U.S. Entitlements – How do you pay for them?

The Biden plan is to tax the richest 1% much higher and abolish the tax cuts President Trump enacted - for those that missed it, the removal of tax cuts is a tax increase on everyone else.  When Joe says, "let me be clear taxes are only going up on the individuals making more than $400,000 a year" that's a blatant lie.  Add the Green New Deal and the proposed $2 trillion dollars to fund it.  This is a hidden tax in the form of subsidies and mandates that every taxpayer will have to pay.    Furthermore, the increased energy costs will further erode the incomes of American's.

The majority of American’s want their politicians to eliminate deficit spending and reduce the national debt.  However, when it is time to vote, the population cast their votes to remain the same course.  As the record shows, that means increased deficit spending and enormous additions to the national debt while entitlement programs skyrocket in cost.

As we approach the $28 trillion mark in national debt, run annual deficits in excess of $1 trillion, and have unfunded liabilities of  about $155 trillion (Medicare, Social Security, and Prescription Drug Liability), where is this money going to come from?

The cornerstone of job growth, GNP growth, lower inflation, and higher tax revenues was by developing our natural resources, coal, natural gas, and oil.  This plan goes away with the election of Joe Obama and Kamala Harris, both vying for  banning fracking and the "Green New Deal".  Biden/Harris are against drilling for oil, coal use, and all fossil fuel.  His energy plan is wind and solar, whose time simply has not come of age yet.  Biden's policies favor higher gas prices, which would make wind, and solar technologies more competitive.  Nothing that takes manipulation to be competitive is yet ready for the broad based market.

The  Biden plan is to tax the richest 1% much higher and abolish the tax cuts President Trump enacted - for those that missed it, the removal of tax cuts is a tax increase on everyone else.  When Joe says, "let me be clear taxes are only going up on the individuals making more than $400,000 a year" that's a blatant lie.  Add the Green New Deal and the proposed $2 trillion dollars to fund it.  This is a hidden tax in the form of subsidies and mandates that every taxpayer will have to pay.  Furthermore, the increased energy costs will further erode the incomes of American's.

Since Medicare and Social Security was established, Congress and the President have been raiding its coffers to pay bills it took on in excess of the revenues coming in.  Debt enslaves us, and our debt has never been so large, and growing so quickly.  This country needs someone to lead them into prosperity, not one who would lead them into destitution.

The plan to tax the rich at higher and higher rates will not help American’s financial crisis.  The biggest and most painful job as a politician is to tighten the belt on spending, and in our status, very tight.  The problem is that too many American’s are addicted to government handouts.  Too many are worried more about what they can get rather than what is best for their country, their kids, and the future.  How many times have they voted to squander the well being of the next generation to receive free handouts for themselves.  This short-term vision and the “me” concern has to give way to reasonable sacrifices for the long term benefit of the country and its citizens.  The sacrifice people should be willing to make is to get only what they need from the government to get back on their feet again after a layoff, injury, or other setback.  Our government designed itself to care for the truly needy or temporarily in need while looking for work.  The capable must work, doing whatever they must to survive.  All honest work is honorable and even if it is not your ideal job, you should keep it until you can find the job you want.  Sitting at home when you are fully capable of working is immoral when you are feeding off the taxpayer’s hard work.

Biden is not going to change course, because he doesn't desire to cut spending in any significant way, if at all.  Significant change will only occur when we have a leader willing to accept responsibility for fixing our situation rather than blaming everyone else.  Many American’s refuse to examine the facts, instead relying on the media in its short snippets to form their opinion for them.

The answer to our economic problems is simple but there is no one in office with the backbone to carry it out. 

• Cut all subsidies to oil and alternative energies.  Allow the free market to determine their period of relevance.
• Cut all funding to the overly bureaucratic and stifling United Nations.  The corrupt U.N. duplicates existing services and accomplishes nothing.  A single veto ends action on any important matters.  The U.S. will always share different values and beliefs than the rest of the world, and making concessions of any kind is dangerous to our way of life.
• Do not join the Paris Climate Accord, abandon the notion of Global Warming, and its redistribution undertones.  Canada's Piers Corbyn, the founder of the Weather Action Foundation, concluded, “carbon dioxide is controlled by world temperatures rather than the other way around.”  Corbyn states that solar activity, not carbon dioxide, is behind climate change.  He again stated, “Carbon dioxide has zero effect, I repeat: zero effect, no effect whatsoever.”  Corbyn says that solar activity, not carbon dioxide, is behind climate change.
  
  “I don’t believe in man-made climate change because there is no evidence for it. In fact, carbon dioxide is controlled by world temperatures rather than the other way around,” he told RT. “Climate change is going on, and the key aspects of the big, very extreme events that happened in the last 18 months were predicted by us, the Weather Action, using solar activity.
  
  Corbyn believes the Kyoto protocol is a semi-fraudulent scheme aimed at wasting public funds, which could otherwise have a better use.
  
  “It is a complete waste of time.  It’s a waste of public money. It’s a gravy train for so-called scientists looking into things that don’t exist, and, of course, for the governments to impose taxations, and oil companies to increase oil prices on the back of increasing energy prices – which is the thing demanded by the global warming’s nonsense lobby,” he explained.

            Global temperatures rise as more sun hits the earth, particularly when it rests on water.  Water                 covers 70% of the earth’s surface, and is a huge carbon sink.  As the oceans warm, the waters                 release more carbon, and the effect of this carbon release is more warming.  More cloud cover                leads to less carbon emissions, and lower temperatures.  This is in stark contrast to Al Gore’s                 infamous claims that carbon dioxide is the sole cause of global warming. 

• Cut all agricultural subsidies and let farmers rely on crop insurance to protect against losses.

