I have been listening to the debates about raising the debt ceiling. I’m finding the various political commentators, with their differing point of views, to be quite interesting. I listen a little to the left, a little to the right. I’m surprised that it’s hard to find commentators that are traveling down the middle. Polarization of the people will do that.
There are a few things that I don’t completely understand about the debt ceiling limit and what will happen if it isn’t raised on August 2. If someone would care to enlighten me I would be thankful.
1. Why aren’t we controlling our spending more so that we don’t have to borrow as much money? There is a LOT of frivolous spending in progress within the government. Why aren’t people looking at these things? For example, in 2005 a bill was passed by Congress for the mints to start printing dollar coins to commemorate each President. A certain number of dollar coins must be made for each President, and they can only be made to commemorate those Presidents that have passed on. The law was written so that they can’t stop printing these commemorative dollar coins until all of the presidents have been commemorated. In addition, the Sacajawea dollar coin must be printed in a ratio of 1 to 4, for every four presidential coins printed, one Sacajawea dollar must be printed.
Have you used a dollar coin in the United States today? I didn’t think so. Yet, the U.S. mint still prints millions of these on an annual basis because Congress passed a law in 2005. They sit in bags in vaults in various secret places in the country, unused and unneeded. The amount of money used printing these coins, storing these coins, etc. is a waste, not to mention the actual value behind the coins.
2. I keep hearing that all of these domestic programs (social security, veterans’ benefits, etc) are going to be cut if the debt ceiling isn’t raised. Why aren’t we talking about cutting war efforts or even cutting foreign aid? Why are we cutting domestic programs first. Shouldn’t we worry about the citizens close to home? If we are forced to pick and choose, shouldn’t we pick and choose the ones that DON’T contribute to the country before cutting from our own citizens? Where is our sense of priorities?
3. I am not a fan of welfare. I am very offended by the fact that people are actually saying it is unconstitutional for welfare recipients to be drug tested by the government, after all, I can be subject to a random drug test at any time at my job and I had to take a drug test to get the job in the first place. I’m sorry, but I believe that if you don’t contribute to the system, you don’t benefit from the system, plain and simple. These people that live off of Welfare for one, two, three or more years should be cut off from their funds and forced to grow a garden and find a way for themselves. Our lack of natural selection/the natural thinning of the herd through these things have overtaxed our resources in ways that we can’t even begin to comprehend. Call me cold, call me callous, but if you don’t put in, you don’t get anything out. And don’t attack me about retirees and the like, they’ve earned their place and their benefits. I’m referring to 25 year old baby machines that enjoy junk food on a check from the government that has been funded by our tax dollars. Here’s a cute story: when I was a baby computer maintenance guy I was hired to show a computer user how to dismantle, remove and then reinstall their high-end computer system of the time because they needed to hide it from the state inspectors when they were being inspected for welfare eligibility. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Being lazy does not equal being disabled.
4. If I were to go to the Apple store to make a purchase and my credit card was declined, I was be forced to not buy whatever doo-dad I was trying to buy. I could ask for an increase in my credit limit, I suppose, but if that was denied, I would have to stop spending and reprioritize my budget. As I have mentioned elsewhere in this post, we need to get our spending under control. Scare tactics of making grandma hungry because we can’t give her her hard-earned check are unnecessary.
5. And last, but not least, has anyone ever considered a flat tax across the board for all Americans? I don’t care if it’s an income tax or a consumption tax, but eliminate every deduction, every loophole, every piece of legislative bullshit from the tax code. You earn a dollar? 23% of that goes to the government. You earn one billion dollars? 23% of that goes to the government. If you have a social security number, you pay. I don’t care if you’re married, single, swinging from a chandelier, rich, poor and nasty and maladjusted. A flat tax across the board would eliminate a lot of this bullshit and the screams of “it’s not fair!” If you have a tax ID, you pay. Plain and simple. And, this is where Earl and I disagree, by the way, I don’t think that folks with kids should get a tax deduction based on the number of children they have. People are pumping out babies and taxing the system/resources all in an effort to lower their tax responsibilities. This has got to stop. Yes, we need to fund education so that we can perpetuate the species responsibly, but penalizing those that don’t have kids by making them pay more in taxes is just not fair.
I think I’ve reached my rant limit for my lunch hour.
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