Do Not Raise the Debt Ceiling
I am getting sick and tired of the flip flopping, load of crap that keeps regurgitating itself in Washington DC regarding raising the debt ceiling.
The debt ceiling drama has been going on for decades. Whoever is in power wants to raise the ceiling and everyone else wants to stop raising it. Everyone seems to know that it is bad to keep raising it. So why don’t those in power do what they proclaimed was right when they are not in power. The truth is the truth no matter what side of the aisle you are on. It is a two headed hypocritical dragon this two party system has created.
I am also fed up with threats and scare tactics of the disaster that will occur if we do not continue to reach into the pockets of our children and go deeper and deeper into debt, enslaving their futures. We saw threats of gloom and doom if we did not pass the stimulus package. It passes and nothing got better. Anyone reading this has enough sense to know that you cannot spend and borrow your way to financial independence. Sooner or later the buck stops. It could be here or it could be there, but it will stop.
Right now the Democrats are in power and want to raise the debt ceiling. However, it is not only Democrats that want to raise the debt ceiling when they are in power. Republicans want to raise it when they are in power too. Both parties scream out against raising the ceiling or else quotes from both sides about how bad raising the debt ceiling is would not have been uttered. This is a slow dance of death for America our elected officials are playing. Please pray that they do the right thing for America and vote for what is right for America, not what is right for them or their party at the moment.
For the sake of clarity in this stagnant pile of oozing hypocrisy let’s look at the present round of Raise the Debt. President Obama now wants to raise the debt. He says that Social Security and Medicare payments may stop if we don’t increase our debt limit. A great hole will open up and the world will swallow itself.
Five years ago when Republican George Bush was in office and pleaded to raise the debt ceiling Barack Obama said this “Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.”
Vice President Biden and Senator Harry Reid also campaigned against raising the debt limit when Bush was in power. What changed their minds? Is not raising the debt limit a principle that the United States Government should adhere to?
Is it too much to ask of those that we elect to do what is best for America and the future of our nation? I am getting so sick of the bickering back and forth between the two major parties that I am beginning to think that the individual states of the United States would be better off without a bloated bureaucratic federal government that by all appearances and intents and purposes wants to manipulate, control and reduce to power of the people.
I think we can surmise from all of the quotes from all of the politicians from both sides of the aisles they have all agreed at some point that raising the debt ceiling is a bad idea. Maybe it is time to take action and put an end to this see sawing battle of power. Reduce the spending. Get our house in order. Unburden the states with unfunded mandates and give freedom back to the people, lest we become slaves to the government.
I sure hope they work together to get America back on track because it is most difficult to type with my fists!
Peace Bro
It is time to end all the unnecessary, fruitless, expensive and foolish wars on the American people. The War on Drugs is a spring off of Prohibition which was repealed in 1933. So what was the Federal Government supposed to do with a bunch of Elliot Nesses after the dreaded illegal liquor was now sold over-the-counter in liquor stores? Why we needed a new villain and let’s call it wacky weed, Mary Jane, pot, weed, or marijuana. We sure needed an enemy and it brought with it a saving of the unemployment numbers. What we had was a well trained prohibitionary force ready to go from alcohol to any other newly named illegal substance. And just why is it that every town across the country needs a SWAT Team?
Nixon named the War on Drugs and we have spent billions fighting it and nothing has changed. Should we continue? Did we not learn anything from prohibition?
Lyndon Johnson though that poor were getting poorer so he initiated a War on Poverty. We tried everything the raise the poverty level and all we seemed to do is raise the bar on the definition of poverty. Nothing has change we still have the same amount of people that are poor only they make more money and live better that those poor of the 1960’s. We have lost the War on Poverty too.
We have also been chasing boogey men all around the globe in the name of preventing terror attacks. We have been scared by our government into thinking that a radical Islamic follower or disgruntled red-blooded all American was going to blow us up with fertilizer and kerosene. This fear has been use against us to limit our speech and control out behavior.
