The further to the left or the right you move, the more your lens on life distorts.

Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Reset

It has taken the the Biden administration and the Democrats who support it just a little over 17 months to wreck the U.S. economy. National indebtedness continues to rise, inflation is the worst it has been in 40 years, fossil fuel prices are at historic highs, the stock market has entered bear territory (meaning the value of middle class 401Ks is in free fall), the supply chain is a mess, interest rates are rising rapidly, airlines can't seem to get flights off the ground, a recession (with consequent unemployment) seems almost certain within the next two years ... and that's only a short list of the carnage.

And with all of this happening in real time, the Democrats keep insisting that big government is the solution to all of our problems. "It's corporate greed," they exclaim as their unrealistic regulatory policies reduce the production of gasoline and diesel, fueling inflation as part of the bargain. "It COVID," they shout, as they continue to push idiotic and unscientific protocols that lead to employee absences or terminations. "It's Putin," they cry, as they blame anyone but themselves for rampant price increases and shortages.

But big government is what the Dems want—as long as it's on their side ideologically. There's only one problem—big government is incompetent, corrupt, inefficient, wasteful, and too far removed from the people to do much good.  That's not an opinion—it's hard fact based on past history.

Adam Andrzejewski provides a few small examples of recent big government fraud and wasteful spending associated with the COVID debacle:

" ... 2.2 million deceased people received $3.6 billion in economic stimulus checks" paid as part of the COVID PPP program.

or how about:

"Musician and former presidential candidate Kanye West, who claims a net worth of $3.2 billion, took $2.4 million in coronavirus relief from the PPP for his clothing and sneaker company, Yeezy LLC."

or maybe:

" ... a legal loophole in the PPP was used by 125 defense firms with strong ties to the Communist Chinese Party to collect between $200 million and $400 million meant to help American small businesses."

The problem is that far too many federal government employees simply don't care or have no incentive to rein in spending. In fact, in many cases, they're incented to spend, and punished if they don't spend their allotted budgets. They look the other way as millions or billions are wasted.

That's why every taxpayer (an increasingly smaller number of citizens each year) owes about $245,000 to cover the federal debt. In the year 2000, the debt to GDP ratio was 58%. Today it's about 128%, and if the Dems and far too many GOP politicians continue to tax and spend, we'll soon reach a situation that is unsustainable. 

But ironically, all of the spending the Democrats demand has NOT solved the social problems they identify. In fact, it appears that the more spending that occurs, the worse those problems become. Creating dependency among larger and larger numbers of people is a mistake that will have obvious and unintended consequences going forward. 

The Dems are right about one thing ... it's time for a "reset," but it's not the one they're talking about.