Have you noticed that there’s no more talk about the debt ceiling? That’s because those congressional big spenders recently raised the debt ceiling to permit the feds to continue adding onto the mountain of federal debt that they’re piling on the backs of the American people for decades. Once the debt ceiling is lifted, all the talk about it goes away until the next time it’s reached, at which point the big spenders have a conniption fit over the possibility that it won’t be lifted again.
But isn’t this the time when Congress should be reining in federal spending in anticipation of reaching the debt limit again in a year or so? After all, we all know what’s going to happen when the debt ceiling is reached again. The mainstream press will go into overdrive telling us how a failure to lift the debt ceiling will mean the end of America and how necessary it is to national security to lift it again. Rational thinking will be in short supply, as it always is when the debt ceiling is reached.
Okay, so wouldn’t this be the time when Congress and the mainstream press should be slashing spending so that expenditures equal tax revenues? If expenditures equal tax revenues, then there won’t be any need to borrow money. In fact, if spending is slashed so that tax revenues exceed expenditures, the extra money can be used to pay down the federal debt.
But that clearly isn’t happening. It never happens. After all the panic-driven drivel leading up to lifting of the debt ceiling, everything returns to normal, with federal spending continuing to be out of control, far exceeding federal tax revenues. And rest assured that when the debt ceiling is reached the next time, we’ll hear the same desperation nonsense from the statists we always do—that the debt ceiling has to be lifted because the federal government has made “commitments.” Oh, then why not do something about those commitments now, long before the debt ceiling is reached?
This country is in deep trouble precisely because the federal government has put it there. There is absolutely no will to slash spending. Hope springs eternal that tax revenues will grow to meet expenditures, but even if that were to happen, they would simply increase spending even more. The debt continues rising. The plan obviously is to have the Federal Reserve print the money to pay it off, as it has done ever since its inception in 1914. That’s why the dollar is worth about 5 percent compared to what it was worth in 1914.
This is the road to financial bankruptcy. Just ask the Greeks. This is the road to monetary debauchery. Just ask the Argentines. This is the road to crisis, chaos, and conflict.
Consider one example of the problem we face — the recently enacted farm bill. As the New York Times reports, the bill is “the usual boon for soybean growers, catfish farmers and their ilk.” But thanks to both Republican and Democrat members of Congress, the taxpayer-funded largess has now been extended to growers of organic foods.
Just take a look at the photograph of Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow in that New York Times article. She’s the one who “negotiated, prodded, and cajoled and finally shepherded the bill through Congress.” She’s got one great big smile on her face! And why not? With the help of her Republican counterparts, she has succeeded in adding more people to the federal dole, thereby plundering and looting the American taxpayer even more. I don’t see much concern about federal spending and the debt ceiling there.
Or consider the new $1 billion loan guarantee that the Obama administration has decided to grant Ukraine. No concern about the U.S. debt ceiling there either.
And it’s like this throughout the federal government, both on the welfare-state and warfare-state side of things. They just keep spending and borrowing to their heart’s content, oblivious to the economic and financial disaster that lies at the end of this road. And while they just keep spending and borrowing, we all know what they’re going to say when the debt ceiling is reached down the road: “We have no choice. We’re forced to raise it again!”
Imagine how depressing things would be if there wasn’t an alternative to the statist vision. But fortunately there is an alternative, which would place America on a foundation of fiscal responsibility, peace, prosperity, harmony, and freedom. That alternative is libertarianism, a philosophy that is the ray of light shining through the statist darkness.
With libertarianism, there are no more farm bills because there would be no more taxpayer-funded largess to organic farmers, non-organic farmers, or any other farmers. That’s because libertarians stand for moral principles, including the one that holds that it’s wrong to plunder and loot other people in order to feather your own nest. Thus, not only would there be no more federal dole for farmers, there would be no more federal dole for anyone.
There also would be no more (super expensive) drug war because libertarians don’t believe in punishing people for engaging in peaceful acts, even when such acts are considered irresponsible.
It also means no more warfare state, no more overseas military empire, CIA, standing army, NSA, national-security state, and NATO. That means no more torture, invasions, occupations, wars of aggression, foreign aid, regime-change operations, renditions, partnerships with dictators, and assassinations. Imagine how much money that would save!
That also means no more income tax on anyone. Everyone keeps his own money and decides for himself what to do with it. No more coerced charity. A total separation of charity and the state!
The time has arrived for the American people to forget about trying to reform the welfare-warfare state. Now is the time for a complete paradigm shift — away from the welfare-warfare statism that is taking our country down. It’s time for a paradigm shift to libertarianism, one that would lift our nation to the highest reaches of freedom, peace, and prosperity that mankind has ever seen.