Didn't We Deal With This Once?

In 1776 anger with the British Crown in the American Colonies came to a head. The anger was over several issues, however, one of the biggest was Taxation Without Representation.

What this means is that the people who are being taxed have no say in how the money is spent, or, in the case of a democratically elected Congress (Or Parliament in Britain's case) have no vote in electing the people who decide how the money will be spent, and do not have the opportunity to advocate for more responsibility or lower tax rates.

This was not a side issue in the American Revolution, it was central to it. Apparently power mad elitists don't learn lessons well.

What the US Congress, and the President, are doing now is euphemistically referred to as deficit spending. In plain English, that means racking up debt. Loads and loads of debt as a matter of fact. In fact, they are racking up so much debt that we will not be able to pay it off in our lifetimes (and I'm fairly young).

Aside from the Two Trillion Dollar deficit this year, set to grow to Ten Trillion Dollars over the course of the next Eight to Ten years, there are also the Tens of Trillions of Dollars in the form of unfunded obligations for Social Security and Medicaid and Medicare. This is crushing debt, and we will soon find ourselves paying nearly a Trillion Dollars a year in interest alone, besides spending on the budget, and new deficit spending. It is completely impossible for current tax payers to ever pay this debt off, no matter what. What this means is that future tax payers are going to get stuck with the bill. That is to say, they are going to be taxed to pay for spending that is going on today.

The people getting stuck with this bill are our children and grandchildren, both those that are already here, and those who have not as yet been born. Including those to be born many years hence, that is the magnitude of this crushing debt that we are racking up today.

What I'm saying here is that those future Americans are not represented in the current Congress, and yet they are being taxed by it. They do not get a vote, they don't get to select our leaders, and yet their money is being spent by those leaders. This is Taxation Without Representation in it's worst form.

Of course it is currently at the highest levels that we've ever seen, but it's nothing new. Thankfully people are starting to wake up to the reality of what is going on, but I really wish it had happened sooner, then maybe it never would have gotten this bad. I really wish that people had gotten this fired up last September when President Bush blew Seven Hundred Billion Dollars on the first "TARP" program, or earlier in the year when the Bush Administration put out the worthless 2008 so called stimulus program.

Of course, none of it would have been as bad as it is if we had not made a practice of using debt to run the national budget, making deficit spending seem a normal activity, or like it was nothing to worry about. In my opinion, nations, especially ours, should not incur debt except in the most extreme of circumstances, and then as little as possible and over the radically short term. Other than that the budget should always be balanced, or, better yet, carrying some amount of reserve funds so that debt is not required to deal with every unexpected issue that might arise.

In order so that I might not be misunderstood, let me say, in referring back to the American Revolution, I am not suggesting a new revolution, I am trying to remind people of the reasons why the United States of America was founded, and why we are not still British Colonies at this time. I want people to remember and return to the principles and ideals our Founding, and to understand some reasons why we need to stop going down this road.

Remember that just because something might be a good thing to do, that does not mean that we should, or even can do it.