What Democrats Want, Day 36, Countdown to Oblivion? SPENDING

As of today, there are 36 days until the most consequential election in American history. This is what they say about many past elections, but this is really it. For if the Democrats seize power – control of the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate and the Presidency – and doing it by hook or by crook (the justifies the means, you know) America as we know it will be forever changed. America envisioned and created by the Founding Fathers will disappear into the shadows of history.

The ungodly secular-humanists/Marxists slow march through America’s institutions over the last 100 years or so will have reached a crescendo – fulfilling Mr. Obama’s fundamental transformation of control of the masses.

Envision with me what a Socialist Democratic Party, takeover, a bloodless coup, a regime change, would look like. This is one in a series of daily articles leading up to the 2020 General Election 

SPENDING like there’s no tomorrow, spending like a drunken sailor, using taxpayers as an ATM. That pretty much describes the Democratic Party. Mr. Trump asks for a trillion to deal with COVID (which is too much), but San Fran Nan Pelosi asks for 3 trillion. Never the twain shall meet. But the Republicans are not too far behind.

 

What a Waste!

President Reagan made this wise observation, “No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!” This fosters a lot of redundancy and waste. Smaller government is always better. It minimizes waste and maximizes accountability.

 

Budgeting 101

Omnibus bills are all the rage in Washington, D.C.  Not wanting to deal with tough budget decisions, Congress often waits to the last minute to avoid a government shutdown and then is forced to pass an appropriation bill that continues the status quo, it perpetuates the outrageous spending patterns of yesterday into the future.

 

Federal Fumbles

On his government website, U.S. Senator James Langford (R-OK) notes that “In order to address America’s outrageous $23+ trillion federal debt, we need a growing economy and responsible spending reductions in the federal budget. Senator Lankford’s Federal Fumbles: Ways the federal government dropped the ball report is a collection of specific examples of wasteful federal spending and negative regulations that impact the economy. Lankford believes he has an obligation to solve the troubles of our nation, not just complain, which is why for every problem identified there is a recommended solution. There is a way to eliminate wasteful, ineffective, or duplicative program spending; develop oversight methods to prevent future waste; and find ways to get us back on track.” In his annual report Senator identifies specific areas of wasteful government spending and offers a solution. One example from his most recent report, which are found on his website, is what he calls, “$11.6 Million for Zombies COST: $11.6 million.”

His report explains,  “In an effort to identify and prevent payments after death, the Social Security Administration (SSA) established a program under which states and US territories can voluntarily contract with SSA to provide the agency with death data to compare with its records. States electronically submit death reports to SSA, and SSA automatically posts the state death information and terminates payments to deceased beneficiaries. Unfortunately for taxpayers, Puerto Rico does not have such a system in place, which has led to millions of overpayments to dead people. The Puerto Rico Department of Health provided SSA’s watchdog, the Office of Inspector General (OIG), with the vital records data of approximately 568,000 Social Security number holders who died in Puerto Rico from January 1992 through December 2016. OIG matched the data against SSA payment records, and their findings were incredibly concerning. OIG found that SSA issued approximately $11.6 million in posthumous payments to 149 beneficiaries who died in Puerto Rico during that time period. OIG also identified 33,258 non-beneficiaries who were deceased according to vital records at the Puerto Rican Department of Health but whose death information was not in SSA’s system, which could potentially lead to further improper payments.”

More of our representatives need to take an interest in identifying waste in government expenditures.

 

Public Broadcasting

Speaking of egregious wasteful expenditures, expending limited resources to prop up national public radio (NPR) and public broadcast service (PBS) is mind-boggling.  These entities receive federal taxpayer dollars to present highly biased, Leftist-orientated programming. They along with the mainstream media function as public relation or marketing firms of the Democratic Party and all Leftist causes. The Party and not the People should be paying for these propaganda machines!

 

Some Solutions

 

Balanced Budget Amendment

A balanced budget amendment to the Constitution would require that expenditures should not exceed revenues. It is a proposal which has been introduced in Congress almost every two years, without success, that would limit the federal government's spending to no more than it generates in revenue from taxes in any fiscal year.

 

Zero-Based Budgeting

TheStreet.com’s website defines Zero-Based Budgeting as “a concept where the budget for the next budgeting cycle for an organization, often a calendar or fiscal year, starts from a zero base as opposed to an increase off the current spending levels. Under this process, the budget amount for a department or even a line item must be justified both in terms of the purpose of the budget and the amount to be included in the budget.” Some form of this kind of budgeting should be implemented throughout government.

