Bribed by Your Own Money

 

Some one using your money to bribe you.  Sounds far fetched but that is what’s happening with tax dollars.  Influencing you to vote in a certain manner is a form of bribery.  The politicians today are pretty slick in how they label their spending programs.  Most are geared so they can get re-elected.

The following programs/spending are designed to appease a local voting group(s) and other groups for donations back to the political party.

As one reads thru it becomes pretty obvious which are Republican or democrat favorites.  In congress this becomes a bouncing ball that says you help vote for my program and I’ll help you with yours.

Spending

1. Regarding regulations, stop prevention of necessary energy resource cultivation, including but not limited to nuclear power and various forms of drilling. This would provide employment to the unemployed, increased tax revenue to the federal government for deficit reduction, and help with national security concerns.

2. On spending, consider the following:

a. $25 billion a year is spent on unused federal property.

b. Approximately $17 billion is spent on agricultural subsidies annually.

c. Over $20 billion annually is spent on energy subsidies.

d. $100 billion of taxpayer money is used for corporate welfare annually.

e. Potentially several hundred billion dollars is being wasted – annually – on fraud, waste, abuse, and duplication. While much of this is hard to eliminate, even getting rid of one-fifth of it would be extremely helpful with regards to the budget.

3. On tax reform, proponents of big government are partially correct: the federal government does need more tax revenue. However, there is no need to raise tax rates on the wealthy or anyone else. What could happen is some combination of the following:

a. Cut loopholes and lower rates equivalently.

b. Cut loopholes and put the extra revenue towards deficit reduction.

c. Cut loopholes and put some of the extra money towards deficit reduction, while the rest goes towards lower rates.

Any of the above options would be helpful for economic growth and budget-balancing reasons. Obviously, it would be preferable to cut loopholes and lower rates exclusively, but using increased revenue for deficit reduction is economically sound as well.

For years now, Tea Party activists have called for balancing the budget ASAP and making the tax code more economically and morally fair. While Congress has, by and large, refused to budge on these demands, the above suggestions could be a way for grassroots activists to at least get a good first step in towards eventual control of Washington by true fiscal conservatives. At the very least, it would prevent next year’s deficit from being as ghastly large as the 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 ones were. And that, in and of itself, is at least a partial victory.

When re-election shows up, members of congress can say: “I brought these programs to you.”

Sometimes as I look out over crowds, I see lots of suckers and have I looked in the mirror it was scary.  I would think, I voted for that.

This spending is also giving more power to the bureaucrats to control our lives and that is the scary part.  Who do want for a boss, and is there even many choices any more?