Musings

As the heartland of worldwide capitalism, America should have a government that is as efficient as its vaunted businesses. In these troubled times and with revenues falling, the Pollyanna-type big spenders in Congress and the Senate need to cut spending like everyone else instead of raising taxes to cover the deficit.

The nation's ballooning net debt is expected by some economists to rise to more than 75% of annual economic output by 2013. This threatens our existence as a nation and must be brought to a screeching halt.

To begin with, the Federal Income Tax should be eliminated forthwith. This is a luxury that we can no longer bestow on the government. Most folks are suffering, broke, or unemployed. The government will have to do without the big spending programs that Congress initiated to ensure reelection of the incumbents or to satisfy the socialist segment of the population.

Here is a little eye-opener regarding income taxes that was prepared for President Reagan:
President's Private Sector Survey On Cost Control A Report to The President (Reagan)January 15, 1984. Available from the Congressional Research Service. The excerpt below can be found on page 12.

"Importantly, any meaningful increases in taxes from personal income would have to come from lower and middle income families, as 90% of all personal taxable income is generated below the taxable income level of $35,000.

Further, there isn't much more that can be extracted from high income brackets. If the Government took 100% of all taxable income beyond the $75,000 tax bracket not already taxed, it would get only $17 billion, and this confiscation, which would destroy productive enterprise, would only be sufficient to run the Government for several days.

Resistance to additional income taxes would be even more widespread if people were aware that:
With two-thirds of everyone's personal income taxes wasted or not collected, 100% of what is collected is absorbed solely by interest on the Federal Government contributions to transfer payments.
In other words, all individual income tax revenues are gone before one nickel is spent on the services which taxpayers expect from their government."

Nothing has changed in the ensuing years except 'managed inflation' and enacting bigger and more expensive ‘Pork’ and other unneeded programs. 100% of all personal "income" taxes collected by the IRS goes to the "Federal" Reserve Banking System and does not fund a single function of the government. There is a lot of ballyhoo about how Bernanke and the ‘Fed’ saved us from entering another great depression.

Hogwash!

All they did was save their cronies in the banking system and Wall Street, and they are trashing the U.S. dollar by printing a bazillion of them! The first thing that should go is the Federal Reserve. I have blogged about this in the past.

Out elected representatives should clean their own house by being patriotic and slashing their salaries (as they are trying to do to the management of private companies), and do away with their fancy and expensive health care package. Also, it is criminal to be a one-term congressman or senator and then get a plush retirement package for life. Retirement benefits should be extended to only those with 20 or more years of service.

And, how about closing immediately any unessential government agencies? Some that come to mind are: The Dept. of Education, Dept. of Commerce, Dept. of Energy, Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, and the Dept. of Labor.

These are niceties we can do without, faced with 14 trillions dollars due and owning by 2014. Budgets for surviving agencies should shrink or expand in lockstep with revenue collections. No more borrowing from the Social Security System. No more deficit spending until we are out of the hole financially.

By shrinking the size of government and cutting taxes, we automatically enrich the taxpayers, who need it desperately. We have to return, as citizens, to self-reliance. No more fancy welfare programs that we can no longer afford. We can take some of the poor and retrain them for border security jobs and environmental remediation. This is the harsh reality of the times we live in at present.

If we can shrink the size of the government by 50%, we will achieve fiscal responsibility and perhaps have a few dollars left over to give the military what they need to adequately protect the homeland. And, in the future, going to war should not be the sole prerogative of the government except in emergencies. The people should have a voice in the matter at the voting booth.

I could go on and on, but you get my drift. The government cannot expect great sacrifices from the people without making a few sacrifices themselves. And it should reorganize its operations along the lines of a for-profit private enterprise. Maximize efficiency and deliver more than you promise should be included in the mission statement.