Downsize Government - Are you crazy?

The unemployment rate is now over ten percent. Ten percent of the working, producing, public has been laid off. Not government workers, in fact, the government work force is growing. The Stimulus Plan pays for the education and training of new government workers.

Does government have a growing problem?
Why is government so big and getting bigger?
Who hires all these government workers and why?
What are they all doing and are we getting our money's worth?

Who is the biggest employer in your town, city, county, state?
Government!
Millions of government employees and more added every day to take care of us.
Who pays the best pensions for their employees?
Government!
Of course there may be and exception or two, a factory, or a corporate headquarters but check your town, who is the biggest or second biggest employer?

Where does all this government get the money to pay all those government salaries and pensions? Income taxes? Yeah, but that's just a drop in the giant tax revenue bucket. The government collects hundreds of different taxes from our pockets every day. You have heard it all before, from property, to school, to sales tax to tax at the gas pump, to telephone, excise, cigarette, booze, power of all kinds, wind, solar, coal, oil, restaurant, hotel, movie, entertainment of all kinds, products of all kinds are taxed by multiple government entities. Looked at your cell phone bill lately? Those are taxes you can actually read about but there are numerous hidden taxes you have no idea about. You pay the taxes for small businesses and corporations because they pass them on in the form of higher prices. Investment profits are taxed to the discouragement of investors. We even tax the dead. Rich people can afford all these nuisance taxes but the poor, who probably don't pay income taxes, feel the 'creative' tax burden.

Every bureaucrat worth his salt is looking to create new ways to invent a new tax, on soda and juice for instance.
Watch out, the Value Added Tax, 'VAT' is just around the corner.

Even setting aside the new government workers being hired every day we must remember that we pay tremendous amounts into pensions for retired military, elected and appointed officials, judges, postal workers, Am Trac workers, Secret Service, FBI, CIA, INS, Homeland Security employees, and the list goes on, and on, and on. Millions of guaranteed pensions, good pensions, most with health benefits. That's just federal employees. What about city, county, and state police, teachers, administrators, garbage collectors, water and sewer department people. Every mayor, councilman, jail keeper and street sweeper gets a salary or a pension.

All of these people provide a service that we vitally need of course, but who decided we vitally needed all these people and services and why?

All of government works on budget plans submitted on a yearly basis. Every department of every branch of government submits a proposed budget within the guidelines of the heads of the departments. Without getting into details, be it understood that every department submits a larger budget every year than the year before. Why, because larger budgets increase the power, security, and incomes of all in the department. It's all about power, money and security. If this year your department has ten people and next year you can sell the idea that the department needs ten more, your power and worth just doubled. That goes for sections, departments, agencies, sectors, regions, cities, counties, states, federal, what ever.

Government grows because everyone that works in government wants it to, and we sit back and expect better services. Translation..., better roads, better schools, better protection. Sounds simple, but when I was a kid a cop was a protector of the community now he is more of a revenue generator, a cop in a high speed cruiser giving out two hundred dollar parking tickets. Teachers who turn out eighteen year old kids ill equipped to earn because they can't read and employment application, qualifiy for college, balance a checkbook, or speak in the language of their country, and most roads have pot holes.

Our priorities should be have the best educated kids in the world, the healthiest population in the world and one of the wealthiest populations in the world. We can't do that with the heavy burden of over sized government weighing down the revenue generating public,. Thing about it, how many non-working, retired senior citizens living on Social Security or disability are there? Add that huge number to government workers, and military, deriving their incomes and pensions from taxes? Add to that, children, teachers, police, firemen, garbage, government contractors, etc, etc, also getting their income from revenue generating tax paying public.

How many people, producers, (producers are those making something for profit), are left to generate taxable revenue to support those working for the government? The ratio is getting worse by the day. As secure government jobs grow, the producer jobs shrink, sort of like the number of people paying into Social Security, (producers) compared to those taking money out. The numbers ratio in the Social Security Ponzi Scheme will eventually be apparent, even to the most hopeful progressive Democrat. That taking from a few to support the many just doesn't work.

It seems like a lot of people want something for nothing like government health care, housing, food, pensions, etc. The sleeping, pacified public keep voting in politicians that promise to give it to them. After all it's a much easier sell to the downtroden, or altrustic, the promise of something for nothing that someone else is going to pay for, than selling responsibility, self reliance, and industry. The last three as being old fashioned and backward looking.

Which political party do you think wants to shrink the size of government.
Are you crazy, why should they eliminate themselves?

