care to which they contributed during their working years.
If the U.S. Supreme Court declares Obamacare unconstitutional, it will go away. If we elect a Republican Senate, the repeal already passed in the House of
Representatives will be passed and Obamacare will go away.
But America’s economic problems will not go away until Americans insist that the shackles of Big Government Statism be cut loose to enable the growth of an
energy industry that can not only make the nation energy independent, but produce billions in revenue as far as the eye can see into the future.
The U.S. tax system, with its thousands of pages must be revised to a simpler, fairer program. It makes no sense that forty percent of Americans pay no taxes at
all.
It’s not that we don’t know what must be done. Conservative think tanks like The Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, The Heartland Institute, the
Competitive Enterprise Institute, and others have spelled out programs that can and will save America, but the nation must be led by a president who
understands that Capitalism involves budgeting, planning, hard work, and—yes—risk.
The federal government is running on “continuing resolutions.” It has not had a formal budget since Obama arrived. This is no way to run the greatest nation on
the face of the Earth. America is on a suicide watch, and we are just an election away from saving it.
© Alan Caruba, 2012
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Fiscal Policy: Taxation, Government Spending, & the Public Debt
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at Warning Signs, his popular blog -- and thereafter on dozens of other
websites and blogs. His monthly report on new books is posted at Bookviews.
A business and science writer, Caruba is the Founder of The National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information
about "scare campaigns" designed to influence public opinion and policy.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity