Don't Blame Gingrich, They Won't Cut Spending

Why are conservative pundits slamming Newt Gingrich for holding a light on Paul Ryan’s “Plan to Restore America.” Under Ryan’s plan government spending continues to grow at a 3% rate. Why doesn’t Ryan propose ENDING Medicare instead of reforming it? Knowing their constituencies—individual and corporate beneficiaries of government spending—will abandon them, Politicians--democrats AND republicans, won’t ever seriously cut government spending. Lets face it, nobody will vote to gore their own ox.
• They’ll tinker at the margins like Ryan’s plan.
• They’ll tax the rich and uber-rich corporations.
• They’ll mortgage the future to foreign countries.
None of these are new and none of them have worked in the past. More or different government isn’t a solution, it’s the problem.
What can one man do?
Stop slaying the radical thinkers who want to cut Government, not simply trim its growth. Give even radical ideas that lead to less government an opportunity to explain themselves before dismissing them. Punishing creative thinking leads to stale ideas. Discuss the ideas in open forums, encourage radical thinking. There are plenty of bomb-throwers on the left. Aim your wit and fire at the proponents of the Status Quo and government solutions. Each of us can contribute to an environment that stimulates creative solutions and ends government’s insidious creep into our lives.

Taxing the Rich
Liberals are quick to point to a growing disparity in incomes. The rich are getting richer and the middle class is being left behind. Salaries, bonuses and profits are obscene. And slapping higher taxes on their income at first blush seems fair…even to me. Government confiscation, even of obscene profits will only increase the disparity because Government is empowered to pick winners and losers.
Look at the industry and the POLITICS of the rich who are so quickly pulling away from the rest of us.
Start with TARP winners. The average stock broker’s income isn’t “pulling away,” it’s the upper tiers of the major money houses…Goldman, Morgan, Citi and Bank of America. Then there’s the “Stimulus” winners-- GM and GE in manufacturing followed by Public Sector workers and their union leadership. Finish with oil companies, entertainers and professional athletes.
Give the government more tax revenue and:
A) the “Winners” simply get it back in another government contract/stimulus--
Why is the rich-liberal silent when it comes to raising personal tax rates. They don’t care if you take money from the right pocket because it’s going right back into the left pocket. In a socialist economy, there are always very big winners (party elite and public/private partners who play ball). Look up the definition of an Oligarchy.
B) Government now has more money with which to grow--
Politicians can continue to offer benefits to supporters. Protecting their position in the hierarchy.
C) the People get a warm fuzzy feeling because the “rich” are paying their fair share--
Cementing the “perception” that our elected officials are doing their job.
Selling out the future
I own rental property in San Diego. I HAVE to use cfl bulbs in all of the fixtures in my property. The only cfl for sale in California is manufactured by GE. GE manufactures the bulb in China. Chinese investors are investing $-millions purchasing land near Los Angeles to build solar generating plants and “green” businesses…using my state mandated lightbulb expenditures along with state and federal loans and tax credits to finance their projects. In return, California is a partner in a federal program that awards permanent resident visas to Chinese investors who spend $500,000 to start these businesses in California.
California is quickly becoming the unfriendliest state for business. But the politicians don’t appear to care.
Business leaves, the theory is, jobs leave, the tax base is diminished, revenues eventually dry up and the poorest residents, the ones who can’t afford to move, wind up in a state that resembles the city of Detroit--, run down, broke, abandoned.
Why doesn’t that worry the politicians in Sacramento?
1) On the one hand, there is the persistence of the entrepreneur—some of us will fight with our last breath to overcome whatever obstacles regulators throw at us in our quest to build a legacy for our kids.
2) You have federal money at unprecedented levels funding government jobs and unions, postponing cataclysmic failure.
3) Environmentalists and elitists actually dream about zero or declining populations in California (not to mention the rest of the country).
4) The uber-rich/uber-liberals growing wine for kicks in Northern California or making films in Los Angeles get their own private playground manned by federally paid staff and don’t have to step over the massive middle-class on their way to the front of the line.
Government contracts and “entertainment” kept the wealthy quite comfortably during the 1930s. Ask the Kennedys and Frank Sinatra. Or more recently, look at Greece. Sure, the unions rioted and the middle-class collapsed. But, as my friend put it, they may have a little less money, but the Rich are still Rich. They have their yachts and Villas. The Government elite still have their Mercedes, their preferential treatment, fat pensions and paid vacations. Greece has become a better place for the elite, only the people have suffered.
And so goes California, and eventually the rest of the U.S. unless we co-ordinate our efforts, stimulate our thinking and challenge the idea that our salvation lies in a government proposal…other than the one ratified in 1789.