Dear Mom - Letters to Heaven

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Energy Bill Transportation Bill

The glib response to the pork barrel energy bill is atrocious. It is irresponsible, and gives the impression that our government can sustain itself by deficit spending. Our government is totally irresponsible. Our politicians are totally corrupt. The only way to get their attention is to limit their access to our tax money. We need an immediate across the board reduction in the payroll tax. Politicians redistribute our tax money to the cronies that finance their campaigns. Its quid pro quo - it's corrupt, and it's no different than the system of bribery corporate america complains about when they try and do business in the Soviet Union and the Middle East. It's a not too sophisticated form of the same thing. Look they have been robbing Peter to pay Paul up on Capitol Hill for far too long. The Democrats actually handed them a surplus which they gave back to their leading campaign donors, and now instead of paying down the debt and getting out from the enormous interest payments they are continuing to flaunt solid economic sense. If I ran my household the way the government runs theirs I would be out on the street living in a garbage can. Economic advisors across the board tell you to pay off your credit cards first to get away from the interest payments and bank the savings. Our government can't do what some retired school teacher does to manage her money.

The only reason there is a social security crisis is because they manufactured one. Instead of plowing the surplus social security funds back into social security and letting it compound with the interest - they swooped in on the surplus to pay for everything, and anything. Face it Al Gore was right put social security in a lock box, and don't touch it. But our politicians who are supposed to represent us don't care about social security. They have their own different retirement system. Put the politicians retirement into social security and I guarantee you it will never get touched – surplus and all. Their lives aren’t affected so they reach into it time and again in total disregard of the public trust and their mandated responsibility to the public at large. They grab that money and they don't feel any obligation to replenish what they borrowed from our retirements.

Us the people without whom big government couldn't operate we are the last in line behind those that fund the elections. That's treason, that's a conflict of interest and that’s impeachable, corrupt and immoral. Any glib broadcast who tries to cast this energy bill as something else has bought the party spin hook line and sinker. The media should be holding our politicians accountable, and the macroeconomic picture should be illuminated. The robbing of the Social Security surplus to pay for isolated one time projects is corrupt and a violation of their fiduciary responsibility. The misappropriation of our tax dollars for private interest, and the buying and selling of our politicians is bankrupting and corrupting our government. It's fiscally irresponsible to suggest that the economy is better off by having the Chinese finance our enormous debt driven interest payments rather than the government being self sufficient, and putting the tax dollars back into the hands of those who earn it.

Run the government like you run your household. Pay off the debt, get out from under the interest payments, bank the savings for retirement (social security), and put as much money back into the paychecks of the American workers as possible so they can save and spend as they see fit. It’s simple more money in the hands of the consumers who earn it would create a national surge in spending and savings, bond issues could then fund these ridiculous bridge projects when the States have a surplus. No I'm sorry glib assessments that the energy and transportation bills are good for the economy is dead wrong and in support of the misinformation campaign led by the few people who benefit from the passage of these corporate gives aways.

Tax breaks for Exxon/Mobile should have been plowed back into social security used to pay off the interest on our debts or given back to the people in the form of a payroll tax reduction - that's the cure and the only cure for the economy, and it would mean less money for our politicians to give away to their cronies, and less bidding for their favors if they have less money to give away. George W. Bush spent how many months touring the country to overhaul social security, and when he had the chance to plow money back into the social security system he gave it away to Exxon/Mobile and a bridge for 50 people. That’s the definition of a traitor.

3 comments:

Oroborous said...

The energy bill is atrocious. It is irresponsible, and gives the impression that our government can sustain itself by deficit spending. [...] If I ran my household the way the government runs theirs I would be out on the street living in a garbage can. Economic advisors across the board tell you to pay off your credit cards first to get away from the interest payments and bank the savings.

The fiscal '05 Federal budget deficit is only 3.5% of GNP...
Hardly a back-breaker.
The fiscal '06 deficit will be even smaller.

Paying down credit cards is usually a good move, but Americans routinely borrow huge sums, relative to their incomes, to purchase homes and cars.
Deficit spending to advance alternative energy research, encourage the purchase of hybrid vehicles, explore for oil, and build nuclear reactors is CAPITAL SPENDING, not consumer spending, and is well worth borrowing money for.

