We Have Met the Enemy............

Yes, POGO had it right all the time. Its us. We did it to ourselves. Can't blame anybody else.

What, you ask? The answer is a huge mountain of debt as high as one can see.

Last week, the Congress of the United States passed an amendment raising the debt limit by $1,900,000,000,000.00. That is $1.9 TRILLION.

The debt is already in excess of $14,000,000,000,000.00. That is $14 TRILLION.

But that is not all. There is an additional $60,000,000,000,000.00 ( $60 TRILLION) in unfunded future liabilities for things like Social Security, Medicare and other so-called entitlement programs.

We can't pay it.

We have about $2.5 Trillion in tax revenues coming into the Federal Government annually. The Federal budget for the upcoming fiscal year is in excess of $3.8 TRILLION. For the first time in history, the Social Security tax will not bring in enough to pay current obligations. Left unchanged, it probably never will again.

None of this even counts the huge debts of states like California, or the huge consumer debt load that exists.

Who will pay for all of this? How will they pay it?

There are those who blame the politicians for the mess. There is a lot of blame to go around, certainly. The situation in Washington is corrupt, dysfunctional, and overly partisan. Both political parties have bought into spending money that we don't have. Each side wants to reap the rewards of power and have the free rein to funnel public money or tax and regulatory breaks to their friends and contributors. Almost every one of the elected officials in Washington should be thrown out for having bought into that system

But its too easy to just blame the politicians. Our country is pretty evenly split between folks who are "conservative" and want low taxes and smaller government, and "liberals" who want higher taxes and more government.

Usually, there is a healthy tension between the sides that keeps the government more or less to a center course. But since the politicians of both sides are committed to spending rather than saving, we get more debt.

Let a liberal want to raise taxes to help pay for all of this, and every taxpayer gets riled. If a conservative wants to cut spending and cut taxes, then the other side gets riled.

We the people put a lot of pressure on Congress to preserve our pet spending programs or tax breaks or regulatory scheme.

The result has often been cutting taxes and increasing spending. Sometimes its been raising taxes and raising spending.

It just doesn't work. We need a new paradigm in Washington.

We are in such deep trouble that we must come together and make some changes. Everyone is going to have to give up something in order to cure the problem.

Spending will have to be cut; taxes will have to be raised. Everyone will have to pitch in. We just can't go on this way.

Nothing will get done unless everyone is called upon to make the sacrifices necessary.

If we don't stop, we become a Banana Republic, and our children and their children will suffer greatly.

The Pelosi Payroll Tax; UPDATE:Demo says even they don't understand the bill

The Wall Street Journal today points out that there is more than one tax in the proposed health care reform bill.

Its an up to 10% payroll tax on workers whose employers don't provide health insurance. Now it is in the bill as a tax on employers, but it is no secret that such taxes will result in lower pay and benefits for the workers.

"To put this in actual dollars, a worker earning, say, $70,000 a year could lose some $5,600 in take home pay to cover the costs of ObamaCare. And, by the way, this is in addition to the 2.5% tax that the individual worker would have to pay on gross income, if he doesn’t buy the high-priced health insurance that the government will mandate. In sum, that’s a near 10-percentage point tax on wages and salaries on top of the 15% that already hits workers to finance Medicare and Social Security."

This is just one of the things that would not be discussed if the bill had been hurried through like she tried to do.

The four Blue Dogs who caved in yesterday at least give us some time to carefully go through this bill, something we were not able to do with the cap and trade bill.

It will be interesting to discover what else is hidden in the legislation.

Isn't it nice to have such open and transparent processes in the Democrat Congress?

Criminal, at best.

UPDATE: According to Politico, even Democrats in Congress don't understand the health care reform:

"A Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, agrees. “The members don’t even understand what’s in it,” he confessed of the legislation. As for his constituents? They are “not exactly sure what this is about, and they’re not really sure whether they like it or not.” "

What does that say about them and their haste to rush it through? Transparency? Hope and change? Tyranny of the majority?

Citizens' revolt in California

Back in May, California had 6 ballot intiatives designed to fund the gap between state income and outgo, and 5 of them were heavily backed by the political class, the big newspapers, and the public sector unions. The sixth one limited elected officials' salaries.

Guess which one passed and which five failed. You got it.

Now, the political class is up in arms. They won't cut back anywhere. So California is broke and issuing IOUs instead of paying in cash.

Reason has piece by Matt Welsh that covers it pretty well:

"During the last two decades, the Golden State has been transformed from what was once known as the nation’s most anti-labor outpost to a state essentially run by public-sector unions. Nearly three in five publicsector workers are unionized, compared to less than two in five public employees in other states. The Democratic Party, which is fully in hock to unions, has controlled the legislature and most statewide posts, with the notable exception of the governor’s mansion, for more than a decade. That means more government workers, higher salaries, and drastically higher pension costs. "

Now, the public is rebelling, and its about time.

"California is the Ghost of Federal Government Future."

Is what has been happening in California something we can look for in the rest of the country? Well, consider this:

"The federal government is now run by a president and Congress more responsive to union concerns than any in at least two decades. The same bloat currently bogging down statehouses and city halls is being duplicated in boomtown Washington, D.C. President Barack Obama even brought Andy Stern in to help warn Schwarzenegger that federal stimulus money would not be disbursed to California unless the governor rescinded some proposed state job cuts. Though that threat was later withdrawn, Schwarzenegger at press time was pushing for a measly work force reduction of 2 percent."

So, what can we conclude?

"Faced with a political class that ignored bureaucratic inefficiency, that demanded higher taxes, that filled the newspapers with scare stories about people who will literally die as a result of budget cuts, the citizens of one of the bluest states in the nation collectively said we just don’t believe you anymore. If even California’s famous fruits and nuts can call the statists’ bluff, there may be hope for the rest of the country. "

Read the whole thing here.