 

Benefit-Cost Ratio/Analysis, or Just Say ‘No’

Members of Congress need to start saying no to unaffordable, unnecessary, and those expenditures where costs outweigh any benefit. They could use the benefit-cost ratio (BCR) and analysis which is an indicator showing the relationship between the relative costs and benefits of a proposed project, expressed in monetary or qualitative terms.

 

Conclusion

We finally have a businessman in the White House. He has dealt with the real world. Routine concepts like the need to operate at least on a breakeven (expenses not exceeding revenue) basis and the need to justify all expenditures are sound business principles that could and should be applied to the government enterprise as well.

The Democratic Party will maintain the status quo, which is spend, spend, and spend. The Republicans under President Trump if he can reign in the rogue Deep State undermining could implement some practices that will better control spending.

Vote Democrat for more waste and more resulting taxes. Vote Republican for less spending and less taxes.

 

 

What Democrats Want, Day 81, Countdown to Oblivion? Taxes

As of today, there are 81 days until the most consequential election in American history. This is what they say about many past elections, but this is really it. For if the Democrats seize power – control of the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate and the Presidency – and doing it by hook or by crook (the justifies the means, you know) America as we know it will be forever changed. America envisioned and created by the Founding Fathers will disappear into the shadows of history.

The ungodly secular-humanists/Marxists slow march through America’s institutions over the last 100 years or so will have reached a crescendo – fulfilling Mr. Obama’s fundamental transformation of America. Never again will the demonic Democratic Party relinquish its grip on political power and control of the masses.

Envision with me what a Socialist Democratic Party, takeover, a bloodless coup, a regime change, would look like. This is the first of a series of daily articles leading up to the 2020 General Election scheduled for November 3, 2020.

The Only Sure Things in Life are Death and Taxes

The communistic Democratic Party of 2020 have embraced death and taxes. Abortion is their “holy” sacrament. Taxes is how they support their spending addiction.  Today we will focus on taxes, previously we discussed abortion here and here. It seems that the solution to every problem for the Democrats is more money. And what is the source of the money? More taxation is the solution – property taxes, sales taxes, user taxes, income taxes an even estate or death taxes.

Balanced Budget is Anathema to Democrats

To live within ones means is foolishness to Democrats and an increasing number of Republicans as well. There have been moves within Congress to legislate a balanced budget requirement. There is also a move outside of government called the Convention of States, which calls for a constitutional convention, which supposed has the prime purpose of mandating that government adhere to a balanced budget. Making a balanced budget an amendment to the U.S. Constitution would be a great idea, but all these efforts there is no will in Congress or among the people to make this happen. The Democrats would never support a balanced budget.

Riding on the Omnibus

In recent years both the Democrats and Republicans in Congress have failed to do the necessary work to pass a federal budget as well as the corresponding appropriation bills. They settle for deficit and debt driving Omnibus Spending Bills which include many bloated and unnecessary expenditures that could not be by Congress, but due to expediency they pass. Congress waits to the last minute and must adopt humongous bills that include many wasteful expenditures.

The bottom line that the cowardly, lazy members of Congress shirk their responsibility in creating and living by a budget. Families could not operate this way for very long. The government has the power to borrow and print money out of thin air. This practice will eventually catch up and cause financial ruin.

The Fair Tax or Flat Tax

Two ideas that may work but would be vigorously resisted by the Democrats and big government defenders are the Fair Tax and the Flat Tax ideas.

According to the  www.TheBalance.com description:  “The Fair Tax Plan is a sales tax proposal to replace the current U.S. income tax structure. It abolishes all federal personal and corporate income taxes, and ends all taxes on gifts, estates, capital gains, alternative minimums, Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment.The plan replaces them with a federal retail sales tax of 23% to be administered by state sales tax authorities.”

The same website states, “A flat tax is an income tax system that applies the same tax rate to everyone regardless of income. Most flat tax systems also allow exemptions for those living below the poverty line, so each proposal for a flat tax must be evaluated carefully to assess its true revenue-producing potential.”

