Christian Mirror - On the path to economic suicide

Commentary by James L. Lambert

As a former college teacher in financial management, I simply cannot fathom any justification for Washington’s current level of deficits. It is simply appalling that the leadership in Congress and the White House continue to spend record federal deficits that now total in excess of 1.4 trillion dollars annually. I don’t like to be a doomsayer; however, if we do not dramatically reverse this trend quickly, we will create within the next three years a financial meltdown of monumental proportions.

Americans – please wake up! Our national debt is growing by $1 million dollars every twenty seconds. I was alarmed when President Bush allowed staggering deficits during his eight years in office (then averaging $1 million dollars in new debt every minute.) Bush should have exercised his veto pen to counter this problem. Now, we are at the stage that, unless leadership in Washington ceases this wasteful spending immediately, unprecedented financial chaos will result. Ultimately, every American citizen will be affected.

You need look no farther than the government’s own figures and graphs to see how much trouble we are in.

In just the past few months, the U.S. money supply has grown by one trillion dollars as the federal government prints money at an insane rate. There are simple economic principles in play. The value of the dollar will inflate, making our money worth significantly less, not only here in the US but throughout the world.

At the same time our trade imbalance is exacerbated because Democrats in Washington and Sacramento would rather send billions of dollars abroad (to places like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela and Mexico) to pay for energy instead of developing proven reserves here in the United States (i.e. offshore California, in the Gulf and in Anwar, Alaska). Utilizing these known resources would also bring vital jobs to America as well as keep our dollars from leaving the US, which would significantly help out trade imbalance.

Taxpayer funded waste is rampant. In California the state political leaders continue to ignore the overly generous liberal pension programs legislators and the Governor has given state employees through the years. These same leaders would rather cater to the wishes of government employee unions than the taxpayers who foot the bills. This form of government generosity is completely unsustainable. How can any entity, either public or private, afford to pay their retired employees 70% of their gross income annually for years after they have left their jobs? They can’t!

Meanwhile fraud and waste continue to fester in many federal and state programs. It is estimated that the post office will lose over $4B this fiscal year. Medicare fraud is reported to be in the 10’s of billions. Politicians continue to tolerate immigrants who are here illegally benefiting from America’s generous social and educational privilege benefits. Once again, taxpayers are footing the bill for all of this waste and social engineering. Yet Pelosi, Obama and Reid now expect us to trust the government to run a ‘public option’ (healthcare) program? I think not!

Politicians are making the same mistake even at the local level. In San Diego, the city government is proposing an expenditure of $450 million for a new city hall. This is money the city simply does not have. All this has occurred while the city staggers under a current $200 million dollar budgetary deficit.

Typically, government bureaucracies are slow, cumbersome, and inefficient. That is why each one of us must demand that our U.S. Representatives, State and US Senators, Assemblymen, city council members and yes even the White House must stop this excessive spending and growth of government. We can no longer afford it!

Yesterday I talked to a young man who had four part time jobs in order to support his modest family of three. During the severe recession we’re now in, this young man couldn’t even find one full time job. He, like millions of other people across the country, has had to cut back and trim his own family budget. It’s time we demand the federal, state and local governments do the same.

Our financial future depends upon it!

James L. Lambert, a frequent contributor to ChristianMirror.net and author of Porn in America, is a licensed nationwide real-estate mortgage loan sales agent and can be contacted through his website.