The Real Cost of Big Government

Numbers are thrown around all the time from various sources, both credible and otherwise about budgets, taxes, and the cost of entitlement programs. For the most part a single individual cannot even comprehend magnitudes of billions of dollars, and now we're talking trillions. Politicians and self-appointed economic geniuses get bogged down in the trenches of individual government programs, individual lines of the tax code, and individual regulations. We lose sight of the big picture.

If you have children/grandchildren/nieces/nephews or even are a young person yourself, take a good look at them (or in the mirror). Then take a look at what the future tax rates are going to have to be in order to keep the federal government from collapsing under the weight of the debt being created today. Estimates are the lowest income bracket will have to go from 10% to 25% and the middle income brackets will become 66%, up from 25-28%. And that's before you start counting State income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, etc. So in essence, if we continue on this spending binge, in the very near future, average people trying to work hard and earn a living will be paying between 70-80% or more, of their income to fund paying off the debts we are incurring so callously today. And if your children are working that much for the government instead of themselves or their own families, are they really going to be free? I submit to you that the answer is no. People will be working as tax slaves. The real cost of big government is very literally, our freedom.

Now with that groundwork of what the future is going to hold laid, let's return to the present.

Today, the President threatened to veto any spending bill that cut $60 billion or more out of a budget that spends almost 4 trillion dollars. $60B is 1.5% of 4 trillion. So the President says that 98.5% of his budget is untouchable. How many sane people believe that 98.5% of what the federal government spends is actually vitally important?

When you further consider that this 4 trillion dollar budget includes locking in the almost trillion dollars worth of "stimulus" spending as a permanent thing, can a sane person really believe that more than 25% of the federal budget is vitally important? That so-called stimulus layout was supposed to be a one-time thing, wasn't it?

Take a look at that article. While I normally disapprove of the way the national media implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) endorses the fiscal ruination of this nation, Jake Tapper is normally very good on actual reporting instead of regurgitating what he's told by government officials.

It's the same old tired propaganda of "we have to spend more on education, this that and the other..." because it's compassionate and/or good for the future.

How compassionate/good for the future is the very realistic scenario outlined above?

If the President thinks that 1.5% of the massively over-inflated budget is worth shutting down the entire government temporarily, then it's time to go ahead and do it. In the end, a little inconvenience now is much preferable to enslaving ourselves and our children to the government in the future.