It is in the interest of hope and change that I continue to read the news but alas, my hope has rapidly faded and the change I see is more like a repeat performance of a bad movie that has only gotten worse over time no matter how many efforts have been put forth to rewrite it, dress it up in a prettier package and make it look more appealing. Much the same as the mythical (?) holiday fruitcake that gets passed back and forth between family members as a multi-generational Christmas gift and family tradition, this story has played itself out time and again throughout our short history as a nation and around the world and has never once produced a happy ending.
It was with more than just a little interest that I noticed the direct conflicts between two “news” stories that came out the other day. In all fairness; one “news” story came from the associated press and one came from that other vast right-wing news organization owned by that radical righty from New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Now since I have been told by people who actually believe that it is true that both of these news sources are indeed part of the vast right-wing conspiracy, perhaps these stories should be taken with a grain of salt. Maybe both history and the news accounts are woefully inadequate to show us just how bad the current situation will become when the harsh reality rears its ugly head and demands payment.
The Hope
On the one hand, the Associated Press came out with a story noting that Obama wants to have spending cuts in the next budget. Let’s assume for a moment that these are actual cuts in spending and not simply lessening the increase in spending. Budget deficits are projected to be over one trillion dollars annually for the foreseeable future. Granted, it would be nice if the government was not so busy trying to pick the taxpayer’s pocket that they would actually look at the reality of the situation that they are creating but perhaps this is what was meant when this administration said they would give us hope.
Can we honestly hope that the government will finally realize that a decrease in projected increases is not an actual cut but simply less of an increase? If you currently spend two hours a day traveling to your job and you are looking at changing jobs but your new job will require you to travel four hours per day in addition to the hours you work, that is an increase in travel time. If you later discover a shortcut and learn that you will only have to travel three hours per day, does that now make that three hours a decrease based on the two hours you are currently traveling every day or is it still an increase over the time that you are currently traveling. Both sides of the political aisle would have us believe that this three hour period is somehow less than the two hour period you currently lose every day. Such is not the case when reality rears its ugly head. Despite all the government double-speak, you will still find yourself with an hour less each day.
The other story from Bloomberg is a call for the government to increase the debt limit. Again, if we are going to be spending less, why do we need to increase the debt limit? Well, the story goes on to say that we the people (read: The American Taxpayer who is footing the bill for this mess) is tired of excessive government spending. Well let me put it this way … if you have an in-law that constantly comes over to your home uninvited and takes your money without your permission to buy all of their worthless buddies food and drink and maybe even enough to pay their bills … how long will it take for you to begin holding your spouse accountable for their actions?
No matter how much you earn, no matter how good the cause may or may not be, the fact remains that most people who actually earn their money believe that they should have at least some say in where it goes. The difference is that there is one set of people who have given their faith to the government to do the right thing with their social programs and freely admits that they are incapable of making the choices themselves while the other side believes that the individual can make better choices regarding the expenditure of their own funds.
The Change
Regardless of whether you believe that this spending rampage is the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do, let’s look at it in a historical light and see what has happened every time that this has been tried before. I will not bore you with an entire history lesson here but only look at a few examples from among the top economies in the world. Granted, this entire current fiasco did begin under the watch of George W. and a democrat controlled cackle of congress critters. (A democrat controlled congress and despite the war on semantics, it is not now, never was and should never be a democratically controlled congress … democrat meaning controlled by the democrat party at the time and not democratic meaning nothing more than mob rule … but that was another article I wrote a long time ago explaining why the USA is not now, never has been and never should be a Democracy and why Democracy is Evil)
The US Government tried much the same thing in 1913. Again, these measures were taken up again with a bit more vim and vigor in 1933. The Japanese government tried the same thing in 1988 (And it led there to what has become known in Japan as “The Lost Decade” of the 90s) But what happened in each and every one of these cases that is going to magically change this time? Each and ever y time this has been tried, unemployment rates skyrocketed, interest rates went into the realm of double digits followed shortly by double-digit inflation.
“But!” you cry out … we can do the same thing that China did with their economy right? Artificially adjusting and controlling the economy actually did work for them … though that is another article that is in the works … to explain why it worked for China and why it will not work in our case) The Feds are already attempting this in a manner of speaking by dropping the prime interest rates but oddly enough, the economy is still not flowing, people are still losing their homes and jobs and faith in the American dollar is on a more rapid decline than it has ever been in its (historically) brief existence.
Prime Interest Rates are down as low as they can go and the same American government that is creating these massive debts is the only one currently buying them … and printing even more money to do so … as both Timothy (Too dumb for turbo-tax but smart enough to run the entire tax bureaucracy) Geithner and Hillary Clinton were both literally laughed at and taunted in public forums when they went to China to convince them to buy more of our debts … something which would have gotten these same people shot or lifetime prison sentences had they been so bold as to do so with their own governmental leaders … yet they freely laughed at the “leadership” examples that our illustrious and bloated bureaucratic government sent there to represent us …
There will be change alright but with the exception of Japan in the 90s, no nation has ever been able to come out of this mess without the assistance of a war. Is that the change that you were hoping for? No matter whether you think this government is doing the right thing or not, look at it from what has historically happened in the past and then talk to me about hope and change.
