For the past three months I have been very critical of the Congressional Republicans for lacking the courage to lead. This past week Congressman Paul Ryan introduced his pathway budget proposal as an attempt to restore some fiscal sanity to our nation’s capitol. I wrote some rather harsh things about what I believed were obvious weaknesses in the Ryan plan, and I continue to prefer Senator Rand Paul’s proposal for shrinking the annual outlays.
Allow me to backtrack just a tiny bit. Congressman Ryan’s plan is a step in the right direction,……but we need a marathon (26 miles, 385 yards…more than a step). My preference for Senator Paul’s plan rests on his willingness to eliminate whole agencies and departments. If they aren’t “zeroed” out of the budget, they will continue to lobby and clamor for money while fulfilling functions that are unconstitutional and largely counter-productive. So, that is why I would rather have Senator Paul’s remedy for lurching toward fiscal sanity. I understand, however, that Congressman Ryan is in a much stronger position for implementing his blueprint than is the Senator. Ryan heads the committee responsible for drafting a plan and his party has the majority in the House. The Senator, on the other hand, is not well placed within the committee structure of the Senate, and his party holds the minority.
So, nice try, Congressman Ryan. Your plan, if implemented, would postpone our day of financial reckoning by 10 to 25 years. For me that’s not too bad of a deal. I’ll either be dead or so senile that I won’t care, but my children and grandchildren will have to navigate the financial collapse of our country. That is not acceptable for me. I heard a gentleman on the radio the other day (Gary Rathbun, Private Wealth Consultants, WSPD 1370, Toledo) describe our fiscal situation as being something like having gangrene in your leg. Treatment can be either a quick and effective amputation, or we can allow a cluster of rats gnaw away at the diseased limb and hope it improves. Congressman Ryan, and, to a lesser extent, Senator Paul you have given us rats when we need an amputation to save the body of the nation.
Brutal reality is ahead. Any reasonable person can understand that the pain will be less devastating if the situation is corrected now. The longer we wait, the more disruptive the remedy becomes…or we will collapse under the weight of our debt before any correction can be employed. Members of Congress, state officials and legislators, local officeholders and managers…your political careers have the value of spit in the ocean so stop lusting for reelection and do your sworn responsibility. Every level of government must get with the program to save our country and our national economy. Instead of whining about reductions in state or federal aid, local politicians and school board members must face the music and learn to sing a new tune. Rather than complain about federal mandates and diminishing federal dollars, state politicians must nullify unconstitutional requirements and downsize their operations. Citizens must look to their own solutions for problems and difficulties. We can no longer expect our neighbors, our children and our grandchildren to cover for our mistakes in judgment and lousy choices.
Senator Paul and Congressman Ryan, I applaud your willingness to face the wrath of the looting class, but let’s face it; you might as well go for it all. They will denounce you and loathe you for whatever prescription that you may propose. Personally, I consider it a badge of honor when statists and progressives hate me. We need more than a band-aid. Our situation has developed to the point that we need much more than painkillers. Clearly, our politicians at every level need an intervention to wean them from the crack of taxpayer dollars and borrowed money. When one goes to any county seat here in our state of Ohio, one sees buildings that were formerly thriving enterprises now housing government agencies with dozens of bureaucrats and portfolios for doing tasks that people should do for themselves.
Actually, we need massive amputations at all levels of government.
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