All blog posts are cross posted

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

The Government Pays For Nothing

As I listen to, and read, various news items and commentary (I note them separately -- news and commentary -- but they've pretty much blended into one these days) I hear the phrase "the government pays for..." this and that.

Most recently it is the clunker program. $4500 bucks from the gub’ment for your old gas guzzler, as long as it guzzles 18 mpg or less. My current vehicle -- a 1995 SUV -- might actually qualify. But I love my Trooper and though I feel extreme F150 lust every time I go to lunch in my friend's new 4-door pickup, I cannot bear the thought of a perfectly good vehicle (much less my friend of all these years) being destroyed for no good reason other than the government saw fit to reimburse me $4500 of my own money for the privilege of driving something shinier.

And the new caureaucracy requires all trade-ins to be destroyed, thoroughly. They require the oil to be drained, and replaced with a salt solution, and the engine run until it freezes or stops -- ensuring its demise. Putting your car to sleep forever. Is it just me or does that sound like an anti-internal-combustion-Marxist regime gone wild? Subsidizing car companies and destroying things. But I digress...

There was the TARP of last year. The Bush administration's demonstration that at least one thing Keith Oberman has said in his life may be true. The government paid for AIG and other major campaign contributors to remain solvent.

And then the stimulus bill. Not that anything has been stimulated besides angst and debt. And I'm pretty sure no one in congress has even yet to read the bill. But it's getting San Antonio 50 new police officers for three years. Woo hoo. And the government paid for it.

And now the health care discussion. The Government MUST pay for it.

I hear people call in to talk shows and argue. I read letters to the editor. The government will pay for it.

I hate to sound arrogant, but where the hell do these people think the government gets its money? (Well, yes, it does print it up at its leisure... but that's different...)

The government doesn't pay for a thing. We do. And we pay dearly. Half of everything we make goes to the government in the form of one tax or another. Right out of every pay check. On every gallon of gasoline. Things we buy. Things we own -- like houses and cars. Plane flights and hotel rooms, soda bottles and cigarettes. Tax. Tax. Tax. Tax. Tax. Tax. Living and dying, we are taxed into the ground every year. And the government wastes it at every turn.

I know people "know" this, but since I firmly believe "to know and not do, is to not know" so I very much feel the need to shout it from every mountain top. Or at least out the window as I sit stuck in traffic on the way home listening to idiots argue on the radio about who pays for what.

So I will shout it here.

THE GOVERNMENT PAYS FOR NOTHING!!!!! WE PAY FOR EVERYTHING!!!!

The government has money because we let them take it from us.

You'd think we deserve a little more respect than we're getting from our government. You'd think they'd be a little more careful with it. (Medicare fraud and abuse loses $120 million per day.) You'd think they'd study other countries' systems of healthcare and business before passing any new rules and laws here. You'd think they'd be smart enough to know they can't fix ANYTHING in one fell swoop -- it must be taken piece by piece, slowly and carefully.

You'd think they would want to respect and protect the source of their money -- us and our businesses.

But no. They sprint in the dark, blindly fumbling around with generalizations and broad decrees they believe will save money or assist people of lesser means. (It's all theory, not carefully-researched business plans; they’re experimenting on us at every turn.) And they cram it all into a big document called "Comprehensive Healthcare Reform" so they can pretend they're doing something.

The government pays for nothing. We pay for everything. With both our money and our most precious asset -- our time, which is how we make money. And build lives.

I’ll be damned if I’m going to have them lure me into a new car loan by reimbursing me with my own damn money -- and destroying perfectly roadworthy vehicles in the process.

Think about it. And if you don't get mad, and you think the clunker program is all fine and well…. well, here's a link for you. Cheers.

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