BigBadGovernment - September 2011

You wake up. Breathe some fresh air. Listen to the radio or TV over public airwaves. Eat a nutritious breakfast. Drive your fuel efficient car to drop off your kid at public school then onto I-75 to work. You take a lunch break at the nearby park then make a deposit at your local bank. You return to your office to hire a new employee at the business you started from scratch years ago. You later make a phone call to the local hospital to see how your elderly parent is doing and to make sure her Medicare insurance covers her care since her Social Security income is limited. Seeing an accident outside your office window, you call 911. Finally you head home to relax in your neighborhood pool and wave hello to a member of the military sitting nearby.

Image what that day would have been like if our federal, state, and local governments did not exist or operate in the manner to which we have become accustomed. And therein lies the challenge for our American democracy as we debate what is the proper size and scope of the taxes and user fees we are prepared to pay for the provision of services and regulations affecting our air, airwaves, food, cars, roadways, schools, parks, banks, businesses, telecommunications, hospitals, public safety, national security and even our pools. And certainly there are many, more examples than these!

The question facing our country now is can we afford to have our government so entangled in every aspect of our lives? Should it be dictating our health insurance coverage? Should it be telling our financial industries what they can charge for their services? Should it be charging us for our so-called carbon footprint and tell us what light bulbs to use? Should it employ so many of our citizens at the expense of other taxpayers? And should it borrow billions and trillions of dollars beyond its means to fund such efforts?

I have always admired the state motto of New Hampshire which is “Live Free or Die”. Our colonial predecessors came to this country to gain many freedoms from their European homelands. I cannot imagine any of them wanting or expecting their new country to have federal, state, and local governments telling them how to live their lives and taxing them to pay for the public welfare of so many others. Certainly the world has changed in the past 200 years and some of the services offered by government are now needed and wanted. But where does it stop?

My above examples did not include any references to welfare, unemployment compensation, credits for child care, earned income benefits and the like. In fact, there are SO many federal benefits that in 2002, Uncle Sam actually created a website to help you find out what benefits might be available to you. At the time of the site's launch in 2002, it featured 55 programs, representing the ten Federal bureaucracies. Today, the website now includes over 1,000 programs representing 17 Federal bureaucracies. See for yourself at www.Benefits.gov and click the Start Now button. Robin Hood could never have been as efficient although President Obama’s regime is doing its best to make even more citizens dependent on the government dole!

To me it is quite simple. When there are more citizens accepting government assistance than the number of taxpayers paying for such assistance, our country will be no different than the socialist governments throughout the world which are struggling to stay solvent. Unfortunately, we are very close to reaching that point so it is urgent for our elected officials to right our ship now before it starts to sink.

Thankfully we have a national election next year in which the American voter will have the power to determine the future direction of our country. Will we go down the insane path envisioned by President Obama or will we say STOP to his nonsense and elect a candidate who believes in reigning in out of control spending and borrowing and returning to common sense government? We have kicked the can too long through Republican and Democratic administrations. It is time to elect a candidate with the guts and charisma to get the job done.