How Does America Break Out of the Financial Crisis?
I will try to explain this as succinctly as possible. America is faced with several looming problems that are preventing our recovery and are being largely ignored. Much of it is not revealed or pursued because there are many folks making a lot of money over it!! They are picking your pockets!
The first problem is the gusher of deficit dollars going overseas whether it is for oil, manufactured goods or US military spending. Dollars leave at a much faster pace than they come in. The trade deficit is on the order of $540 Billion dollars annually and that does not count the Military expenditures!! By way of comparison our total manufacturing is $1,700 Billion annually.
The second problem is a lack of quality jobs, due in part to the mass exodus of manufacturing overseas. Today we manufacture a little over 10% of what we consume. That represents one of our greatest threats to national security. We cannot fend for ourselves. We have to trade with overseas partners to survive.
Third, is the fallacy of “stimulus” spending by the Government being able to always stimulate the economy. When it is done in the form of rebates to the people or by way of tax cuts, then there is a strong chance it will stimulate spending and move the economy forward. When it takes the form of creation of new government jobs, it actually stifles the economy, although the new employees are spending, they are either being paid through increased taxes or increased borrowing. The former gives folks more money to spend and leaves them feeling better about the economy with an inclination toward spending more, but the latter leaves less, for everyone who pays taxes, to spend and injects caution or fear into their spending patterns with an inclination toward tightening the purse strings further (Where we find ourselves now).
Fourth is the Federal Reserve’s penchant for working deals behind closed doors, for printing dollars at will and for refusing to disclose what they are doing and who they are doing it with. I can tell you, that they have been around 98 years and during that time the dollar has devalued 98%! Some job of protecting the currency they are doing!
Fifth is the “Culture of Cowardice in the Congress”! There is a great unwillingness to take the hard votes! That’s why we can’t reduce spending, balance the budget, slow the deficit or reform our entitlement programs. The individual Congressmen and Senators fear their campaign donors, the lobbyists, the threat of another Wall Street manufactured financial crisis, or the idea they might be blamed for another terrorist attack if they were to trim some dollars from the defense budget more than they fear “We the People”! The two things the founders feared the most, a standing army and a large central bank, are what have consumed and devalued a tremendous number of dollars leaving us even less secure. Meanwhile the Pentagon and the Federal Reserve remain un-audited!!
To think that spending can be reined in, the budget balanced, the deficit reduced or entitlements reformed without putting the Defense budget under scrutiny is, at best, foolhardy. In total when you consider the entire DOD related spending which includes the Pentagon Base Budget, New construction, Veterans Administration, DOD/Military retirement benefits, Nuclear program under DOE and other DOD administrative spending it accounts for nearly a third of the current total budget and a third of the budget represents deficit spending, or borrowed money. To say current spending levels are unsustainable is a gross understatement.
There is no plan before the Congress today that can succeed. Only measures that can be fully implemented during the current session of the Congress will be of lasting benefit. Last year one of the battle cries was for the “Repeal Amendment”, this year another is for “Cut, Cap and Balance”…problem is, it is another multi year program, again! You remember what happened to the former, it just sort of lost steam, as probably will the current plans. Now honestly, do any of you really believe the Congress can embark on and stick to some grand multi year program to cut spending and reduce the budget? We need to address some of the root problems, right now.
You can help implement the following commonsense five-point program to get America started down the road to recovery immediately, by making sure the Congress listens to and fears, “We the People” more than they fear the special interests! Call (877)-762-8762 or email your Congressmen and Senators today and every day until they:
v Drill Here and Drill Now! For oil, natural gas and coal.
v Bring Manufacturing Jobs Back to America! Rein in the EPA and Gang Green!
v Audit the Federal Reserve and stop the devaluation of the dollar!
v Audit the DOD/Pentagon and cut wasteful and duplicative spending.
v Immediately cut back the “stimulus” programs that grew the Federal government.
Only if these points are implemented and realized can plans like the Balanced Budget Amendment (which will take several years to be ratified) be able to help succeed in restoring fiscal order and security in America. We must begin treating the ailment instead of just relieving the symptoms, to ensure our long-term fiscal health!!
You know in your heart no matter how hard they massage the debt and spending, they will not succeed if they don’t implement the above commonsense measures. Ignoring these points, which can all be implemented immediately, leaves the Congress on a fool’s errand.
Don’t expect many to be talking about these issues. There are only a few, like Tom Coburn, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Ron Paul, Alan West, Michele Bachmann and Frank Wolf along with a handful of others, with the courage to speak out and sponsor appropriate legislation. To expect much more from most of the others would be like expecting a pickpocket to say “Hold still while I lift your wallet”!
Take your country back and restore financial security, starting today! “Turn Up the Heat In Washington”; bring the “Fear Factor” to Capitol Hill. Thank you, for all you do for Liberty.
Tom Whitmore
Washington DC Tea Party
Copyright 2011, Thomas J. Whitmore
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