"WE THE PEOPLE"

October 12, 2008

The first three words of the United States Construction are "We the People". Our Country was the first in the history of the world to reverse the course of government with these three cutting edge words. It is "we the people" who determines the course of government. Almost all of the constitutions of other countries are documents in which the governments tell the people what are their rights. Our Constitution is a document in which "We the people" tell the government what it as a government, is allowed to do.

Many believe that a small government sector, at all levels, is best. This was the clear intent of America’s founding forefathers. The question is how small is small? Is 10 percent of the economy which goes to the government enough? How about 20, 30 or 40 percent? In other words, what share of our economy’s national income should be controlled and dominated by federal, state, and local government? Many will answer that between "10 and 20 percent of the economy for spending, with near zero debt" is about right. Today however, government consumes 44 percent of the economy by its spending, plus another 13 percent for its unfunded regulatory mandates, thus, leaving less than half of the economy to the free market private sector. Think of it, 4.5 trillion dollars is controlled by federal, state, and local governments, which now is costing nearly 15 thousand dollars per man, woman, and child. For a family of four, the costs are now just a little less than $60,000 annually and increasing with pending new legislation.

Of that figure, the costs of local, school, and state agencies have seen expansive growth to the tune of 1.8 trillion dollars annually or $6,140 per person per year. To note, the numbers of employees in local and state agencies across the Country have increased at a rate far in excess of the rate of growth in the national population. Any wonder that there are calls for greater efficiency in school consolidation, in agency partnerships, in the cutting of expenses, and in the elimination of excessive entitlements? What a shot in the arm there would be to all Americans if municipalities across this Country of ours were to engage in a three-point program to be achieved over a three year period. The Program would consist of: cutting nonessential costs, building smarter balanced budgets, and engaging in meaningful deficit reduction, through mergers and consolidations.

In the broad range, we have seen tax revenues and borrowing financing in all sorts of interventions. Since 1959, we have had the Great Society, the war on poverty, price controls, increasingly burdensome environmental regulations, the establishment of the burgeoning Department of Education, and its increasing federal control over local schools. The Federal Reserve has created recessions, Congress has created and approved agricultural price supports, minimum wage laws, and energy policies that keep oil and gasoline prices high.

And there is more when we talk about the size and REACH of government. We have seen labor policies increase the costs of hiring workers, driving down their take-home pay, trade restrictions and trade agreements that give the feds control over our international trade, massive increases in the welfare state, endless pork-barrel spending, and the prosecution of business persons for political gain.

The American voter overwhelmingly values lowering taxes and limiting public spending. Point in fact, an increase in taxation drives more and more capital out of the market place and thus strangulating production and growth. There are those candidates with an extremist leftist agenda, who wish to confiscate even more monies from hardworking middle class Americans and from the most productive companies and industries in the nation and, by so doing, imperil the jobs of millions of American workers, all in the name of “helping them”. These same officials then want to spend the confiscated funds on items on their socialist agenda which, by the way, does not include national security. This low level extremist mentality is what decays the economic stability of the nation and destroys the economic viability of individual men and women. And that is what weakens the entire fabric of our American society. It was Alan Greenspan who said, "Tax increases become self-defeating by absorbing purchasing power and reducing work and investment incentives." Why don’t our political leaders in BOTH parties admit to and act upon this fact?

We challenge every political candidate to start putting balanced budgets ahead of their own agenda, to put the financial health of the nation above political ambitions, and to recognize that government cannot continue compounding deficit after deficit. Immediate attention must be given to national economic security, illegal immigration, energy independence and alternative sources of alternative fuels, social security reform, and affordable health care. But now, more than ever, both parties and every candidate must address the serious risks of unsustainable deficits and develop plans to reduce the size and reach of the federal, state, and local government agencies. The day must come where every political official is aware of and acts on reducing the debilitating effects of deficits on future generations. In many ways, the free market capitalist system and the individual is being strangulated by bureaucracy. Big government programs, which by the way are funded by the people, are inefficient and have costs well in excess of their benefits. We claim enthusiastically that the entrepreneur who creates jobs and adds value is the best housing, nutrition, education and welfare program. In fact, One entrepreneur has done more to advance and provide for humanity, than hordes of do-good-welfare-staters! Individuals, within the free competitive enterprise system, are far more efficient in the careful use and investing in rightful and needful causes. In other words, freedom works; bureaucracy strangulates.

Adam Smith said it well, "It is the highest impertinence and presumption, therefore, in kings and ministers, to pretend to watch over the economy of private people, and to restrain their expense... They are themselves always, and without any exception, the greatest spendthrifts in the society. Let them look well after their own expense, and they may safely trust private people with theirs. If their own extravagance does not ruin the state, that of their subjects never will." And Ronald Reagan had it right, "You can’t be for big government, big taxes, and big bureaucracy and still be for the little guy." And after all "We the people" are the little guys all across this great land of ours. That is how we see it FROM OUR PERSPECTIVE.