Health Care

The Democratic Party has been anxious to take over managing health care for everyone in this country since the sixties. Ted Kennedy made it a life long ambition, Hilliary Clinton jumped on board later on, but Obama with his mandate, expects to make it happen in his first year of office. He has the super majority House and Senate pushing his agenda and success is very close. This tremendous new government run bureaucracy will increase the size of government by and unimaginable, scary amount.

But wait, there seems to be objections to a government run public option, where the government competes with private insurance companies.
And, there seems to be objections to the 1 trillion dollar cost, give or take a hundred billion.
Also, there seems to be objections to taking a half a trillion from senior citizens Medicare benefits.
And, there seems to be objections to eliminating the 8 to 10 million senior citizen Advantage insurance plans that cover the gap between Medicare Payments and full payments to doctors, hospitals and prescription drug providers. It looks like these objections are raised mostly by out gunned Republicans, but there is some support by Democrats too.

The final version of the Health Care bill is not finished or out for the public to read yet, a lot of closed door meetings are taking place to compose the final version but targeting seniors, spending big money and not reducing health costs are expected outcomes of the final version.

I find it strange that a health care measures put forward by this administration does not address the more obvious ways of cutting health care costs and insuring everyone in this country without a public option.

If we eliminate expensive, redundant, defensive medical practices, address tort reform, allow sales of health insurance across state lines, write law to prohibit insurance companies from refusing to insure because of previous conditions, establish a health insurance risk pool for those with prior conditions, require everyone to be insured giving special aide to those in need we could cut health care costs by as much as 50 percent. Where do I get my figures? I made them up because no one knows for sure. What if I'm right, or nearly right? Cutting health care costs at the source is a better plan than the government has put forward.

Most doctors in foreign countries are protected from malpractice law suits. Medical boards of review are established to judge malpractice, clumsiness, mistakes with licence's at risk and compensation amounts pre-determined.
American doctors will still not be protected with public health care reform so defensive, expensive medicine will still be practiced.

Open competition among insurance companies across state lines and requireing insurance for everyone while establishing a pool for high risk policies. These ideas seem like a no brain ers for lowering insurance premiums.

'Insurance companies are the enemy and government can do it better, cheaper' is thinking in liberal Washington and that is at the root of our problem. Trial lawyers are a strong lobby that continues to object to tort reform.
Most elected politicians in Washington are attorney's and the mood is not to upset trial lawyers.

A Ray of Sunshine

Let’s see, we left you a year ago advising you to downsize, chuck your spending plans, and C.Y.A. from the coming change in our government. (Check my 11/08 blog) Did you take my advice and 'consolidate your assets'?

Now that unemployment is almost 10 per cent everywhere and really closer to 13 per cent… we no longer count those who are no longer looking for work, who ran out of unemployment benefits, or decided to continue school because the job picture is so bleak.

My friends, the way I see it the economy is one that is not going to get much better in the near future.

I gave up writing this blog almost a year ago because no one wants to read gloom and doom, and I don’t enjoy writing it. Obama promised ‘Change’ and he has a liberal Congress to go along with his vision. I thought back then, with Obama’s employment history, his voting record in Congress and his core friends and associates that if he were able to get a supporting Congress, which he has, then you wouldn’t hear from me for quite some time.

Last November I put out a warning and it seems I was prophetic. Now I see a slight ray of sunshine, and increasing indication of a new change, one where Obama’s spending agenda will be frustrated and curtailed by a nervous voting public.

A ray of hope now exists for me in the mid-term elections where enough fiscally responsible Senators and Representatives will get elected to check the liberal wave overcoming Congress. I say fiscally responsible because I don’t believe that only Republican Congressmen are fiscally responsible although they seem to have more sensible leaders at the current time.

Currently this government is one trillion, four hundred billion dollars over budget and wants to continue to fight two wars, install a new health plan, hit up senior citizens for a half a trillion cut in Medicare and Advantage insurance, inject a punitive Cap and Trade bill on the public and businesses, and create a new federal army to ‘protect’ us here at home. The costs for these and other ideas in the pipeline are staggering and confidence in the US dollar internationally is reflected in its sinking value. When the dollar collapses, if the dollar collapses, and the dollar is in some danger, then 10 per cent unemployment will look like a booming economy.

This country’s growth and strong economy has always been sustained by aggressive consumer spending. When government uses the peoples credit and spends the people’s money in ever greater amounts that leads to unemployment, a shrinking economy, loss of confidence, and business troubles with recession. Not a pretty sight.

This government must stop spending and borrowing and change course back toward a pro-business, pro-consumer economy. Electing pro -business Congressmen in the mid-term elections will save our futures and our children’s futures.

It's simple really, go with what works and what we are doing now is not working.