Hard Truth: Government spending does not create Prosperity

Whether it is Thad Cochran in Mississippi or Robert Byrd in West Virginia, many politicians like to sell what they "bring home from Washington" as something akin to manna in the Old Testament.

The recent death of Robert Byrd illustrates how vacuous that promise is. Byrd brought home $4billion in pork in the last 20 years of his senate seat, read it all here.

Despite all this largess, West Virginia is still the third poorest state in the Union.

Cochran of Mississippi has brought home a similar bounty and scoffs at constituents who plead for fiscal responsibility. If Mississippi isn't at the bottom of the poor state list, it is close.

Federal spending does not replace or supplant hard work and individual responsibility.

Do we need a Balanced Budget Amendment? No!

There has been a lot of talk over the years about a Balanced Budget Amendment, for example, this article from the Heritage Foundation.

But as others point out, current Amendment proposals do not have the power or teeth to really solve the problems, see here for example.

Specifically, any budget resolution, Paygo, or Amendment that seeks to control spending bill, by bill, by department, whatever, probably will not work for two reasons;

1. Politicians will find a way around the limitations: heck, many lawmakers openly admit "we don't care about the Constitution".

2. You are trying to limit the spending of an organism whose nature is to grow. And it is already so big that snipping bits and pieces of spending here and there make no real progress against the whole.

What I believe we need is a truly radical solution: The Constitutional Federal Government Amendment.

The Constitutional Federal Government Amendment would simply say two things:

1. The Federal Government cannot spend money on those things not delegated to it by the original Constitution of the United States and Amendments thereto.

2. The Federal Government cannot raise taxes from the people of the country beyond those needed to fund its Constitutionally delegated responsibilities.

The point is, we need radical surgery to stop the hemorrhaging of spending that is sucking the vitality out of this country.

And we have the instructions on how to do that: it's called the Constitution of the United States of America.

Head Start: a probable waste of $8 Billion

The Fiscal Year 2011 Budget request for Head Start (early education programs) is just over $8 Billion dollars. Yep, you read that right, Eight Billion!!!

So, as a taxpayer you might have two questions for this program:

1. Is it working?
2. Is it a good use for $8 Billion?

The idea for Head Start originated in the early 1960's where lack of education was seen as a root cause of poverty and in the spirit of the "Great Society" the Federal Government inserted itself into the solution set, read more here. The original 1965 budget for Head Start was just under $100 million. This means the cost of Head Start has grown by a factor of 800 over the subsequent 45 years!

Is it working?
Well, The year 2010 will surely go down as a bad year for Head Start—a “Great Society” pre-school program intended to provide a boost to disadvantaged children before they enter elementary school. First, a scientifically rigorous experimental evaluation of Head Start found that the program largely failed to improve the cognitive, socio-emotional, health, and parenting outcomes compared to the outcomes of similar children.

Is it a good use of $8 Billion?
U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that Head Start centers located in California, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin, and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area were actively enrolling children from families not qualified to participate in the early education program.

Read more detail here.

So, by any measure you have a Gov't program growing by leaps and bounds, with little discernable positive impact, and a systemic cloud of fraud about it.

You decide: want more of the same?

And this is just one teeny tiny reason why we have out of control gov't spending combined with massive ineffectiveness and abuse. The root cause? Government trying to do things it was not Constitutionally chartered to do.

Remember this for November!

Americans Increasingly Alienated from their Government

This article by Peggy Noonan makes a strong case for Americans increasing disgust and distrust of their Government and how this trancends party and region. The issue of illegal immigraiton is one that might lead to action by the citizens that will be against their governemnt.

Read it all!!

What could we do without in Washington?

Would your life be any different or would you suffer a negative change if,

1. We totally got rid of NASA?

2. Totally got rid of the Department of Energy?

3. Shut down the Department of Education?

4. Cut the Department of State by 50%?


If you believe this would impact your life, please tell me how?

"Nil desperandum” — never despair.

That is a sentiment that conservatives need to take to heart now that Congress has narrowly passed a bill that simultaneously undermines life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It takes some ingenuity to add to the costs, inefficiency, and dysfunctions that government has already bequeathed to our health-care system, but the Democrats have proven themselves up to the challenge as reported here.

Almost nothing about this legislation is free of dispute, but we are convinced that it will increase taxes, increase premiums, and increase debt, while decreasing economic growth, job growth, and the quality of health care.

Conservatives need to remember: this law is not and was never about healthcare,,,,,it is about control. It is about Government control of people's lives because those who believe in big Government don't think you are smart enough to run your own lives. That is what our target to defeat is.....BIG GOVERNMENT!

Nanny State to the Rescue: Obese Kids

Let's see: we have two wars on, our economy is in the toilet, spending is out of control, the deficit will hit the moon before another American can get there. Sounds like the Fed's plate is pretty full. But no, we still have time to play Nanny State and decide we are going to fix the issue of Obese Kids.

Very, very, very, bad idea. Let's look into the future a couple of years and see how this looks: big commissions issuing even bigger reports, rules and regulations on what children can eat, penalties for kids or parents who don't "shape up", new health classes in school, indoctrination on looking to government for answers rather than looking to ones' own family, and on and on and on and on. Why maybe we should have an Obesity Czar! Planned Parenthood could get into the act; after all his pre-natal testing shows you have a fetus that is predisposed toward obesity, then maybe you ought to think about your "choices".

What issue ever identifed by the Federal Government as a "problem" ever gets fixed by the Federal Government? Poor upbringing was identified as a problem and we got HeadStart. Probably has helped some kids, but has it solved the problem? And how much have we spent on it?

Nope, this is a dumb idea that will spawn even more dumb ideas and in the end not solve the problem. It's Personal Responsibility.