Just say no!

In the "good old days" of governance in America it was a weapon to get things done or to stop crap in its tracks.  It was the only thing that really worked to manage the reach of government.  It was the BUDGET.  It was the power of money and its disbursement that was wielded by our politicians to fund the day to day works of our country, states and local jurisdictions.  Now, it appears the BUDGET is too scary a tool for many politicians.

I recall how at our local level, we had to balance our income and expense each year.  We had men and women who would take the requests from all the departments, review them, check the needs and the purpose of each expenditure, decide if they were worth keeping or modifying and then make recommendations to the elected folks.  We held public hearings where the department heads would come and fight for their budgets and we Supervisors had to balance out all these requests and end up with a balanced budget we felt the people would be best served by.  That seems to have been a luxury compared to how things go now.

The local budget has increased by four fold (400%+-) over the years since the early 90's while our populations has incensed by about 20 percent.  Most of the expenditures and revenues now come through the state and they contain all kinds of strings.  Locals get little to say about the process.  The State budget is in the same boat with the Federal dictates.  The billions and now trillions of dollars are mandated and pigeon holed to the higher government political desires.  Things like Medicaid, and many other social programs do not allow local or state control of the expenditures.  I sometimes wonder how Federal "Revenue Sharing" got nixed.  It gave us a little bit of  local control but then it was removed and replaced with mandates.

I sometimes yell at the Republicans making their speeches about spending and deficits when I listen to CSPAN.  I yell at them because they are at the top of the heap and they can "just say no".  But they don't.  They get into the weeds when the lefty nuts in Congress (and their lackey's in the press) accuse them of letting the poor, the downtrodden or the less endowed lose out of the "goodies".  The R's in the House of Representatives have a Constitutional duty to originate expenditure bills.  They could balance the outgo with the income but they seem to be chicken.  A few like our guys Tom McClintock, Doug LaMalfa and a few others actually take their Constitutional duties seriously.  We could get a balanced budget in one session.  We could corral all that debt and deficit in a short time but because they can't say no, the country loses.

Sure we may have some turmoil when some Americans can't use their debit welfare card for a massage or a pull on a one armed bandits.  There will be some problems with those people we call "rent-seekers" if their money was curtailed for a while and they had to go do a real job.  But there will be greater pain for all when the other show falls on our heads.  I wish they would place a moratorium on Federal and state grants for a couple of sessions.  Go look at the Agriculture Department and see all the "grants" allowed and awarded of taxpayers money.  Billions every year.  And that is one department.  It is at every level.  Stop them for a while, allow independent commissions to decide after the moratorium is over, to review and approve (2/3rds) before give another grant to count the fish in some creek.

HERE is a good place to go look at where our government smarties spend your money.  Read some of the outrages. Here is a small list US Senator Coburn did a while back.

• $75,000 to promote awareness about the role Michigan plays in producing Christmas trees & poinsettias.
• $15.3 million for one of the infamous Bridges to Nowhere in Alaska.
• $113,227 for video game preservation center in New York.
• $550,000 for a documentary about how rock music contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
• $48,700 for 2nd annual Hawaii Chocolate Festival, to promote Hawaii's chocolate industry.
• $350,000 to support an International Art Exhibition in Venice, Italy.
• $10 million for a remake of "Sesame Street" for Pakistan.
• $35 million allocated for political party conventions in 2012.
• $765,828 to subsidize "pancakes for yuppies" in the nation's capital.
• $764,825 to study how college students use mobile devices for social networking.

HERE is his complete report.

We need to get a new paradigm (that word for the libs reading this).  Here are a few of my ideas to fix the mess. There are many more.

1.Remove Civil Service and reinstate merit for employment.  Treat the jobs as if they were in free enterprise private sector.
2.Disallow government unions.
3.Balanced budget each session or mass removal of elected officials and new elections.
4.Make the IRS and the Franchise Tax Boards (actually any agency at any level) get a court order from a judge before they can take property, install liens and confiscate your money.
5.At the Federal Level, remove departments of Education, Commerce, the EPA and Labor.  Remand their duties to each state. Further agencies under review.

Well there are many more ideas to get our country back on track but the fastest way to fix the mess is to simply "say no"!  No more unconstitutional expenditures of the people's money and no debt or deficits allowed.  America will be restored very quickly to greatness. Smaller government and get them out of our lives and property.  If not, say hello to MAO!