The Democrats actually handed [the Republicans] a surplus...

That's a cherished MYTH, like the one about Pres. Clinton balancing the Federal budget.

The surplus was a PROJECTED surplus, that would have required TEN YEARS of uninterrupted economic growth to be realized...
A very improbable scenario.

As it happened, the end of the dot.com bubble and 9/11 took care of the PROJECTED surplus all by themselves, no action by politicians required.

The only reason there is a social security crisis is because they manufactured one.

True.

Instead of plowing the surplus social security funds back into social security and letting it compound with the interest - they swooped in on the surplus to pay for everything, and anything.

If by "they", you mean "every President and Congress since LBJ", then you're right.
That, by the way, is how Clinton appeared to "balance" the budget - he simply included the SS surplus on the "income" side.

It's fiscally irresponsible to suggest that the economy is better off by having the Chinese finance our enormous debt...

Why ?
If they're willing to lend us money at 3%, why should we turn them down ?

Run the government like you run your household. Pay off the debt, get out from under the interest payments, bank the savings for retirement (social security), and put as much money back into the paychecks of the American workers as possible so they can save and spend as they see fit. It’s simple more money in the hands of the consumers who earn it would create a national surge in spending and savings...

Yes, that's exactly the rational behind the tax cuts of '01, '02, '03, '04...

As for paying off the debt, again, most Americans have enourmous debts, that they make regular monthly payments on, and they're far better off having homes, cars, and debt than they would be without all three.

George W. Bush spent how many months touring the country to overhaul social security, and when he had the chance to plow money back into the social security system he gave it away to Exxon/Mobile and a bridge for 50 people. That’s the definition of a traitor.

Except that you're blaming the wrong person.

It was CONGRESS who padded the Energy and Transportation bills.
The Bush admin actually demanded that the initial version of the Transportation bill be CUT by 25% before Bush would sign it.

You have a legitimate grievance about the pork in both bills - but you should be taking that up with Congress, NOT Bush.

Journey Home said...

Hey Michael thanks for your measured reply - I am however a defeceit hawk - spelling impared at this hour - we need dialouge - I am definetly blaming all politicians I am way past fed up with their hypocritical bullshit and self serving interest - because of the actual size of the middle class and economies of scale we will never see a payroll tax reduction - Bush patted himself on the back for not seeking an increase in the payroll tax, but those give away - one time tax checks in his first term are an insult - the payroll tax should be rolled back by at least ten percent. Make the politicians do "more" with less and really put the squeeze on them - that would be fun to watch as they scrambled and fought over what gets funded and what doesn't get funded - as an aside nuclear power is a money looser and the government is in a huge law suit over the nuclear waste issue they said they would solve back in the 70's. I knew they were full of baloney then - as far as Bush's tax cut - I know he was trying to shrink government by reducing the amount of money that came in - but he only hooked up his uber - rich hommies (sp?) while courting the middle class with religon and gay scare tacticts for votes - that just sucks - he needs to put his money where his mouth is and hook up the middle class - but a ten percent roll back on the payroll tax would rock their world on the hill, and they would have a significantly less amount of money to deal (read wheel and deal) with. In the end the rich get richer while they don the nascar jersey and pander to the middle class - sticking it right up their ass financially - that is beyond horrible - and there will be a day of reckoning when they meet their maker who they say they love. Using religion to gain for profit and personal power - if I was God I'ld roast them for it and in a big way.

Oroborous said...

The new pebble-bed nuclear reactors are MUCH better and safer than the old-style reactors.

Without the new design, I would agree with you about the wisdom of building new ones.

Due to the impending retirement of the Boomers, IMO you will not see another balanced budget until 2045.
A payroll tax cut is simply not in the cards - it's far more likely that we'll be seeing INCREASES.

I too used to be a deficit hawk, but research over the past decade, into the relationship between the Federal debt and interest rates, has convinced me that as long as we have a growing economy, the Federal deficits just aren't that important.
Of course, there is a tipping point at which deficits, or the total debt, become onerous, but as long as we keep the deficit under 5% of GNP, we won't reach that point.