The Big Picture

Here is a summary of where we are:

1. We spend money we don’t have. Not just a bit but a very large portion of federal government spending is now borrowed money.

2. The spending can be summarized in several large categories. Here they are:

     a. Military activities
     b. Social security – retirement and disability program funded by worker/employer mandatory tax
     c. Medicare – health care for 65+ citizens funded by worker/employer mandatory tax
     d. Medicaid – health care for indigent
     e. All other government activities among which are these that need review:
         i. EPA which needs to be shut down and all its anti business, anti competition activities eliminated
         ii. Department of Education which needs to be shut down entirely
         iii. Department of Agriculture food stamp program which needs to be eliminated
         iv. Federal unemployment compensation payments which need to eliminated

None of the above activities pay for themselves meaning the funds collected are inadequate to cover the costs. Social security comes closest and now it has been put on a high borrowing scheme because a portion on its tax funding has been eliminated by the current administration.

All other activities are funded with borrowed money to the tune of almost 40% of the monies spent are borrowed. An obviously unsustainable situation but one that typifies the current political leadership which expresses no concern for the future. This government is building debt at levels never even considered possible by the most outrageously radical components of our plural society.

US population is growing. Through immigration and through child creation at the lower economic portion of the population. At the same time, education and health care costs are already two to three times higher here than in any other developed country and results are declining rapidly. We are a large country with a growing population and we are the fattest large country by far. Many of our children and their parents are not just fat; they are obesely fat. Our education performance is deteriorating and the current administration wants the government to run all health care in the country. We also have more attorneys filing more lawsuits than anywhere in the known universe. And we incarcerate more of our citizens than any other country – even those with much larger populations, on the face of the earth.

We have 20+ million people either unemployed or underemployed and, at the same time, are admitting legal immigrants at a record pace. By government policy. Think of that. We can’t afford to take care of those here; we don’t have jobs for those who are already here and we are admitting large numbers of legal residents.

This picture, the big picture painted above, is nothing less than an indictment of a federal government that has proven itself to be incapable of managing anything. And yet, a large portion of the citizenry apparently is satisfied with the present leadership in Washington. Simply makes no sense.

The solutions lie within the facts as presented in item #’s 1 and 2 at the top of this essay. Each of those items must either be funded with citizen funds or eliminated. The country’s debt must first stop increasing and then a program of repayment instituted. There is no political party mention in any of the above. There can only be an American solution to this mess that is now our country. Bureaucracies must be eliminated; military expenditures curtailed and all entitlement programs must be self funded. Think of it as an out of control teenager who now needs a lengthy timeout. A curfew. Grounding. Discipline. For the teenagers own good, the time for discipline is now. Otherwise that teenager will have no future.