One of the paradoxes of human life is that supposedly rational people can be so deluded.
Without a doubt, compulsive spending that engorges an already huge, over-regulating federal government is more than stupid. It is perilous to our well-being and freedom.
Yet many of our politicians cling to taxing and spending like a toddler to his blankie. They’re doing it for our own good, like it or not. The debt-creators fiercely malign anyone who disagrees. When the Tea Partiers say the emperor has no clothes--the spending is unsustainable, government is stifling freedom, they simply point out the obvious. That’s why they’re hated.
Americans who revolted to free us from King George worried about power corrupting political leaders. Arguing that the states should ratify the Constitution, James Madison, a founding father, tried to allay those fears in Federalist 45: “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain with the State governments are numerous and indefinite.” Now that we’ve evolved into a society of saints, I guess concerns about abuse of power by federal commissars are paranoid.
Another founder, Thomas Jefferson, saw debt as a danger to American independence. “We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt,” he wrote in an 1816 letter.
“We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude.”
In a blog titled “The Moral Deception of the National Debt,” Catholic monsignor Ignacio Barreiro-Carambula, interim president of Human Life International, argues that limited debt for crises such as just war or natural disasters is understandable, but growing debt for everyday expenses bleeds the citizenry, especially the middle class. “The accumulation of public debt is offensive against one of the pillars of the American Republic, which is the refusal of taxation without representation,” he adds.
“Future taxpayers will be burdened with the payment of taxes on a debt which they had no say in acquiring.”
We are forging chains for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren. The Bible in Proverbs 22:7 is blunt: “…the borrower is the slave of the lender.”
How come so many of our politicians just don’t get it?
Every time a politician votes for a program, with out funding that program with higher taxes (or cuts), he votes to increase the debt. The Bush Tax Cuts for the Rich, the Iraq war, entitlements... every vote of that nature is a vote to increase the debt. The Debt Ceiling issue is the result of those votes, not the cause.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Very true Kempis1 and it now looks like we the people have become the slaves of China, Japan, Russia and any other country that holds our debt. Everything that our founders warned and worried about has come to pass and the politicians are afraid to deal with the debt because it will cost them votes. We have choices as I see it, deal with the debt now with cuts to all programs/entitlements, eliminate parts of government that have proved to be useless, eliminate some of the unfunded programs, overhaul the tax code and eliminate all loop holes that allow businesses/citizens to avoid paying taxes, put some of the 51% of people not paying taxes back on the tax rolls, or we can go bankrupt.
Every time a politician votes for a program, with out funding that program with higher taxes (or cuts), he votes to increase the debt. The Bush Tax Cuts for the Rich, the Iraq war, entitlements... every vote of that nature is a vote to increase the debt. The Debt Ceiling issue is the result of those votes, not the cause.
Luckily for us in 2006 and 2008, Americans voted in Democrats to control all three branches of government, taking control away from those reckless Republicans, in order to correct the poor policies of Bush and the Republicans. We corrected the course we were on, and we pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan, drew down are Armies around the world and ended the "Bush Tax Cuts", and reduced entitlements.[TIC]
Now we begin to see how this oligarchy works. The two parties are drunk with power and made their fortunes by disregarding and enslaving the people they were elected to represent.
Luckily for us in 2006 and 2008, Americans voted in Democrats to control all three branches of government, taking control away from those reckless Republicans, in order to correct the poor policies of Bush and the Republicans. We corrected the course we were on, and we pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan, drew down are Armies around the world and ended the "Bush Tax Cuts", and reduced entitlements.[TIC]
Now we begin to see how this oligarchy works. The two parties are drunk with power and made their fortunes by disregarding and enslaving the people they were elected to represent.
Ain't that the truth
"In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a Patriot."