Town Hall Meeting

About 100 citizens, young and old, gathered to hear TheFundamentals speak about debt, deficits, a little bit of history and some thoughts on what we can do. We assembled a talk using a bit of our research and some of our statistics and some of our tables and charts and spoke about these matters of concern. We also listened and, by so doing, we learned.

Here is a brief recap of a well spent 90 minutes in the early evening last week.

We learned from the youngsters present that there still are youth in America who know the pledge to allegiance and are proud to lead a gathering of mostly adults in standing up, facing the American flag, placing our hands upon our hearts and pledging our allegiance to this one nation of ours under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. These youngsters also wear their scout uniforms with pride. We learned that there are very respectable young people who are informed about issues and are quite ready to ask informed questions about matters of economics and finance. We learned that we must continue our efforts to bring financial sense and reduced deficits and repaid debt to this country for several reasons – it is the right thing to do, Thomas Jefferson said that each generation must pay its debts and not pass them on to following generations and because there is no reason, good or bad, to burden these young people with the excesses and fiscal promiscuity of older undisciplined people.

We learned that the audience has no truck with talk about guns, turmoil, bombs and other nonsense that the fear mongering politicians, press and bureaucrats express. No interest at all. Instead they ask questions about the Federal Reserve and is it monetizing the debt. They ask about what happens if and when China says no to the next round of USTreasury borrowing. They ask who they can vote for when both parties’ candidates express no interest in cutting spending, reducing bureaucracies, terminating employees and instituting benefits and pension programs that are equitable with the private sector. The simplest way to describe “this anger” as unfairly described by a newsreader on PBS last Friday is they don’t understand why the elected officials in whom they placed their trust have violated this sacred covenant. Let me repeat that observation. Regular people who believe in their country, obeying the law, working hard and living within their means are taking it very personally that their elected officials have violated the essential trust placed in them by these citizens. Once broken, that trust is not coming back.

Most attendees at town hall meetings cannot understand what has happened to the values, principles and beliefs of the elected officials of the United States. If there is one message coming from the town hall meeting it is a complete inability to grasp how the values of its politicians have declined to matters of selfishness, self interest and self perpetuation. No one can grasp what has happened to the American leadership ethos. No one knows where to turn when one alternative is no different than the other alternative(s).

The slides we used in our presentation are available for your review by clicking on the link in the left hand margin described as “Lincoln Way Town Hall Meeting.”

Here are some other comments and thoughts that were mentioned at the meeting:

• Why have our politicians chosen a path of deficits and debt? What can be going on in their minds when each day they spend money we do not have for things we do not need?

• What happens when interest rates rise? What happens when foreign countries no longer will lend us any money? What will happen to us if some other country goes bankrupt?

• What does it mean to “monetize the debt?” Is the Federal Reserve purchasing US bonds and in effect monetizing the debt? What does it mean if they did so?

• 70% of our men and women in the military serving overseas vote in our elections. A much smaller percentage of the citizens at home vote. If we don’t vote we end up getting what we are getting. We must vote. We must take a stand on forcing the United States to reduce spending and start repaying its debts.

• What percentage of our earnings do we pay in total for taxes for all the different forms of taxation – hidden and obvious, that we pay to all the different taxing authorities? It must add up to 70%.

The summation of this learning experience for TheFundamentals can be stated as follows. If you have not attended a town hall meeting held by a group of your fellow citizens, do so. Avoid the influences of the extremes on both sides – they seem to be in it for the same reason that politicians now put themselves in front of the basic values and fundamentals of the people who pay the taxes – self, self and self. In the middle you will find the values, the strength and the courage to continue to fight for sacrifice and frugality and a reduction in government spending and the beginnings of repaying the massive debt of this country of ours. That is all we seek. An elimination of deficits and the repayment of our debt.