One Politicized Nation
By JB Williams (03/25/04)
Is there anything that’s not being decided in the upcoming election? In 2004, we find ourselves right where our founding fathers never wanted us to be, our world revolves around politics. Gay Rights, Abortion Rights, National Security, Foreign Policy, Rights of the elderly, and of the young, economic equality, Religious freedom, the War on terrorism, 911 and those damn WMD, its all on the table. Doesn’t anyone just live here anymore? Its official, every issue is now a “political” issue.
All are represented, from every corner of the country, on every issue under the sun, from both sides of the aisle and everywhere in between, all clamoring at the feet of our elected officials, like a nest of baby birds waiting for mother government to regurgitate a few crumbs our way. We should be ashamed, but we’re not!
Everyone has a prediction for the winner of the 2004 Presidential election, and most opinions are based on “partisan” wishful thinking. I have a prediction of my own; the winner will be the guy who promises to feather the most nests. This is who we vote for these days, if you don’t promise to feather “the peoples” nest today, you can’t get elected.
What we have done to the greatest nation on earth should be a crime, but most of us are not even aware. People who oppose abortion will vote for a candidate who supports abortion, simply because he promises a few crumbs along the way. Many who oppose same sex unions will vote for a person who supports same sex unions, just to get to the crumbs that are promised in return. Folks, who already owe their entire existence to the “rich” who pick up the tab, just can’t get enough “free” stuff, so they will vote for the guy who promises to keep vomiting “free” stuff their direction.
Meanwhile, we wonder why our country is being run into the ground by our politicians. It isn’t, its being run into the ground by us, “we the people”, those of us who elect “public servants” that buy our votes with a few crumbs from an ever growing monstrosity of a government.
Our national tax burden is higher as a percentage of GDP than ever in history, so how could we possibly be running the biggest deficit in history? I’ll tell you how, because no amount of money can keep up with our rate of spending, that’s how. Is there an end in sight? Not to our spending, there’s not, because there is no end to the clamoring for more stuff from “we the people”. But to what we can afford to spend, of course there is an end, a bottom of the well.
It’s estimated that America works until almost June 1 of each year to pay their tax burden now, and just for the record, June 30 would be the equivalent of 50% of our GDP going to taxes. The first tax bill ever passed in the US stated that federal taxes could never exceed 3% of GDP. Apparently, there has been an amendment to this, though I don’t remember voting for it.
Here’s the best part, our federal government is sucking up approximately 41% of GDP, and it’s still not able to operate in the black, not to mention, retire any debt from the last 30 years of running in the red. Some want to blame the politicians, but we can’t, “we the people” run this country, and as long as “we the people” keep electing politicians on the basis of what they can do for our personal nests, this trend will continue.
Now, half of us are fine with this trend, and there’s a reason. The reason half of us are fine with this trend at the moment is half of us currently pay little to no taxes at all. I know of a single mother of two, she works 10 hours a week in a commission sales job and makes $10,000 per year, she attends a community college, at a cost of about $4500 per year to tax payers who pay the bill, she receives another $4800 per year in food stamps, and when she filed her short form tax return for 2003, she got almost $2000 back from the government, even though she had zero withholdings for the year. In short, she earned $10,000 herself, and we paid her $11,300 to go to school. But the Bush tax “refunds” haven’t helped the “little people”. Come on!
I know a married couple with two children; he works 40 hours a week and made $29,000 in 2003 with $1600 in withholdings. His wife worked part time outside the home and made another $12,000 with no withholdings. They filed their short form return and received a tax “refund” of nearly $2800. Kerry is right, Bush has overlooked the “little people” who only make $41,000 a year, and only get back $1200 more than they paid in. This is not enough!
Fact is, 50% of Americans pay collectively only about 3.6% of all taxes, and that is why 50% of America will vote to keep it that way.
Some say we are divided down “ideological” lines; even I use to think so. But the truth is, we are only divided down “economic” lines, between those who are getting paid to live in America today, and those who are picking up the tab. Contrary to popular belief, our nation is not “polarized”, its just “over politicized”.
The politicians we want to blame for this are not to blame, they are simply responding to our demand for more “free” stuff. Even Bush, an alleged “conservative”, has been swept up into the game, with prescription drug benefits we can’t pay for, all in what will likely be a hopeless attempt to avoid losing votes from the elderly, once democrats run their campaign ads showing Bush shoving little old ladies down the steps in their wheelchairs.
And we want it both ways, we want all the “free” stuff we can get, and at the same time, we want to blame Bush for not “balancing” the budget. There are only two ways to “balance” any budget, decrease spending, which doesn’t seem to be an option in this country anymore, or increase taxes, which is hard to do in a country already sucking up 41% of the GDP, threatening the future financial stability of our “free” market economy. We have made it this far only because the 50% who do pay the bills around here have managed to rise to the challenge of producing at a pace adequate to pay the bills, but this won’t last forever.
Clinton gets credit for balancing the budget, but he did it by gutting defense and intelligence spending, which we later paid for on September 11th, 2001, and continue paying for with our young men and women in combat equipped with less than ideal resources to complete their missions.
Washington is BIG on promises, but often short on delivery, because no matter how you slice and dice it, “we the people” demand more from our government than it can afford to give us. I wish I could say the blame rests with the politicians, but it doesn’t, it rests squarely on us.
The good news is, so does the resolution to the problem. Sooner or later, we will have to start looking at candidates who will fix this problem, which means, candidates who will stop the reckless spending, which means, cutting unnecessary “free” stuff from the budget, and getting our financial house in order. But it doesn’t appear that we are ready to face the music on this quite yet.
Like the War on terrorism, only after seeing the devastation of 911 was anyone in this country ready for tough choices, and even after 911, some still have trouble understanding the need for “pre-emptive” measures. That which threatens our financial stability also threatens our way of life, and just like the War on terrorism, it is likely to require a catastrophic financial event to get us in the mood to put our house in order.
Sooner or later, it will happen. Ideally, we would wake up and take “pre-emptive” measures to put our house back in order before the catastrophe strikes. But if history is any indication, that’s not likely. We are a nation of “takers” right now, and we have perfected the art of “procrastination”, especially on tough choices.
No politician who told us the truth about the matter could ever get elected right now, “we the people” just aren’t ready. But we better get ready, and soon. We, not our politicians, are robbing our children and grandchildren of their rightful future, stealing from the resources of tomorrow, to pay for our greed today. For our children’s sake, we will one day have to push ourselves back from the public trough.
Politicians can’t fix it; we wouldn’t elect any politician who would fix it. “We the people” have to fix it, and that means we have to change how we think about our government, returning to the idea’s our founding fathers had in mind when they formed this great nation. I tell my children what makes America great, it is the 50% who are willing to pick up the tab for the entire country, not the 50% with their hand out.
The only answer I don’t have for my children is where we are going to live, once the nation that feeds the world is no longer able to feed itself. If you have an answer for that one, let me know!
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