We cannot afford any expense that is not necessary.  The simple existence of government grants/subsidies produces an imbalance in the free market.  A subsidy of one commodity and not another encourages production that is not based on supply and demand.  Crops may be grown only because the government is subsidizing it rather than because of consumer demand.  If something cannot make it in the free market on its own, it is unneeded or the price is too high.

The government should not be deciding what pet projects get green lighted, because this encourages pandering to political supporters.  Worse yet is that this pandering comes on the backs of taxpayers, many of whom would not agree with their funding.  Ethanol is a perfect example of politics at its very worst.  Corn-based ethanol was an early attempt to cut the use of fossil fuels, but was quickly determined to use more fuel in its production than it produced.  Still, taxpayers paid tens of billions of dollars subsidizing a losing venture that wasted food and feed stock as well.  Politicians finally cut the subsidy, yet sustain the industry by the government mandate that a certain percentage of government vehicles use alternative fuels.

Any budget considerations have to have true accounting involved.  That means passing legislation that requires gas and food to be included in inflation figures and eliminates manipulation by the White House.

The U.S. has to reduce its regulations if it is going to compete domestically and internationally.  If we cannot produce products at a competitive price, American’s will import more and export less.  There are too many government agencies overseeing and overlapping the same industries.  This overhead hinders the ability of companies to control their costs.

High gas prices increase the cost of nearly everything.  We must achieve energy independence, coupled with the cheap oil available from Canada.  In the process of achieving energy independence, we would create millions of jobs, both direct and indirect, by hydro-fracking for oil/natural gas.  An improved network of pipelines and new refineries could also lower the price of gas. 

Natural Gas

Enormous reserves of natural gas should welcome a higher number of natural gas vehicles.  Natural gas costs, on average 1/3 less to fill a vehicle and with cleaner emissions.  About 98% of the U.S. consumption is produced in the U.S. and Canada. The Energy Information Agency (EIA) predicts that over 98% of natural gas used in the U.S. will come from the U.S. alone by 2030.  A recent study found that the U.S. already has 118 years of natural gas resources itself.

The 1 1/2 million miles of pipelines and distribution lines across the U.S. makes it readily available to nearly anyone.

Natural gas produces 22 to 29% less greenhouse gas emissions than diesel or gasoline-powered vehicles, respectively, and less urban pollution.  Source: State Alternative Fuels Plan, California Energy Commission, Adopted December 5, 2007.

Natural Gas has Renewable Options Too!

Natural gas can be produced from any organic waste or energy crop like switch grass.  Conservative estimates suggest that the U.S. could produce the equivalent of 10 billion barrels of gasoline by producing biomethane (renewable natural gas).  This potential is nearly infinite when biomethane production from cellulosic energy crops is considered.

Unlike Ethanol, natural gas does not compete with food sources, and drive up its prices.  Ethanol also has distribution issues that natural gas doesn't. Greater ethanol use would only create more food shortages and higher prices.

Infrastructure Money Reality

When the government touts infrastructure money as a stimulus to the economy it fails to explain that its benefits directly relate to the project undertaken.  Repaving a road with breaks with it, but still smooth, in a low traveled region will do little to benefit citizens.  On the other hand, a more efficient mass transit system in heavier traveled regions allow citizens to travel more cheaply, takes more vehicles off the road, and puts more money into their pockets to buy other things.

The Sacrifices Required comes with Benefits

The answer to the debt crisis is simple, but the carry through will take a nation of patriotic citizens willing to live without government entitlement programs.  The sacrifice comes with its own benefits:

 

• Greater freedoms to create and innovate through less government interference, namely regulation and taxation
• Ability to determine our own donations, rather than allowing the government to decide who should get taxpayer money – often in exchange for expected votes
• Lower taxes due to the elimination of unneeded entitlement programs, grants, and subsidies
• Lower gas prices due to domestic production, lowering the cost of most goods
• More jobs due to the millions of direct and indirect jobs created by tapping our natural resources, including coal
• The end of entitlements leads to less lobbyists, less lobbying, and a stronger voice of the individual rather than special interest groups
• Less borrowing from foreign countries, and less interest being paid to them
• A stronger dollar that buys more from other countries 

Paying our Public Debt is an American's Responsibility

Ultimately, it is our responsibility to pay our own debts rather to pass it along to the next generation.  In our case, we need to pay for every Congress and Administration that has raided Medicare, Social Security, and Postal Service coffers to pay for some of their incessant spending.

Our Founding Fathers Weighed in on Debt...

“I, however, place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.”  Thomas Jefferson

The Founders recognized the nature of debt for what it is: evil, because it is a form of bondage.  Debt is giving another power over your liberty.  Benjamin Franklin once wrote, “If you cannot pay that time [when the debt is due], you will be ashamed to see your creditor; you will be in fear when you speak to him; you will make poor pitiful sneaking excuses, and by degrees come to lose your veracity [truthfulness], sand sink into base downright lying; for as Poor Richard says, the second vice is lying, the first is running in debt.  And again, to the same purpose, lying rides upon debt’s back.”

 

The Founding Fathers felt the debts of one generation should be paid for by the generation that incurred them.  The rising generation, they felt, should be both politically, and economically free from the burdens of the previous one.  They felt that passing debts onto the next generation would be forcing the children of the future to be born into a certain amount of bondage or involuntary servitude.  This position would be something for which they neither voted nor subscribed.  Literally, it would mean “taxation without representation” and a blatant violation of a fundamental republican principle.

 

George Washington stated “No pecuniary [monetary] consideration is more urgent than the regular redemption and discharge of the public debt; on none can delay be more injurious, or an economy of time more valuable.”  (Fitzpatrick, Writings of George Washington, 33:168.)

 

Our Future or Demise Rests on our willingness to Sacrifice Entitlements.