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I Might...

by John F. Tamburo, Editor in Chief, Publisher
Originally Posted: 10/27/2010 2:47:52 PM

I might be able to support some of the things that the Left touts as achievements. For example, if I were given actual proof that eliminating the minimum wage would cause incomes to decrease, without an increase in employment, I’d support retaining the minimum wage. But the proofs that exist show that the opposite is true: Increases in the minimum wage eliminate jobs.

I might be able to support the notion that increasing the income tax rate increases the amount of taxes collected, were it not for the documented facts of the last 90 years that show that increases in the tax rate reduce the amount of tax revenues collected, both in actual dollars and in real terms. I’d be tempted to think that “soaking the rich” by increasing the tax rate worked, were it not for 90 years of documented proof that decreasing the tax rate INCREASES revenues in terms of dollars and as a percentage of the economy, and further, that the highest-income taxpayers pay more of the whole tax collected when rates decrease.

I’d be tempted to say that the expansion of the central government into private industry (e.g., cars, healthcare) was beneficial, were it not for the long history of disastrous government programs. I might think that big government works, except for the fact that more people as a percentage of the whole are in poverty now than before the so-called “Great Society” programs of the 1960s.

I might say that Social Security ought never to be modified, were it not for the fact that anyone with rudimentary math skills can demonstrate that it is impossible to sustain the program. I might say that Social Security was a good deal, if it were not for the fact that someone who dies a day before retirement, for all of the thousands of dollars invested into the “system,” receives a “death benefit” under $300, and the rest of those savings are lost to his or her legatees.

I might be in a position to think that it’s OK to spend trillions of borrowed dollars on leftist pet projects, until I realize that we don’t have the money to pay for it. I might be tempted to think that the $110 trillion in assets owned by the United States would let us spend more, except for the fact that the assets will never sell for that much in liquidation, and some are national treasures that could never be sold or pledged.

I might be tempted to think that we can spend profligately for a while longer, until I realize that we have massive spending increases coming home to roost for Social Security that will be impossible to pay, even if we did not have to service this horrible national debt.

I might be tempted to think, like Paul Krugman of the New York Times, that monetizing the debt or defaulting upon it would be OK, except for the fact that every country that has done either experienced ruin.

I might be tempted to think that the GOP is Nazi-like, except for the fact that it’s not, and the closest entity to the National Socialist Workers’ Party in this country is the Democrat party.

I might take the position that allowing Congress to legislate anything under the rubric of “in or affecting interstate commerce” or to “provide for the common good,” except that the power is abused, and the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the Constitution are utterly flouted. I might be tempted to think that Federal “hate crime” laws that dictate extra-harsh penalties for crimes based on the thoughts of the criminal would be good deterrents to crimes, but in reality, they are designed to deter thoughts that are unapproved by the government.

I might be tempted to think that restricting Congress strictly to legislating within the powers expressly granted to it in the Constitution, and no further, would be restrictive, until I realize that the restrictions would be upon the government, and restrictions on government expand my freedom and the freedom of my fellow citizens.

I might be tempted to think that the direct election of Senators by the people of their states, instead of by the legislatures of those states as the Founders designed, was a good idea, except that the states now have no real voice in the government, and Senators are susceptible to lobbying and pandering for campaign money, eviscerating their deliberative abilities.

I might be tempted to think of the Tea Party movement as composed of wackos and goofballs, except that they agree with our Founders and seek to preserve and adhere to our Constitution. I might be tempted to think of the Tea Party movement as out of the mainstream, but for the fact that I agree wholeheartedly with it.

I might be tempted to think that the Tsunami that is about to wash the leftists out to sea might be bad for the country, but I’m too busy praying for that very result, for the sake of my children, my fellow citizens, and the future of this country.