The Never Ending Tunnel of Spending: What Are You Going to Do About It?: Opinion

Written By Zephyr Fegen
January 28th, 2010

The Associated Press recently reported that President Obama will be approaching Congress with a spending proposal of over $741 Billion. This proposal will not be for Peace keeping efforts or even another “stimulus package” but to expand the war in Afghanistan and for the Department of Defense. I guess the Obama Administration will offset this completely irresponsible creation of currency in the same way every other administration has in the past. Push it forward onto the backs of future generations.

Don’t they understand that our backs are already broken, that our future prosperity as a generation has already been compromised to the point of literal tax slavery? And today there is a report in Reuters that states 18.2% of American households reported “food hardship” in 2009, a jump of 3.6% from the reported 14.6% in 2008. I keep asking myself, where is the anger, where are the protests in the streets? Why aren’t the American People sick and tired of a government that has repeatedly abused them like an abusive parent to a child?

I used to believe in my government. I used to believe that they had the public’s best interest in mind and that our Congressman and women were dedicated patriots in the service of their fellow citizens. More and more, though, I am finding that our once sovereign nation has compromised itself in ways that are no longer repairable, and we as the citizens of that once great nation are responsible. Whether you are a Democrat, Republican, or anything in-between; if you do not believe that there is a steamroller of future financial pain that is coming down on you and your family, you are greatly misinformed.

In December of last year the United States avoided technical default (aka: Bankruptcy) by three days. On December 28th 2009 the United States Congress approved an increase in the federal debt ceiling from $12,104 billion to $12,394 billion, an allowable increase of $290 billion. Within three days of this increase our government used up $150 billion of that allowable increase, that leaves only $140 billion left in available funds -- and with President Obama’s proposal of another $741 Billion… well I’ll let you do that math.

Have we forgotten the definition of value? When you look at a dollar, do you see real value? When you get your bi-weekly pay stub or the check that is made out in your name and compare the hours that you have spent in another’s service with the value of what that currency can buy, do you see value, or do you see debt? We as Americans are the hardest working people in the world. We work more hours for wages that cannot even keep up with the government’s reported inflationary rate. We take less vacation and are taxed at a rate that compares with more socialistic countries like Britain while seeing none of the social benefits.

But we keep on taking it, day after day thinking that the recovery is coming soon or that the markets will turn around, and that everything will be back to “normal” soon. This is not the truth and any “recovery” that we see will be brief in nature and will disappear like an apparition caught in the corner of your eye.

Recently, a friend of mine during an interview with her last employer, when asked about the salary desired, requested that the prospective employer pay her a salary that kept up with the current inflationary rate. The employer laughed at her. I couldn’t believe my ears when she told me this. She, of course, took the job. What else was she to do? She needs to put food on the table, pay rent, utilities, and all the other miscellaneous daily costs of living. As of today she is no longer working for that company, she couldn’t afford it. She now lives in South America where she can afford to live. She has walked away from her condo, which is now in foreclosure pending a hopeful short sale and is making enough to live in a small developing country.

The United States has sold itself to the highest bidder, and has nailed the bill of sale to the taxpayers’ backs. Writing your congressman or woman won’t matter anymore, the damage is done. The wave is coming, and one day the house of financial cards will fall. When this will happen, I don’t know; I do know that we have been lulled into a controlled trance of apathy and exhaustion, that we have forgotten what it means to be citizens of our nation. Whose fault this is I will leave to the readers discretion and research, if you have the time.

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Research:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/us-avoids-technical-default-three-days

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60P65N20100126