The Ten-Year
Plan
Charlie Earl
By now you
have detected that every proposed scheme for avoiding a fiscal collapse in the
United States includes a long-term plan. They vary from the rather swift
ten-year version to the more gradual 40-year solution. You also realize that
the long-term proposals have been suggested and submitted for several decades.
The logical conclusion is that long-term fiscal plans are obviously written on
vapor. No meaning, no integrity….no matter…just ignore them because chicken
lips have more value. You should know by now that if you truly value your life,
you will never allow a politician to design your residential fire-escape plan.
It would take up too much time, wouldn’t work and would lead you back into the
inferno.
One of the
advantages of being as old as I am is that I can remember the so-called glory
days of the Soviet Union. The Politburo and the apparatchiks (bureaucrats)
would set production goals for every sector of the Soviet economy, and would
issue them in 5-year and ten-year plans. Those of us who lived in the prosperous
land of the free would sneer at those plans because we knew they would be
“revised.” We also understood that the plans were merely internal propaganda by
the Marxist overlords to pacify the people. The plans and the production quotas
were as bogus as their national leadership. Same as here in 21st
Century U.S.A.
No Congress
can bind the budget of a later one, therefore any plan or proposal for “getting
to balance,” “deficit reduction,” or “debt retirement” is a scam. By 1990 many
in the Soviet system had discovered that their political masters were blowing
smoke, so how long will it take until the majority of Americans realize the
Congressional/Administration budgets are mere illusions? Maybe they already
sense it which may explain the massive rush to drain the treasury. They may
have surmised that as the private sector dwindles in numbers and productivity,
their rides on the gravy train will become less frequent. Their thought
processes may go something like this: “Do the gettin’ while the getting’s still
good.”
The
government apologists and trained monkeys (sorry, government economists) claim
that a too rapid decrease in government spending would volcanically affect the
economy. In other words…fewer federal dollars would be flowing to government
contractors, subsidized enterprises and entitled citizens thereby vastly
decreasing the dollars circulating in the economy. In addition, they surmised,
the radical displacement of government workers would place a greater stress on
the unemployment and assistance services, thus accelerating the out flow of
federal obligations. They may be right, but the gradual increase in government
spending, the continual addition of new government employees, and the
inexorable growth of government’s share of the economy will have the same
long-term effect. The major difference is that with the instantaneous
reduction, we may be able to preserve our liberties. The long-term method
guarantees that our freedom will diminish. It’s a no-brainer for me, but if
it’s a toss-up for you, then we have a problem, and I submit that YOU ARE the
problem.
In my humble
view our fiscal mess screams for the abrupt solution rather than a series of
artificial plans and steps that lead to the same inevitable result but with
ever-greater government power. Some things should be done slowly so one can
savor the resulting product. Fiscal disaster, economic chaos and erosion of
liberty are not on my short list of lingering outcomes. Other things should be
completed quickly to minimize the pain and avoid their ultimate destruction.
While there may be hypochondriacs among us, medical experts caution us about
ignoring danger signals that could indicate potentially severe problems. The
economic and prosperity of a nation are similar because to ignore the clues and
avoid remedies could prolong the illness and place the life of the patient in
jeopardy. Open wide and take your medicine….now!
Charlie Earl
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