While Rome Burns …

By Sam Huntington

When people borrow money, they incur debt against future income. In the near term, this means that the borrower must apportion a percentage of future income to liquidating that debt. It also means that should the borrower suddenly die, his survivors or estate is obligated to pay that debt, unless dismissed by a federal court. A responsible person understands that while some debt is inevitable, they should avoid debt whenever possible because debt has a diminishing effect on wealth.

When government borrows money, it incurs debt against future revenues in the name of its citizens, who must ultimately discharge that debt. President Reagan once observed that government has never seen a tax it didn’t like … and this is because the more money government can seize through the power of taxation, the more powerful it becomes. This power of taxation, when combined with government’s ability to control how people think, combines to form a heady elixir; one that encourages government to find new and clever ways to maintain that power.

Still, we must recognize there are some things government must do for us. Indeed, only government can do some things, such as build and maintain important infrastructure. Airports, highways, bridges, fire departments, public safety agencies, and so forth serve as good examples. We do not generally object to the taxes demanded of us to maintain infrastructure, but we must call into question government’s decision to undertake extra-constitutional projects. In the sense that our founding fathers insisted on a limited government, the enumerated powers, we can only conclude that our federal government is an utter failure. In spite of this, the federal government conspires to increase our debt, and our taxes, even more. By this time, we should begin to wonder at what point the government has sated its appetite for power. We should wonder how taxing companies to the point of driving them out of business (and increasing unemployment) serves the interests of the people.

The United States is on the path of socialist Europe. Progressive mentality has convinced too many Americans to believe in the socialist panacea. Our elected officials are leading us down a path of utter economic collapse, while 49 to 51% of us stand around waiting for more free stuff. We can only conclude that politicians of both parties are guilty of malfeasance. Indeed, they are guilty of treason; they have betrayed their country.

The effect of $15 trillion of debt is so severe we must wonder why our citizens aren’t flooding congressional representatives with letters of outrage. Why aren’t millions of our citizens marching on the nation’s capital? You see, money is like any other resource: it has limitations. There is only so much money. Whenever the availability of money limits government’s ability to spend, that is to say, their ability to tax us into oblivion, then government begins to select which expenditures most benefit the politicians. Spending money on “free stuff” is always a high priority with socialists; they believe that if you give stupid people enough free stuff, you can always count on their votes. But then we must wonder about our highways, and bridges. If Americans fail to wake up to this rape of America by politicians, there will be more disasters such as the I-35W Bridge outside Minneapolis —or have we already forgotten that horror?

Or do we even care?