BUDGETS AND DEFICITS

Unless you are a sitting Member of Congress or a former Member of Congress, you did not create the current deficit or the budget problems so they are not your fault. If you are a senior citizen drawing your benefits, you did not cause the shortfall in the Social Security fund. That also is not your fault. The “Super Committee.” What a joke. This was doomed from the beginning. The reason for all our budget and deficit problems is simple. Members of Congress care far more about re-election than they ever cared about the American people and everything they do is directed toward that end. The reason we have a budget deficit is because Congresses past and present have developed hair-brained vote buying schemes with no regard to the ultimate requirement of paying for them. When their excesses are played out and their business unfriendly regulations upset normal business cycles, tragedy is bound to occur. That is where we are right now.

While it is true I am not an economics genius, common sense says there are right ways and wrong ways to approach this mess. The idea that we can increase taxes to create a recovery is ridiculous. Taxes are regressive not progressive. Taking money from productive citizens to give to unproductive citizens is absurd on its face. Consider this example of a baker. Let’s say he can take flour and sugar and make donuts. He can then sell those donuts to create profit. If he is successful he will hire employees who will also be consumers in the marketplace. His income is taxable as is the income of his employees. If the government decides to increase the baker’s taxes to a point where he cannot continue to hire or even has to reduce his staff, how on earth does that help with the deficit? If he does not make donuts he makes no profit thereby reducing his tax payments. If he lays off employees, they pay no tax and become dependents on the government. If he does not retail his product, sales taxes are not collected. Cities and counties are then left without necessary revenues. If he doesn’t buy flour and sugar the farmer’s income suffers. Is this so difficult for the morons in Washington to figure out?

The government doesn’t produce anything but laws and regulations. They do not create profit. They do not make donuts. They only stifle productive people and hamper growth. Are we going to have to face bankruptcy as a country before the geniuses in Washington figure this out? I have written before that for us to recover, government has to get out of the way. No good citizen of this great country would ever refuse to pay reasonable taxes for reasonable services. We know we must finance our military and our infra-structure. But things have certainly gotten out of hand. Now we must face some facts. We have over spent and over promised. The time has come to deal with our issues.

I find it amazing that we can send millions and millions of dollars overseas while here at home our senior citizens and veterans basically have to beg for the benefits they bought and paid for in good faith. I will never excuse the Congresses who raided the Social Security fund to buy votes. These benefits are legal debts which the government owes and as such are inviolate.

So here’s the deal. The only recovery that is possible will occur when business is allowed to grow without interference from government. You want to see the economy improve, reduce corporate taxes. In fact reduce taxes across the board. Encourage investment and entrepreneurship. Allow those businesses who are holding vast sums of money in foreign countries to return that money to this country without penalty. Change the attitude in Washington to a positive one. Quit doing battle with business and Wall Street. Stop all this class envy and class warfare. We are one people and the only way out of this mess is all of us working together to that end. Today I wouldn’t mind if every single Member of Congress was replaced. I especially look forward to the unemployment of Barak Obama. We, as a country, are better than this and we need a true leader who knows and loves this country. Time is running out.

Ron Scarbro November 29, 2011