HR1- Fear You Can Believe In

I haven't posted in a while (has it been so long?). 14 months down. I don't think I'll be staying the full two years. There are a number of reasons, but draw your own conclusions why. Maybe I'll go into details someday... if we all aren't too busy at home.

I've just reviewed a small part of the bloated "Stimulus Package" on www.congress.gov It's right there under HR1 for all to read, but it's so incredibly thick with pork that there is no way anyone could ever read the whole thing, much less the hundreds of amendments. The "Hope and Change" has turned into a message of fear that “unless this package is passed, there will be a catastrophe.” The catastrophe, if it comes, will be spurred on by the very sort of proposals we find in this bill.

Obama wants to create 244,000 or so government jobs. People just hear “create jobs” and think it’s wonderful. The problem with that is, government jobs increase the burden on taxpayers. I have had "educated" people argue, "but government employees pay taxes too." A government employee pays taxes, but they are still costing taxpayers money because they are not taxed at 100% for obvious reasons. IF they pay taxes (unlike some members of Congress), then they are paying between 20% and 30%. Where do you think the rest of the money comes from? That's right. You! You are forced to pay other people's salary. When the burden is necessary, such as for funding the military, or other worthwhile programs we benefit from, we gladly pay our taxes (or at least we should). However, how does creating 244,000 or more government jobs help stimulate the economy and help reduce our debt? It doesn't. This is why people have been arguing for a smaller government for years. A smaller government is less of a burden, allowing people to get out of debt, and not dig deeper. By increasing government jobs and taking away from the private sector, and increasing taxes to cover the expense, you decrease the number of those paying taxes whose salaries are not entirely covered by tax dollars. Private salaries are fueled by commerce, so if the industry fails because of mismanagement, or because it was not something people wanted to buy into, the majority of the population is no worse off. However, by forcing citizens to invest into failed private enterprises (nationalizing), you increase the tax burden on them, and take it away from others.

Another argument for smaller federal government comes again in light of the federal government getting involved in areas best left to private business (Other than creating jobs in the above example). Let industries rise and fall as they may- that is the price of free enterprise. Bailing out and rewarding failure brought on by corruption increases the burden on the taxpayer. The government attempting to be more than simply government does that as well. Consider the $9 BILLION dollars proposed for increased broadband internet access. If people want faster internet, let the industry and the customers pay for it. If you pay for your own faster internet already, you will see even less money as your taxes increase to pay for programs the government was not designed to play a role in.

To deceive everyone, you will get a $500 or $1,000 tax credit. Other credits can be had, but these credits mean less money is going to pay for all of the multitude of programs your tax dollars funded in the bill. You could spend an entire day just wading through the individual headings, and not ever make it to the text. This sort of complexity in legislation was argued against by our forefathers. If and when the government creates legislation, it should be straight-forward, and “transparent,” to use the popular term. This bill is anything but transparent. The cost that most people are not made aware of, is that for every $1 brought in in taxes, this bill spends $4. The long-term costs will be exponential considering there is no plan for next year’s budget, much less to pay for these expenses- so we will continue to dig at a rate of 4 times worse than we already were.

As gargantuan as this pit that is HR1 is, it pales in comparison to the long term costs of continuing to “avert a catastrophe” by making the situation worse. In digging this pit, we are borrowing from not just ourselves, but piling a huge burden (that only increases with time) onto the backs of future generations, and heading down a path that will lead to the destruction of America, and destabilize the world as we know it, leading to war, famine, plague, and death. Continuing to rob from citizens to inflate government control, which results in ever growing burdens on the citizenry, is tyranny, plain and simple. A government that prints more money to pay itself is not a self-contained system; the livelihood of the populace must be tapped to support it. You will become a slave to this ever-growing-pit if this sort of “stimulus” plan is enacted.