It’s time for a real change
The Way I See It
by DON WEST
The shouting is just about over. The debates are finished and little is left to do but to exercise your freedom of the right to vote. Having watched all of the debates, I can honestly tell you that little was to be learned from the rhetoric that spewed from the mouths of the four candidates. There was much bashing of the histories of each, but little to offer us in solutions to the myriad of problems that this country faces.
I can tell you this – we will see very little progress to right the sinking ship, no matter which candidates are on top when the election is over. First of all, voting has little to do with who wins, and we still the cling to the antiquated system of an electoral college that is anything but partisan. Until we send enough people to Congress and into the White House who are truly interested in reducing the interference of government into our private lives, we can look for little progress. Until we adopt the one percent policy that has been suggested by many, there will never be anything but gridlock in Washington and we will continue to see our nation maintain its downward spiral.
One has to ask: Are you better off than you were four years ago? If you are lucky enough to have money in a savings account, 401K, IRA, or some other plan for the future, are you earning enough interest to keep up with inflation? The resounding answer is no. Also, unfortunately, that “are you better off” question can be applied to the last 40 years of government intervention in our lives, and the answer is still the same. No, we are not better off. Though there has been some bright spots along the way, the gradual creep of government control and interference into our privacy doesn’t stop, whether there is Republican or Democrat control in the White House or Congress.
We need a national grass roots movement to force an annual one-percent mandate to reduce everything that is government. From city hall to the halls of Congress, a one-percent reduction in every department, every tax, every entitlement, every budget, and every program that exists needs reducing and we cannot depend on the elected to do so. None should be exempt, and the one-percent requirement should be mandated every year until government returns to a government of the people, not a government ruling the people. Just as children need to be weaned from the teat, we are a people who have become too accustomed to others doing for us, and we cannot wait until the milk dries up. We need protection from an oppressive government, just as we need government to protect us from enemies, foreign and domestic. We do not need government to pick up our trash – we need to not trash our earth.
The one percent reduction will weed out the waste gradually and in ten years it will be 10 percent, 20 years – 20 percent and so on until government becomes efficient and doing only what government should be doing. Salaries will increase because waste will be reduced and those remaining dollars will be spent where most needed and we will not be spending $15 billion on federal government travel or $95 million on beach replacement or $1.4 billion on U.S. aid to foreign countries or $1.6 billion for Amtrak subsidies. It is time we the people begin to admonish our elected children, and accept the responsibility for our own welfare. When these dollars return or remain with us, the economy will correct itself and prosperity will return to all who are willing to work to improve.
Government is wasteful, inefficient, and a belligerent bully. It does not serve the people but forces service from the people to feeds its ever-growing greed. It’s time for a real change and the only hope is to force a change in habitual spending.
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Posted by Graphic Designer 2
on Oct 25 2012. Filed under Editorial Columns.
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