Inertia of the machine
There is no stopping it. The sprawling and extending of government has grown impossible to contain, and Americans (in general) lack the desire to to take on the herculean task of reigning in the profligacy.
It's hard to believe that we are the collective descendants of men who denounced the King and took up arms to protest "taxation without representation" on what amounts to a small sales or use tax.
" In the early 1960s, transfer payments (entitlements and welfare) constituted less than a third of the federal government's budget. Now they constitute almost 60 percent of the budget, or about $1.4 trillion per year. Measured according to this, the US government's main function now is redistribution: taking money from one segment of the population and giving it to another segment. In a few decades, transfer payments are expected to make up more than 75 percent of federal government spending.
Currently the federal government consumes about 20 percent of the GDP, which is another way of saying that about 20 percent of Americans' income, on average, is paid in taxes to the federal government. According to the Government Accountability Office, that is on course to rise to 30 percent by 2040. Most of that 30 percent would be redistributed as payments to other Americans, rather than spent on standard government services like law enforcement, transportation, defense, national parks, or space exploration."
I think it was Mencken that said "people get the government they deserve, and they deserve to get it good and hard."
It's hard to believe that we are the collective descendants of men who denounced the King and took up arms to protest "taxation without representation" on what amounts to a small sales or use tax.
" In the early 1960s, transfer payments (entitlements and welfare) constituted less than a third of the federal government's budget. Now they constitute almost 60 percent of the budget, or about $1.4 trillion per year. Measured according to this, the US government's main function now is redistribution: taking money from one segment of the population and giving it to another segment. In a few decades, transfer payments are expected to make up more than 75 percent of federal government spending.
Currently the federal government consumes about 20 percent of the GDP, which is another way of saying that about 20 percent of Americans' income, on average, is paid in taxes to the federal government. According to the Government Accountability Office, that is on course to rise to 30 percent by 2040. Most of that 30 percent would be redistributed as payments to other Americans, rather than spent on standard government services like law enforcement, transportation, defense, national parks, or space exploration."
I think it was Mencken that said "people get the government they deserve, and they deserve to get it good and hard."
posted by djobe at 10:06 PM
2 Comments:
I think we're going to pay one way or the other. What would you cut? End welfare payments? What happens when the poor get pissed and rob us all blind? Would that be better? Shall we put them all in prison? Won't we still be paying for them? Cut healthcare? So that people will clog emergency rooms, keep us from getting the help when we need it and make our premiums rise?
I appreciate the desire for efficient government and less taxes, but who are you proposing we get rid of in the process?
Ask yourself this question: how did it work before the federal government got involved?
Galveston was leveled by a hurricanes, thousands died and millions of dollars of property were destroyed in the early 1900's (I don't know the year)...FEMA didn't exist, so tell me--how is it that Galveston was able to rebuild itself?
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