Posted on 06/26/2012 3:56:44 AM PDT by Kaslin
Isn't that somewhat similar to what would happen if we cut these programs as necessary anyway? This is just one of those "sooner or later" things.
What we need to do is to stop spending.
We don’t rule the world.
We cannot afford to rule the world. We cannot even rule ourselves.
TOP SPENDING.
‘Political advantage’ seems to be the focus of everything lately, and not just because of the coming national election.
It’s as if Liberal America is in the process (unimpeded, it seems) of re designing our political system.
Each and every crisis is magnified and willfully exacerbated to endorse Liberalism… where Liberalism, on its own merit, could never succeed as a reasonable or even a moral option.
This gratuitous politicization of our problems is almost treasonous. Leave it to American Liberals to descend to this level in the pursuit of their own agenda over and above all else.
For THEM, the current financial crisis is less a problem for America than an OPPORTUNITY to radicalize our politics and expand Liberal control!
Conservatives see the financial crisis as a problem for Americans and for the future of America as a strong and sovereign nation.
“STOP SPENDING”.
(argh)
The problem is, it won’t end with liberalism.
It will end up with Chinese communism.
They do a tremendous, tremendous job of lying to the public, the finance sector, the business sector and a buttload of bullying, frankly.
Unfunded liabilities are horrible, the economy is horrible (still), unemployment is much larger than the government publishes - they’ve even skipped the auction thing and are letting China buy its T Bills Directly from the Federal Government! Amazing! These are all acts of a desperate government that so far has been able to hold it together - through paper and electronic disbursements.
The one group that will tip the whole shebang over the cliff are this country’s entitlement group - WICs, EITC, AFDC, Section 8, SNAP, SCHIP, PELL Grants & Student loans, EBT, SSDI, SSI, SS. When the feds don’t have even the wherewithall to printup trash or spew worthless electronic bits, this whole debacle will come crashing down.
Smart, thinking people will have long since made other financial arrangements like getting their money in a more liquid position beyond the Fed’s Tap and Grab ability...
Yessiree. Those people are gonna riot like all hell’s broke loose.
Very few physicians are rolling in clover any more. The big needless operational medical costs are in paperwork, hospital administration, and inflated union salaries. Freaking hospitals as constructed today are palatial boondoggles. Think of the artwork you see, the fancy glass and groovy building shapes, bridges, code requirements... there isn't much utilitarian about them. You should see what a "hospital grade" electrical plug or switch costs; it's almost as bad as military hardware. Yet for a lot of this equipment, again, the documentation is the biggie, even for applications that really don't need the additional expense from a safety perspective.
Much of that paperwork, from military to medical, exists because of lawyers. As a society, that's where I see the really big hidden costs, particularly in terms of lost opportunity in what a business would not attempt.
-—The unmistakable, unconcealable pain is the only thing that will make the American people stop their bread-and-circuses march to an ever more socialist state.——
Seems that way.
The worst part is that we will learn nothing, just as we learned nothing from the Depression.
Now, the question of where that money is being spent needs to be brought up.
Do we really need drone flights over cow pastures? How much do those cost?
Do we need deputy under undersecretaries? Why?
COuld the Federal government do what many private households have over the past couple of years and reduce expenditures by 10%, 20%, 50%?
It becomes a question of priorities, of whether it is economical to spend billions on armies of flunkies to swarm the country and tell us how to live, how to raise our children, how to hammer a nail, and that (surprise!) every now and then, range cattle pee in the creek.
Or, to question the economics of generating tens of thousands of pages of new regulations every year?
How much would be saved annually by RIF'ing the Federal Workforce?
Why are the most essential services ALWAYS the ones to be cut first?
Do we need battalions of social workers?
If we quit subsidizing poverty will it continue to grow, or will people work their way up, as they have done for centuries?
SSI and Medicare: If you paid for it, you should get it, but there should be some means testing. If you didn't pay for it, good luck (This especially means illegal immigrants).
Remodel the welfare system so it is easier to get off of, and not a people trap.
Remove incentives to have 'disabled' kids (ADD, 'depressed'--as if growing up in the projects and being told there is no hope for you isn't depressing--, medical, but no extra funding). Currently branding children as something they are not not only brings in more bucks for the baby momma, but for the system itself, which means raises and advancement and more money.
