The Government Gave Us Terminal Cancer
Terminal cancer unless we solve “The Original Sin” problem.
In the Peter G. Peterson Foundation Post “To Get Our Fiscal House In Order: Put Politics First,” by Heidi Heitkamp, former Senator (ND).
Several things in the title rang bells.
Everybody looks at the ‘Government problem from their own exclusive angle — there is no basis; there are no “rules of Engagement” for the solution.
Why is it that when the government is in trouble, it is always “Ours?” On the other hand, the word “Politics” applies to a selected few; is not “the people” that are driving that bus. We have been “excess baggage” in that bus since Woodrow Wilson.
Further, the people today are divided (there is no “Our…”). More like “Radicalized.” if not, how can we explain the way many express their views? A typical example:
“Politicians” like Pelosi and Trump (whose ego knows no end) are perfect examples of the ones “promoting division.”
As can be understood from the above, it just isn’t “‘Our’ Fiscal House” that needs order. Our whole concept of “Governance” needs to find a new beginning.
On November 13, 2023, Dana M. Peterson and Lori Esposito Murray published a story in “Peter G. Peterson Foundation titled, “The Debt Crisis is Here.”
The outsized U.S. national debt is now $33.6 trillion, and the excessive deficits have reached new highs at $1.7 trillion for the fiscal year — 5.8% of GDP.
Political Mindset Nearsightedness
Today’s “Politicians” have “Kicked the Can Down the Road” as far as they can. They are now in front of the “Grand Canyon” of all debts.
What we have can be called “Political Mindset Nearsightedness,” which expresses the fact that they do not “look” beyond what they “believe;” it is “Their Partisan platform of the only Truth.” One and only one Truth can exist; therefore, by definition, “all else” has to be “Cancelled.”
Politicians (and fanatic followers) do not understand the monster of the division they have created when all they are after is “the destruction of the opposition!”
It is NOT pointing to what stinks that counts. It is about what YOU offer that solves the problem!
Politics today is about “divergence” with no basis, rather than “convergence,” as the Constitution shows us.
According to the “Aristotle Political Theory:”
“The aim of Politics, Aristotle says, is to investigate, on the basis of the constitutions collected, what makes for good government and what makes for bad government and to identify the factors favorable or unfavorable to the preservation of a constitution.”
The Constitution
Does our “Government Identify the factors favorable or unfavorable to the preservation of our Constitution?”
Obviously, Heitkamp’s expression “Put Politics First” requires explanation. The “CONSTITUTION comes First,” and it has one big assumption embedded in it:
The “Assembly” of our Forefathers, when 39 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, representing 12 states, endorsed the Constitution created during the four-month-long convention signed the Constitution, they did through COOPERATION.
WHY? They had higher aspirations of themselves and, therefore, the country they were “creating.” The Constitution is the “People’s” LAW that creates “our Government, regulates our government, and rules our government.” Therefore, it is “The Law of The Land.”
Where is the “love of country?” That solves the problem; it is higher aspirations for “ALL OF US” that solve the problem. Myopic is the word that describes all governments since 1913.
The states get paid to solve their people’s problems. They are “Down and In.” The Federal Government gets paid to solve the National “Up and Out” problems.
Our Forefathers
True, they “tabled¹” several disagreements, like slavery, for later discussion; in the meantime, they created what we had until the 20th Century, when “The Entitled” politician was invented by Woodrow Wilson, and the “progressive” movement was born.
“Politicians” today are the opposite. They have “Lower” expectations of themselves. They no longer look for cooperation; they look at “What is wrong with what the opposition is doing?” and “What does the opposition have to gain if I agree with this Law?”
It is true President Lincoln said, “Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed.” However, “Sentiment” was lost a long time ago. Today, it is “Public Hate.”
Today, the only public sentiment they can count on is hate of the opposition; if they agree, their fanatics will crucify them. Thus, the only avenue to undertake is to justify their own existence rather than to serve a productive purpose.
Our Constitution, therefore, is NOT BEING PRESERVED. On the contrary, It is being destroyed.
Our “Constitution” did not say we had to live in debt forever. For our forefathers to be in debt was reasonable since “they” had no government and somebody saw fit to “help them.” Any other debt is totally unreasonable.
Our Entitled Government
But we have lived through the 20th Century (100+ years) in debt and have started the 21st Century with a HUGE BANG! With a bottomless debt, we can’t see the bottom of it. It has become a self-eating watermelon (to us, that phrase again), in this case, meaning — “a debt so large, it justifies its existence forever because we cannot even pay the interest rate on the principal.”
Since we have an “Entitled Society,” it is only natural the government feels they are “Entitled” as well. In other words, they give themselves whatever money they need to pass the annual fiscal gate.
The problem now is we have a Grand Canyon cliff in front of us. It isn’t only deep, it is also wide.
WHY?
It is not the “debt” that is the only problem. It may take three generations to get rid of it — Being who we are and what we can do when we put our minds to it, we will.
The Original Sin — (it is a double habit)
IT IS THE HABITUAL HABIT OF SPENDING WITHOUT VISION.
That is exactly the problem.
We, the people, need to demand an act of Congress that PROHIBITS the government from spending more than what we earn nationally.
Nationally, we pay taxes on what we earn, and just like us, the government cannot be allowed to spend more than they make.
It is a simple solution to solve a thorny problem.
That, my friends, needs to be the first thing we demand!
It is our government; we own it (the DOI and the Constitution).
We need to START driving that wagon NOW!
That TRUTH may be hard to swallow. It will cost us as well. But in the heat of a battle, we have to make decisions that we normally would not make.
This is one of those decisions we need to make nationally, “if and only if (logical IFF)” we want to have a country worth living in by looking at our FUTURE.
Other reading:
THE END!
References:
- Today, we can look back in history and see how some of the disagreements were worked out. The worst one was the “Civil War.” Roughly 2% of the population, an estimated 620,000 men, lost their lives in the line of duty. Taken as a percentage of today’s population, the toll would have risen as high as 6 million souls. To this day, as far as American Casualties go, it is the worst, considering the second worst being WWII with 405,229. Reference. Solving this problem cost us dearly (us, as in “one people, one nation,”). Some people today still think as a separate people and require “reparations.” What country are they from? They ask as if they are not Americans. This is a symptom of the “Partisanship” problem we are having.