I am truly scared for the future of the United States. Wasn’t it just a few months ago that we were having another discussion in Congress related to raising the debt limit? That disaster was averted by allowing the sequestration cuts. What I don’t understand is how this is all happening again. It should simply be a matter of not spending more than you make.
Rather than continuing to raise the debt limit, why don’t we decrease spending or at least hold it at the level of inflation. Congress should be forced to pass a balanced budget each year that does not spend more than it takes in in taxes (exceptions could be made for War and other emergencies). The welfare and entitlement system should be overhauled so that only truly qualified people are allowed to be on it as a temporizing measure. Revenue increasing (code word for increasing taxes) is not the way to go about it.
The United States, I think, is not too far gone that we could still save ourselves if the federal government just stepped out of the way. Lower taxes to encourage productivity. Increase the number of green cards available for the talented foreigners that would still love to come to this country. And, we must do this before China grabs them with talks of their version of what has always been called, ‘the American Dream.’
And, significantly overhaul welfare and entitlements. I forget the exact numbers, but it is a large percentage of people that have absolutely no clue that Obamacare does not mean free health insurance. It means that you are fined if you don’t buy health insurance. A large percentage of the young people that voted for Obama thought that the health insurance would be free. It actually raises rates for all but a few groups of people. And, even if you do qualify for subsidies because your income is so low, these are only returned as a tax credit/rebate when you file your taxes. You are still required to pay the insurance in the mean time. How is having the federal government control healthcare a good thing? What idiot decided that the IRS would be a good body to police it?
I’ve heard of health insurance rates going up under Obamacare by 50-300%! I tried to go to healthcare.gov and looking up what my rates would be, but, guess what, I couldn’t because the server was overloaded! Too bad. If only it were working, more people could see how much more health insurance was going to cost them.
Welfare is another joke. Yes, there are very good reasons why the government should provide help to get people back up on their feet. I fear, though, that the welfare benefits are so lucrative that we are creating an entire generation of people and their families that have only known reliance on the government. They’ll just have to keep voting Democrats into office because if they don’t, they’ll lose these perks. A good example of this is the recent run at a Walmart after an EBT glitch failed to indicate limits on the cards. The Walmart employees called corporate and corporate told them to allow the purchases. Wouldn’t Walmart be the bad guy if the media got the news that they weren’t allowing mothers to buy the food to feed their kids?! So instead Walmart allows the EBT purchases to go through…the employees said that it was worse than Black Friday. Entire shopping carts full of products and people quickly trying to check-out before the system came back online. More information here. One woman had over $700 worth of products in her shopping cart and only 49 cents on her card! All of these people should be tracked down and forced to work to pay back the money they stole. Either that or throw them in jail. The problem then is that the state again is paying for them! You just can’t win!!
Back to the discussion on the government shutdown and debt crisis…
A recent article on The Telegraph is entitled, “The sun is setting on dollar supremacy, and with it, American power.” It is a good article but very scary. Here is the opening paragraph and the rest of the article can be found on the site above:
All great empires – from the Greek, to the Roman, the Spanish and the British – have at their heart a dominant means of exchange which is very much part of their political and social hegemony. Once upon a time, it was Roman coinage which was the world’s pre-eminent currency. In more recent times it was the British pound. Today, it’s the US dollar to which international investors flock as a safe haven for their money. Highly liquid and apparently reliable – until recently at least – nothing else comes even remotely close to the greenback’s dominant position in the international monetary system.
Porter Stansberry makes some great suggestions in an article on thedailycrux.com.
Eventually, the middle class will realize that this idea that we can tax, borrow, and spend our way to prosperity is failing. By then, real wages will have fallen so far… the wealth gap will become so pronounced… the collusion between the government and the banks will become so evident that people will vote in a candidate willing to take some radical steps to get us on the right track.
First, imagine what would happen if we just had a flat income tax rate for everybody. We’d abolish every other tax – corporate taxes, social security taxes, payroll taxes, and every other federal tax, levy, fine, and fee.
Instead, you’d just pay 20% of your income, whatever the source. We’d get rid of the different tax structures for different corporate entities and the different shelters and rebates. Wherever your source of income – dividends, capital gains, wages, etc. – we all pay the same, flat rate.
So the first thing we need to do to get our country back on track is pass a flat tax. We could take two other steps that would revive our economy and our standard of living…
We need to declare the federal government isn’t going to be in the business of borrowing money anymore, period…
We also need to pass a balanced budget amendment that keeps us from financing foreign wars and an endless welfare state…
We need true welfare reform, not the kind you saw in 1996, where everyone just jumped from welfare to disability. If you have some kind of an emergency situation, you can apply to the federal government for help for a limit of $5,000 over six weeks (to pick arbitrary terms). And that’s it… You won’t get any money from the government again.
Exactly my thoughts. Step 1: Stop the federal government from borrowing money, Step 2: Pass a balanced budget amendment, Step 3: Reform welfare. If you can get a flat tax, all the better. Think of all the money we’d save by shutting down the IRS. No more tax loopholes or people complaining about “favoring the investor class.” Wages, capital gains, dividends, etc would all be taxed at the same rate. Many businesses would move to the United States and efficiency of businesses would increase. There would be no concern over how future taxes or regulations might adversely affect business thus removing that uncertainty.
It is not too often that you might live to see the fall of a great military and economic superpower. Unfortunately, because of President Obama and the Democrats, I just might.