The flat tax would be considered unfair because the rich or the one percenters and corporations because they would be not paying, ironically, their fair share. Ingenuity, hard work, investment, and risk are not considered by the Democrats as worthwhile ideals that should be supported and encourage for the overall benefit of society.  Democrats consider that it is big government which knows best.  The Fair Tax Plan would be opposed because Congress and its various agencies would have to work within a set amount of money and make tough priority choices and limit the pay to play schemes so prevalent today.

Conclusion

Isn’t it funny (obscene, really) that Democrats change the language by calling taxes, “investments”?  Yes, they are investments all right, but investments in big, obtrusive government, not an investment in helping the American people. Expect a huge increase in taxation if the communistic Democratic Party wins the presidency and both houses of Congress this fall. The have promises to keep and voters to keep on the Democratic plantation. The debt will raise, but with it the nation will fall.

Steve Chabot's Votes to Raise the Debt Ceiling

My alleged congressman, Steve Chabot explained why he voted for raising the debt ceiling and creating a “Super Congress”.  Chabot points out that the “drop-dead date” was set by Timothy Geithner.  (So you believed him?)  Chabot said that Obama did not get anything close to what he had wanted.  Oh, really?  He claims that this bill was “based upon the principles of Cut, Cap, and Balance”.  Then he explains the differences.  (I would point out that even Cut, Cap, and Balance is unacceptable because it merely tinkers with budget, and does not contain any guaranteed, substantial cuts enough to really balance the budget.)  Under the bill that passed, the Balanced Budget Amendment vote will occur after the debt ceiling is increased.  So there is no guarantee at all that the flawed Balanced Budget Amendment will be voted on, much less passed.  Like the Amendment itself, it’s just another promise which can be broken.  (So this is exactly what Obama would want.)   He explains that the cuts would be over the next 10 years and that there would no guarantee that they would actually happen.  Again, this is another promise which can be broken.  I doubt that these "cuts" are anything but cuts in proposed increases in spending, not actually cutting current levels of spending.  (So this is exactly what Obama would want.)  He talks about the unconstitutional “Super Congress” as if it was a good thing, but it is yet another step toward concentration of power into the hands of a few.  Again, this is NOT a good thing, Mr. Chabot. (It's exactly what Obama would want.)  “I came to the conclusion that it was probably the best we could get,” he said.  You may have gotten something out this bill, but “we” didn’t!  No real cuts, no balanced budget, only more promises and more centralization of power in Washington.

The Balanced Budget Amendment is a Bad Idea

It's time too stop looting America

Date	Dollar Amount
04/21/2011 09/30/2010	14,290,788,661,250.50 13,561,623,030,891.79
09/30/2009	11,909,829,003,511.75
09/30/2008	10,024,724,896,912.49
09/30/2007	9,007,653,372,262.48
09/30/2006	8,506,973,899,215.23
09/30/2005	7,932,709,661,723.50
09/30/2004	7,379,052,696,330.32
09/30/2003	6,783,231,062,743.62
09/30/2002	6,228,235,965,597.16
09/30/2001	5,807,463,412,200.06
09/30/2000	5,674,178,209,886.86

"The Tea Party philosophy is the opposite of the current Washington ethic, too prevalent in both parties, that dictates that the goal of politics is to gather a coalition of 51% of the voters so that it can loot the other 49%. The Tea Party goal, instead, is to return to the principles that maximize opportunity for 100% of the voters."    

--- James V. DeLong, "The Tea Party movement and our collective interest," Tea Party Review, April 2011, Vol. 1, No. 2, page 55

The current Washington ethic is embraced by both the entrenched GOP like John Boehner and Mitch McConnell and the long-standing Democrats like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. This was true when the Republicans had control of Congress and the Presidency, and it was most assuredly  true with the Democratic controlled 111th Congress. This is the reason that the national debt and deficit has risen to such great heights the last decade (See table above). 


The Tea Party minority in Congress represents the majority of the American people. The election of 2010 and 2012 have shown and will show that that continues to be true. It is time for the Republicans to stand, just like Nancy Pelosi did on her demonic principles, willing to lose the election of 2010 to gain the key agenda items by hook or by crook, which she did. John Boehner, if he at all believes equally in the principles he espouses will have the same level of commitment. So far he has not and the nation is worse for it. 


Let's get real. Let's get serious, Mr. Speaker. Stop with the rhetoric. Let's take action. Let's start with not raising the Debt Ceiling without a Balanced Budget commitment from the Democrats and the President. Maybe by passing a Balanced Budget Amendment before raising the Debt Ceiling one dollar more!