Perhaps it is time to throw off the cloak of these Wars and let us know what it is to live in peace. We have been fighting all of the wars for decades. Maybe it is time to end them and live in peace bro.
Take the Country back to What?
The 912 Projects Tea Parties have taken America by storm. We have stood on street corners, voiced our opinions and anger at town hall meetings throughout the land. We have cried out for fiscal responsibility and smaller government. We have declared that we want to take back our country and ensure that our freedoms remain intact.
The press has stated that we will be null and void unless we can define exactly what do we mean when we say we want to take our country back? Back to what? It does provide some food for thought as the election is now over and there are many new faces in congress.
How far back shall we take the country? How drastic would the change be to the citizens? Perhaps we should start with 1913 and repeal the 16th Amendment and get rid of the progressive income tax and replace it with the Fair Tax. Taxing a person’s labor is immoral.
Imagine how many subsequent laws have been passed to find new ways to tax a person’s income and to find ways around paying taxes on income. Imagine no Internal Revenue Service! How much freer would we be if we did not have government taking our money at gun point?
Maybe we should also repeal the 17th Amendment which was also passed in 1913. This took the election of senators away from the state legislatures and made it a vote of the people based on political parties. This was the beginning of the end of states’ rights. Before the 17th Amendment senators were elected to ensure that their home state’s rights were not violated by the federal government. Imagine how many federally mandated laws may not have come into play had our senators voted to protect their states from abuse. These two changes alone would bring a renewed sense of freedom to the individual.
Maybe we should start by outlawing the practice of government to withholding taxes from our paychecks. This amounts to interest free loans to the government. This was one of the government’s biggest and brightest ideas to relieve us of our money in a painless, convenient manner. Do you think the government would be as bold as it is if we had to actually write checks to it? I think there would have been a tax revolt long ago.
Do we want to go back to the Not So Great Society times of the 1950’s? President Lyndon B. Johnson proposed The Great Society and the War on Poverty that were designed to eliminate poverty and racial injustice. Since the percentage of those still in poverty is still high maybe we should have saved the billions of dollars spent on this un-winnable war and let the tax payers keep their hard earned money.
Now envision no Social Security or government medical programs. How would that affect the population? At first it would be devastating, but eventually we would begin to rely less upon government for our happiness. People would begin again to help one another and the national mindset would move from the belief that government is the source of happiness and security.
Any change to ‘take our country back’ will be met with resistance because people would have to assume personal responsibility for their own lives. So be careful about being too vague on what you mean by taking our country back. Americans have been living for generations with the slow scorching effects of socialism. We have been conditioned to have a ‘job’ with a retirement at the end of the rainbow. Our parents lived the dream as did their parents before them. They have passed onto to us an easier life then they had. We take our easy life for granted. But along with that is the reality that it is not sustainable. Sooner or later the weight will collapse and that is what we are headed for now.
Taking our country back in a drastic measure would most likely devastate the citizens of the great country. It would be shock and awe indeed as we have been systematically conditioned to have a progressing reliance on government. Imagine if you will if that every television screen in America suddenly went blank, or radio stations stopped talking to us, or if everyone’s cell phone stopped working. A drastic change to the course of the nation may be just as confusing and direct.
The progressives have been slowly twisting the blade of socialism in the heart of America for more than a century. A majority of the population is used to the government’s helping hand and convincing them to throw it all away and become responsible is going to be goring a lot of people’s oxen. How do we systematically dismantle it? That is the question.
Before we answer that question we need to define what we mean by freedom. If we want personal freedom and liberty we must define it as individuals. For the past two centuries we have allowed political parties to define it for us. I urge you to take some time and envision no Republican or Democrat parties, no left versus right, no liberal versus conservative slant on freedom. Take your keyboard in hand and ask yourself “what does freedom mean to me?” What does it look like? We must stop the political gamesmanship and return to the Founder’s measurement of government which was simple; Does this law advance liberty or tyranny?
First published in Liberty Ink Journal October 2010