Superfluous acts

OK, it’s from Heritage.org.  But, it is an article worth reading.  At what point is enough, enough?  And when does the money run out?  Before it does…O’bama, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz? Apologies to Janice…

In theory, the federal government has $2.5 trillion stashed away in a nondescript office building in the sleepy little town of Parkersburg, West Virginia. That is where the Treasury Department keeps stacks of nonnegotiable Treasury bonds payable to the Social Security Administration. But as the Associated Press reported yesterday, for the first time since the 1980s, the federal government will not be adding to that stack. Thanks to an aging population and slow economy, Social Security will pay out $29 billion more this year than it takes in. And the Congressional Budget Office reports that after small surpluses in 2014 and 2015, the program is projected to be in the red from 2016 until forever.

But what about Al Gore's Social Security "Lock Box?" Can't we just spend that $2.5 trillion in the Social Security Trust Fund? As Heritage experts David John and Brian Reidl explain, since 1939 federal law has required Social Security to "invest" its extra money in Treasury bonds. Those bonds are really just IOUs from the government to the government. The feds already spent that $2.5 trillion long ago on programs such as education, foreign aid and defense. Add the $2.5 trillion Social Security obligation onto our other obligations and our current national debt  stands at $12.5 trillion, or nearly $42,000 for every man, woman, and child in the country. And it will only get worse under President Barack Obama's Budget. It would: 1) borrow 42 cents for each dollar spent in 2010; 2) leave permanent annual deficits that top $1 trillion as late as 2020;  and 3) dump an additional $74,000 per household of debt into the laps of our children and grandchildren.

Heritage.org

My evaluation:

1.  It’s time to stop the madness and reject spin.  Critically look for the substance behind the message

2.  The major cause for the madness is a lack of understanding civics, and the Constitution.  In fact how many have read the Constitution, or the Federalist Papers?

3.  Economics is severely misunderstood and forms the basis for understanding modern life.  Not understanding the effects of actions and the downstream consequences has lead us to where we are.

4.  Personal responsibility has been abandoned in favor of the state.  Compassion has been replaced with theft and bribery in the name of improving the lives of others.  The failed systems aren’t eliminated, they grow more unmanageable, unaccountable, and more bureaucratic.

The intention of providing medical care to all is noble.  The approach taken by our current government is disgraceful.  Neither side is respectful or respectable. 

However, an interesting move to civics is seen in the coffee party movement.  In response to the apparently ‘right wing wack job’ tea party movement run by the republican machine, the coffee party has gained traction.  Committed to conduct in a way that is civil, honest, and respectful toward people and people from different cultures and ideas, the group values the democratic process.  The coffee party seems to make sense.  If America is a center right country, the coffee party fits right in.  Can’t wait for someone from MSNBC to label it as hijacked by some wing of the political system. 

No wonder that after the Boston tea party, coffee became the patriotic American drink.  The Declaration of Independence had its first public reading outside the Merchant's Coffee House in Philadelphia.  Time for some sanity.

http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/

A man should take away not only unnecessary acts, but also unnecessary thoughts, for thus superfluous acts will not follow after.

Marcus Aurelius

Note:

Philomath

Noun - A lover of learning, a scholar
”He is a Philomath, devouring any book he can get his hands on. “

Polymath

Noun - a person of great learning in several fields of study

"...and in conversation he comes across as less a utility manager than a polymath with the combined savvy of an engineer, an economist and a politician."