How many times has the federal government balanced "our" public checkbook? Yes, I said "OUR". If we hired people to balance the ledger of the greatest business in the world, our business, the U.S. economy, and not only when they failed to balance the books they also overspent our monies and borrowed the difference...what would you do?
Well, the real answer is what we have already done: apathy. Just as we have neglected our own personal finances, believed that borrowing monies gets us ahead, we have taken a seat as far back as possible on our country's finances. We have continued to elect the same people: spineless, out for career ambitions, and even those trying their best not to be bought out by lobbyists are still sucked in by the tentacles of political favors.
So what is our job? Our job is to be a true shareholder of our country. To be a Chairman and Chairwoman of the Board and to elect those who keep to the mission and values of our "company", to stay in the black, and remove the favoritism that encroaches and kills Liberty. Our job is to also remove those who believe in favors, who believe in buying off constituencies, and who believe that we are to be a true democracy - a country that eventually permits the majority to rule over the minority - rather than to lift up and rebuild the framework of the Democratic Republic.
That's what's so ironic about those last two words, Democratic Republic. These two bickering and sold out parties hold the framework of our great country: Democracy is a system of government where the population elects eligible members of the community to represent them, and Republic is a state in which the supreme power is held by the people. If it were only a democracy, once 51% of people gather together, they rule over whatever the sizes of the minority; however, when you add the Republic (via the electorate), all peoples retain the supreme power and lessen the strength of the majority via a true democracy. Most people don't even know this - and sadly neither did I until a week ago - but we stripped away a vital thread to our republic when Congress passed the 17th Amendment May 13, 1912. This allowed the people to directly elect people to the Senate. I know that sounds odd - that I would oppose such an Amendment - but what happened with this passing is it stripped away the people's power through the constituency. You see, prior to this, the State legislature was responsible for placing people to the Senate. With this setup, the senators' election was representative of the constituency rather than the popular vote suppressing the minority through a direct vote. This is why we have the Electorate when electing the President of United States, so that the majority could not group together and rule over the minority.
Why do I write all this and where am I going? With Greece and the European Union crashing, and soon the United States will need to answer to their failed "balancing of the checkbook", who will be to blame? I try to stay informed as much as possible, read the news from as many viewpoints as possible, listen to the radio from the far left to the far right. When I listen and read, it seems the truth is hard to find. Some seem to speak in half truths and others you can't tell if they're misinformed, have agendas, or really have a true perspective on the topic.
That is why, being very tired of the political nonsense and name-calling, I decided to find for myself what the true ledger of federal checkbook has been....and I went back 112 years. If you have gotten this far, you may need a refresher in American government. Most people do not know where spending comes from in the federal government. Do you know? Is it is Executive Branch/the President? No. Is it in Congress? Yes, but from where? It comes from a very specific place in the House of Representatives: The Ways and Means Committee. So, with that in mind, you may or may not be shocked by what will you see. Is there a party responsible for spending? Will it be as apparent as a huge bug splat on your windshield?
Before you do that - and although there is truth to the coming perception - I do not share this to blame one party. On the contrary, I blame us for not challenging it, for believing that favors will get us where we want to go and that spending ourselves to prosperity was a possibility. We have lied to ourselves and to our children. This presentation will show that regardless of what the tax policy is or what corporate tax rates are, the federal revenue have nearly increased every...single...year. Our problem isn't funding our economy; our problem is spending money we don't have.
The Federal Checkbook (1900-2012)
The train is running full-steam ahead for the cliff's edge and people are apathetic. It is time for us to change that. It is time for us to care. It is time to stop the reckless spending and pay off our debtors. It will be painful to do initially, but we can do it because we are caring people that will care for the poor and we need to take care of them at the community level, where love and accountability are found, things that cannot be delivered at the federal level. |
| This is a display I developed from nonpartisan figures on Federal Revenue and Spending. (sources: usgovernmentrevenue.com, taxpolicycenter.org) The top bar graph displays total year-to-year revenue (greener = revenue growth to prior year, redder = revenue loss to prior year). The bottom bar graph displays year-to-year spending (greener = spending under revenue, redder = spending over revenue - debt spending). This is our Country's ledger. Share with the constituencies. |
So, please, pass this on and carry the torch to your neighbor. Teach them how they can carry this torch, this burden, to release others from their apathy and restore Lady Liberty to greatness.
~Luke
