Monday, November 8, 2010

The growing beast is about to burst

Rush Limbaugh once noted in one of his books that the U.S. government is like a great big pig, and the American needy are like a bunch of little piglets yearning for mama pig's nipples to suck as much milk out of it as they can.

They chant, "It's mine, mama. I want what is mine."

As I've noted in my recent posts, the progressives/liberals/socialists in America are slowly taking this nation on a road that is not sustainable. The government is getting larger, those on the government dole are growing (about 51%), and those in government jobs are growing too.

In fact, Jonah Goldberg wrote in National Review on June 10, 2010, "In a Welfare State, How Much Is ‘Enough’?" that, according to the USA Today, "Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year, while government benefits rose to a record high.

"In fact," he notes, "government employment is becoming a method of redistributing wealth. In 2009, the federal payroll grew and the number of federal jobs paying over $100,000 a year doubled."

The average Federal worker also makes about 70% more than the average private sector worker.

As far as entitlement spending, America's structural deficit, or it's spending on socialist programs, has tripled since 2007 alone, making America's structural deficit even greater than Socialist Sweden.

In fact, a recent report notes that 51% of Americans receive some sort of entitlement, and as the number of people living off the government is increasing, those who are being taxed is shrinking. In fact, only 49% of Americans are now paying taxes, or at least have a net debt to the government after receiving some entitlement.

Likewise, those who pay most of the taxes, the rich, are being taxed more and more. The truth is, according to the IRS, the top 15% pay 85% of the tax burden. While entitlement programs are growing, the backs of those who pay are about to break. This pattern is not sustainable without raising taxes on the middle class, which is a majority of money in the U.S. economy.

Yet to raise taxes during a recession, as progressives propose, would be tantamount to taking money from those who already are struggling, and collapse the economy even more.

Yet progressives, democrats and some republicans, propose even more entitlement programs, and even more taxes to pay for them. They still believe this is what is needed to get us out of the recent recession.

Still, as has been noted earlier on this blog, FDR tried this and it did not end the Great Depression. Despite a contrary myth by historians, all the tax and spend policies of the New Deal did not help anyone but those in power.

And you'll hear Obama and his fellow administration saying (or eluding to) the fact that the reason that might have been so (if they don't deny it altogether) is because FDR didn't spend nearly enough.

No. In the world where everyone has quick access to information via the Internet and cell phones, it's hard for a progressives to pull the wool over our eyes again. Where the FDR administration succeeded, and where progressives succeeded for the past 50 years, they are failing now.

They are failing because the eyes of Americans have popped open, and the proof of this is in the Tea Party, which is not about stalling government as progressives say, and not against government, but against progressivism.

Yes. The growing progressive beast is growing the Fed to one fat pig that is about to burst. It's growing so fat, and the little piglets so dependent on mama pig, that mama pig is about to burst.

The only remedy is the Tea party. Actually, the only remedy is not so much the Tea Party, but Americans waking up and doing something to stop the beast from growing.

In fact, Rich Lowry, also of National Review (Sept, 23, 2010), "Enough!" notes that the trend from 1940 to 2007 has been a a devotion to a growth in the economy and a portion of that economy devoted to the welfare state. And not even Ronald Reagan could stop it, as he only slowed it down during his term to 0.9% growth per year.

Lowry notes the only thing that will stop the beast is a conservative (tea party) win in both 2010 and 2012.

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