Letter to the Editor:

U.S. needs to cut, not spend, more

Louis Phillipine, Las Vegas

Monday, July 20, 2009 | 2:02 a.m.

TARP. Stimulus package. Cash for clunkers. Cap and trade. Government-sponsored health care. $12 billion for community colleges. Stimulus package II?

Our politicians are out of their minds. They think we taxpayers can afford all of the above. (And probably more we are not aware of.) With nearly 10 percent unemployment and the cost of living escalating, how much more can we afford?

Not long ago we were amazed when politicians mentioned costs in the billions. Now we are discussing costs in the trillions. It is said that when you are in a hole, stop digging. The time has come to just stop.

As government entitlement programs continue to grow and government continues to grow, where is the breaking point? What happens when the majority of employed are government employees? Where will the money come from to fund their more than adequate retirement and health plans? Will the government employees be asked to contribute more to their benefits? Or will the rest of us just send our paychecks, Social Security checks and pension checks to Washington in hopes politicians will provide us with a debit card with a big enough balance to buy food and groceries and pay the rent/mortgage? We are heading in that direction.

We better start listening to the likes of Ron Paul and start cutting government agencies and programs that have failed and are now white elephants. Start with the IRS and the income tax, then the Federal Reserve, the Energy Department, the Education Department and the Housing and Urban Development Department, to mention a few. It costs more than $10 billion just to operate the IRS. Add to that, according to a Tax Foundation report from 2006, nearly $280 billion in tax-code compliance costs.

Yes, it is time to stop digging.

Discussion: 4 comments so far…

By Future

7/20/09 at 3:23 a.m.

Suggest removal

Would you give these people your money to invest?

In Biden speak it means they mis-underestimated economy.

Obama and Biden seem determined to drag out this recession and they are only helping those Obama needs to payback.
They now say they never intended to jolt the economy but bring it back over several years.

What?

We need to ask why.

Vice President Joe Biden said that "everyone guessed wrong" then said they "misread how bad the economy was." Biden said "The figures we worked off of in January were the consensus figures and most of the blue chip indexes out there". Biden warned "We're going to go bankrupt as a nation," "People, when I say that, look at me and say, 'What are you talking about, Joe? You're telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?" he said. "The answer is yes."

So what did Barak Obama, Joe Biden, Paul Krugman and their penumbrae economic teams miss?

The phenomenon is the deleveraging of America. People are acting contrary to the Biden notion that you have to spend money to prevent bankruptcy.

Remember unlike the Federal Government, our ability to spend is dependent on discretionary spending money being in our pocket - not in the government's hand, gas tank, or a bank debt.

Economic fearmongering by the Obama Administration lead to the slow-motion inept Reid/Pelosi Tax, Union Payback, and Spend Stimulus Package.

This caused the over leveraged general public to slow spending, increase savings, and increase debt reduction. Businesses are responding with stopping capital investments and double digit inventory reduction and in the process shedding jobs.

Businesses are in an expansion holding status until Obama and Congress establish what the new taxes are for energy and Healthcare
By jlb101

7/20/09 at 6:04 a.m.

Suggest removal

Mr Phillipine-Watch closely for the next televised news story from Cuba. Men sitting around playing checkers, drinking beer, run down buildings, old cars, dirty, ugly. That's what Obama wants. It's prety ugly but in Obama's mind it is fine because everyone is equal. Impoverished but equal and he thinks that is "fair". Get used to it.
By Rmoen

7/20/09 at 8:28 a.m.

Suggest removal

Daily I read editorials, comments and letters-to-the-editor from all over the nation. Whereas when the House passed the bill it was maybe 2-to-1 against cap and trade, opinion now seems to be at least 6-to-1 against. The Senate will be wise to heed the overwhelming lack of public support and stop this costly legislation from passing into law.

If instead of cap-and-trade the United States had a national mandate to replace coal generation plants with natural gas and nuclear energy, plus if we replaced our commuter cars with battery-powered electric cars, we would drastically reduce our dependence on foreign oil and reduce CO2 emissions faster and beyond the proposed cap and trade targets.

-- Robert Moen, www.energyplanUSA.com
By larry5

7/20/09 at 9:34 p.m.

Suggest removal

Louis - Great letter. When did so many of our elected officials move from serving Americans to ruling Americans?

I believe it will continue to get worse unless we impose term limits. Career politicians make corrupt politicians.