Mail Bag – Freedom and Liberty Hijacked

posted in: Politics, Rants & Raves | 0

Good morning Boys and Girls.  This is the first reader who has written using the “What’s on you mind” link.  Here’s what he(she?) had to say:

Our Freedoms and Liberty have been Hijacked.
I’m tired the fruits of my labor are being stolen by “the state”. When being robbed by a street bandit, at least many of them have the courtesy to wear a mask.
Yes, we need infrastructure, clean water and air, a military and maybe even 1st responders. But really, departments like DEA, Homeland Security, Education produce nothing. Should they be the first on the list of “taker’s”? Bigger government does not translate to effective government. And lets be honest, before we kick anybody off government aid, shouldn’t we dump those billion dollar jets the Air Force can’t fly off the combat readiness roster. Seams to me that that particular weapons platform has lots of “taker’s” hanging around the water cooler collecting my money. ~ADfed

I have to agree with you ADfed.   I think there are way to too many “suckling on the tit” of government.   I agree that government has gotten to big for their britches.  I think there has to be some very, very serious trimming of the fat. You make some very good observations, I’ll take a couple on.

Taxes…the IRS…Oh boy.  I think we should just scrap the entire tax code and move to the Fair Tax or a Flat tax and be done with it.  I don’t mind paying my fair share; just ensure everyone else does too. A good comparison of the two can by found at FreedomWorks.

Homeland Security/DEA: I think there is a lot of room for improvement in these organizations.  We are not going to win the “war” on drugs, I say legalize MJ and tax the crap out of it.  How much money has the government thrown away on this “war”?  I would rather see those resources used to protect our nations borders and trade routes.

Infrastructure: America’s grade: D!  The estimated 5 year investment needed; $2.2 Trillion (with a T), and that cost is only going to go up as we continue to procrastinate.  A cool site to get you thinking.

1st responders: Not the federal governments role.  If you are waiting for the federal government in a crisis/emergency; you are screwed, so screwed!

There are two things that get my dander up, Education and Welfare.

1. Education:   The cost of education in this country is; simply put- outrageous.  It cost more for me to send my daughter to college than it did to buy our house (and it’s a pretty nice house!).  Our nation spends 3.7% of our GDP on education, and we placed #17 in the world as far as the quality of the education.  I am unsure if that figure includes local taxes. I think the fundamental problem we face in our education system is this: America does not have a social belief in the importance of education.  Athletes are role models, and not very good ones at that!

2. Welfare: The US government’s budget for the welfare system is larger than entire budgets of many other countries in the world.  There are over 185 welfare programs whose budgets totaled more than $1.88 Trillion in 2010. The entire Federal budget for FY2010 was $3.7 Trillion, the welfare programs (including Social Security and Medicare) encompassed over (however slightly) 50% of the entire federal budget.  I think…

  • the welfare program is abused by many people.
  • If a person is receiving welfare, they should be drug tested and held accountable.
  • If a person is on welfare and not disabled, they should be put to work, any type of work, babysitting other welfare recipients children while they are out cleaning the streets, or performing some other type of work that needs to be done.

While I’m on my soapbox, I also believe that we are going to go over this fiscal cliff, pedal to the floor, full speed ahead.  Why – because very few of our elected officials have the tenacity to follow through and perform the job the citizenry elected them for: taking care of America.  The country, not the poor, not the rich, not the troops, (sure as hell not other countries); but America as a whole.  Our elected officials are in a constant state of election and re-election; leaving no time (or desire) to make hard, difficult decisions- the decisions that have to be made.

Do I think going over the cliff is bad, yes and no.  On one hand; life is going to suck very quickly.  On the other hand, we will have a balanced budget with built in debt reduction. the last time a budget was passed was 2009.  Tell your elected official, I have to have a budget and cannot overspend, neither can you.  No budget, no pay.

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