We Get To Get
Government Under Control
Gary Gerard,
dumbhoosier.com
I don’t know if it’s age relevant or what but I just keep getting more
and more skeptical and cynical about stuff.
Especially stuff that has to do with the government.
Everybody’s all whipped into a frenzy over the public sector union
debate in Wisconsin, and, to a lesser degree in Indiana.
But see, here’s the thing. It doesn’t really matter what you think
about unions. It doesn’t really matter what you think about Democrats
and Republicans.
Here’s a news flash. They’re all compliant in one way or another for
screwing things up for the rest of us.
Seriously, I hear so much vitriol aimed at anyone who would dare to say
that private sector unions might need to be reined in a bit.
But doesn’t that make some sense? I mean, why are private-sector
workers – whose paychecks come from taxpayers – in such dire need of
protection from their employer – the government.
Seems to me most private sector employees have pretty good pay, hours,
health care, pension benefits, lots of holidays, and a pretty decent
work environment.
And if there ever was a problem with any of the above, there are myriad
government rules to remedy it. We have dozens of federal agencies set
up to administer those rules. I dare you. Go to the Department of Labor
website where it lists them all. It’s amazing. Then go to the
Department of Education.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I wonder exactly what it is that these
public sector unions are protecting that isn’t already fully protected
under existing law.
Aren’t taxpayers paying enough to support that incredibly long list of
federal agencies?
I don’t think it’s so much about protecting public sector workers as it
is about collecting money and using it to further a political goal.
The unions collect dues from members. They use some of that money to
help get legislators elected. Then the unions sit down at the
bargaining table with those very same legislators to divvy up the
taxpayers money. Seems wrong, doesn’t it?
Of course it does.
States are going broke over it. Taxpayers are on the hook for literally
trillions of dollars of unfunded pension benefit liabilities
nationwide. This is not a good thing.
But neither is the converse. What’s happening on the other side of the
aisle is equally as wrong.
Corporations funnel money into campaigns of legislators who then turn
around and give corporations tax breaks.
The corporations justify their buying of politicians because they say
they create jobs. But the tax breaks go way beyond abatement or
incentive to create jobs.
People like to say that the U.S. has the highest corporate tax rate in
the world, which is true.
But corporate lobbyists – working together with an all-to-compliant
Congress – have written tons of loop holes and exemptions in the tax
laws. Many large corporations, including GE, ExxonMobil an Bank Of
America, as recently as 2009, had no corporate income tax liability –
$0.
They move money around into offshore accounts and write stuff off. You
know the deal. Who wrote those laws? That’s a rhetorical question, I’ll
tell you who. Corporate lobbyist-influenced lawmakers.
U.S. corporations also maximize profits by outsourcing jobs to foreign
countries where labor costs are a fraction of what they are in the U.S.
How can they do that? Who wrote those rules?
You know.
I am really afraid – union, non-union, conservative, liberal, Democrat,
Republican, Bush, Obama, blah, blah, blah – we’re totally missing the
point.
The point is simply this: It’s all one big bowl of wrong. We’ve
completely upended the idea of a constitutional republic.
Basic tenets of that simple, brilliant form of government have
virtually been abandoned. In a constitutional republic, government
power flows from the individual. Simultaneously, the rights of the
individual are protected.
The framers were smart enough to know in a pure democracy, the rights
of the individual would be trampled by the majority.
So we elect representatives to do our bidding in Congress. They are the
check on the power of a pure majority and the protectors of the rights
of the individual.
But elected officials on both sides of the aisle have gutted basic
constitutional principles. They don’t do the bidding of their
constituents. They do the bidding of the highest bidder. Whether it’s a
corporation or a union really doesn’t matter.
That’s why we have outsourcing of jobs. That’s why we have corporations
paying no taxes. That’s why we have states going broke trying to pay
public employee pensions. That’s why “campaign finance reform” always
brings more corporate and union money into the political process.
That’s why we have enormous deficits and a massive, inefficient,
money-down-a-rat-hole federal government.
We must return to the principles of the constitution if we want the
republic to survive.
See, this is where the Tea Party types get it right. If they could just
stop telling everybody how to live their lives, they could have the
most formidable third party in the history of American politics.
As it is, they’ll be fringy at best.
Whether your gay or straight, pro-life or pro-choice, pro-gun or
anti-gun, pro-military or anti-military doesn’t matter. Those things,
one way or another, aren’t going to swamp the republic.
Straying from constitutional principles will. An out -of-control
government threatens to destroy our way of life. Want evidence? Look at
the deficit. We could wind up like Argentina if we’re not careful.
We need a third political party with a single-minded focus on a return
to constitutional principles and limited government. As long as you’re
committed to that, nothing else matters. You’re in.
That party would be unstoppable because I believe the vast majority of
Americans understand that we simply have got to get government under
control.
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