As another year draws to a close, there is the usual congressionally-created crisis. With the rampant spending still affecting this nation's security, lawmakers continue to bicker. In the end, there will likely be an 11th hour compromise in Washington. Through various patchworks and finagling, increased government growth will be touted as the answer from both sides of the aisle. Setting up policies such as the Bush Tax Cuts with a "sunset provision" will, invariably, lead to disaster. Cutting taxes and overseas spending would have been the wise option, but special interests need served.
The usual rhetoric from politicians of "cutting government spending increases will lead to a fiscal cliff" is total nonsense. This is not baseline budgeting here; this is an automatic raise in the spending by the federal government.
All of this bombast from politicians is familiar territory. Every dollar the government spends is a dollar taken from consumers, small businesses, and investors. We need to reduce wasteful government spending and get money back into the hands of the average poor and middle class American.
The sad reality is that both Democrats and Republicans refuse to cut anything real from this out-of-control budget. US military spending is by far the largest spent by any country and is rife with misuse of funds and inefficiency. Republicans can't stand to even consider cutting some of the monstrous budget out of the Pentagon. This occurs while Democrats refuse to cut anything out of the social welfare system or entitlement spending. Instead, the Democrats want to raise taxes on the rich in a country where there already is a progressive tax code.
Even King George "only" taxed at five percent which sparked a revolution in itself. The Old Testament reads that God only wanted ten percent in tithing. Yet there is a ruckus when some people are "only" paying thirteen percent. Until we look realistically at our foreign policy and continue to let the Federal Government use its credit card, expect the fiscal cliff to get even worse.
Christopher Erdman
Muncy
Submitted by Virtual Newsroom
