My 8-year old observed this morning that, "this spending bill seems like a snowball." The President started it rolling (as his stimulus bill), and it has just gotten bigger and bigger as it has rolled through the House and now rolls through the Senate.
With President Obama set to address to the nation this evening, it seems as if we are inevitably going to get hit with one huge, monster ball of snow. Hopefully, however, the TRUTH will prevail, and the congress will find a way to dig themselves out of the resulting avalanche.
I have to hope that our government, and its elected leaders, can work better than the snowball scenario to create and enact legislation. I have to hope that any bill, once introduced by our new President, will not ultimately grow to such an enormous monstrosity that it will ultimately brute force its way into law. Our nation and its citizens deserve better!
I am still praying! Hope you are too.
One last thought -- before the President's address this evening: didn't President Obama say repeatedly in the presidential debates that, "We are going to go through the Federal Budget, line by line, and if an item is wasteful: we are going to put a line through it." Wasn't this Obama's pledge of FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY by the Federal Government? Was he lying to us?
I, for one, am going to hold President Obama to this pledge. If he stops the spin and PR blitz, if he is honest with himself and his inner circle: Obama has to realize that this current stimulus package falls considerably short of his presidential debate pledge of FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY. We aren't buying the "need for immediate action" ploy, Mr. President. We know that there is time (per Congressional Budget Office itself!) to rewrite this package and come up with something better.
God Bless our nation.
PJP
2 comments:
We were just thinking this morning - the mere fact that there has developed an "expectation" that government should address any of our concerns in society is a notion which we should examine carefully. Consider the different reasons for the development of this expectation:
(a) Government does it best;
(b) Government is the only way it can be done;
(c) We abdicated our personal responsibility to handle our own affairs;
(d) By having government do it, we achieve efficiencies which can not be matched individually; and
(e) We pay so much in taxes that we want something of value for our money, and as the amount of taxes paid increases, we expect more for our money.
Some would argue that what we are witnessing in Congress at this point in time is exactly why government should not be allowed to do anything in our society other than those absolutely essential services which can not be provided by the private or non-profit sectors. It is difficult to run any organization, or accomplish any large task, by committee, unless all of the members share the same goals and values. That is obviously not the case with government. We, as a society, have grown to expect the government to perform certain functions; but shouldn’t we be trying to gradually reduce the number of services provided by government, particularly because politicians are intimately connected therewith?
Well said, The Logistician. Just now seeing this comment for some reason. Thank you for taking the time to comment and share your insight on the need for limited government involvement in our society. "A government which governs least, governs best."
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