As we have found in our household, on a few occasions, cutting 10% off the budget can be done, and not just once but numerous times over years.
Fixed costs remain fixed, but so much of what 'government does' doesn't need to be done. It's fluff, unnecessary, beyond the imagined scope of the Constitution, often a duplicated or contradictory effort, and a damned waste.
In the meantime, raising taxes, again, on the very people that so many would throw to the wolves who are in the last decade before 'retirement' just keeps many from being able to fend for themselves in the future.
Most people feel they have no ability to control or change the program whatsoever. As both parties have more than adequately demonstrated, it makes little difference if they vote Democrat or Republican. Both parties are big government spenders tied at the hip to big lobbyists and insiders.
If you have no control over the situation, logically, it makes no sense to worry about it!
This isn't Walton's Mountain. Families are scattered over huge areas, and many of us are raising grandchildren, so for all practical purposes, we are 'moved in together', but the support mechanism is reversed. If we don't provide for ourselves, no one else will.
Look around us, why would anyone think there is an impending crisis coming?
All I see is fat people with plenty of food or ways to get it any time they want it, an Obama phone in their hand, cable tv, a roof over their head and at least one car.
We’ve forgotten what it means to be told “NO”, forgotten as a people what hunger truly is, what it’s like to live without a down padded safety net under us and rely solely on our own worth to make a life for ourselves.
I moved out of the Detroit area and down into central Indiana a few years ago and it was the best decision we ever made. I watched growing up how dependent most people are for everything they need in this life - clean water, food, electricity, transportation, etc. One day I knew that it could all come to a standstill and where would I and my family be? Shuffling along looking for my next meal even if I had a nice bank account, home and car I would still be surrounded by people fighting for everything I need to survive.
When the checks stop coming, the EBT cards are empty, or when the pregnant woman with her four kids go in to get her monthly check and is told that benefit has been discontinued then all hell is going to break loose in our urban centers. When that happens it will make the LA and 68 Detroit riots look like a family squabble. I want no part of any of that, and I am surrounded by people who think the same way as I do. I will help out my fellow man as much as I can when they hold their hand out, but when they come to take what is mine then that is a different story, and I see that day coming closer every time I turn on the news and read between the lines.
or perhaps another way to say the truth is:
The enemy (debt) was created by those who held the purse. All signed off, and now it is too late. Or is it? Wonder what would happen if someone told the American people the truth? Our debt is the enemy. Then that person went about to explain a plan to reduce our debt. Perhaps that person or group of persons would be soundly defeated if that person or group chose to run for office. Would such a defeat tell Americans our true fate? Maybe, maybe not, and yes maybe there have been persons (who came forward) to make an attempt to tell the people the truth and were defeated. Perhaps those defeats slipped by the people. The future (she) is a tricky mistress. Though am in agreement with this author and another poster who stated, surprised it has lasted this long.
Your words show the solution that would have worked 20 years ago.
But with all the new handouts and the sheer magnitude of the debt, it is now at the limit of repayment or even beyond it.
9) Ingestion of flouride via public water works. http://fluorideisbad.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/its-offical-fluoride-makes-you-stupid/
Thank You BRL. Though I was alone.
I’m all for retrenchment of our military back home especially since it accounts for about 300 billion or so of our deficits. Europe would have to spend more for its own defence and they can just operate their own nuclear umbrella...that is if the US could trust them not to use that umbrella against us!
Most of them buy into this Leftist fallacy that we can just get it from “the 1%” if things get tight enough.
Could the majority (leadership and people) be appealed to reasonably to avoid calamity? Has it been tried? Don't know here, another topic to research, as possibly the time ticking away becomes less and less, while more and more is the call from the masses. Scary stuff.
IF we cram the Gov’t back into the hole that it belongs, restricted to the functions as listed in the Constitution, fulfilling only legitimate funtions, then this can be overcome.
Entitlements are not a function. NASA, not. Illegal amnesty and support, not. But military (Defense) is. Should the cost be controlled? Absolutely. It is not meant to be a monetary black hole.
But to lump defense in with entitlements is worng. Defense is a legitimate function of FedGov.
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