Let me start by saying something that you may feel to be untrue once you have finished reading this short letter. I am not a democrat.
Nor, however, am I a republican. I believe in limited government, fiscal discipline, and the basic framework of the US Constitution to form policy and law. I am not a strict Constitutionalist, and the 27 Amendments to this document certainly support that our country has grown in its greatness with that similar attitude. Some would argue with me, and many do, that I must be a republican (or should be) with those philosophies. After all, they are the party of those principles, right? I disagree. Completely, wholeheartedly, and without apology. I also believe you should stay of my property, out of my house, and out of my paycheck.
Let me start with the issue of spending. Today, we have what is marketed, and what is real. You are marketed the belief that the Republican Party is conservative, looking out for your money, concerned with staying out of your way. Let the economy decide what’s best. You are also marketed to believe that the Democratic Party is the party of Welfare, “socialization”, “communism”, “Maoism”, and “drunken-sailor” spending.
What is real is that Party doesn’t matter. Spending is a mainstay in DC and the letter behind your name is little more that the logo on your shoes or your shirt. I want to focus on the Right, the GOP, the Red, the Republican. Why, because if you believe the marketing, you are being lied to. Some would call it: drinking the Kool-Aid. I believe that those who drink it enough evolve into servers. Have you ever heard the phrase, “our best salesmen are our satisfied customers”? I see lots of salesmen. When we choose to educate ourselves, you will find that the Right has historically added more to the deficit than the Left, added less to the GDP for each deficit dollar spent than the Left, and raised your taxes. Has the Left done this as well? YES! But it hasn’t lied about it. It hasn’t hidden behind the marketing.
Today, our national debt approaches $13 trillion. I don’t even understand that number – it’s too big. In equivalent dollars, that is similar to the debt levels in the early 1940’s. Please take a moment here to filter the marketing. We survived. We grew. We flourished.
A simple question for all of us: How long has it been since the national debt has been reduced? As a percent of GDP, it was in 1980 when Carter left office. The very next year, Ronald Reagan started his historic addition to deficit spending. In terms of dollars, 1968 was the last year the government spent less that it took in. That is 43 years. We’ve had lots of D’s and R’s in the white house and in Congress in the last 43 years. Seems we wouldn’t be in this deficit position if the Right exercised all that fiscal restraint in the cup of Kool-Aid.
Turn on the news today, or listen to talk radio, and you will hear a grand oratory about the increase in debt that is ruining this country; bankrupting us. “Obama is to blame, completely.” In his first two years, he’s added 16% to the debt and almost 30% in his first three. Holy Cow! That’s never happened before…except for when Reagan did it (25.9%), and Bush 1 (24.3%). Where was the outcry from the Right during those 12 years of “conservatism”? Barack is projected to triple our national debt (that’s a 200% increase). Reagan increased it 160% in ACTUAL dollars. Bush I, 66%, Clinton 28.6% and Bush II, 73%.
In short, the rhetoric that the Right is against spending is absurd to say the least. More accurately, it’s where the money is spent, not how much. Specifically, it’s where the Left wishes to spend money, even if it is the same place and manner that the Right wanted to spend it in prior years (see Health Care, Cap and Trade, tax hikes).
I believe this Great Country is at a turning point. Like them or not, the Tea Party is the outright and tangible representation of that. We must control our appetites and our spending, both privately and publically. The US government is spending at an all-time high related to GDP (about 85%). Privately, we, the citizens, are spending at our all-time high as well (301%). It’s crazy, and it’s nonsensical, and it’s not sustainable.
Please, put down the glass of rhetoric, stop serving the Kool-Aid to others, and vet your politicians. Kick them out if necessary and replace them. Banking on Right or Left, Democratic or Republican, Liberal or Conservative, will only continue to provide this America with what is has always gotten from those sorts: debt, debt and more debt. Find the principles of fiscal conservatism in a candidate or set of candidate and vote them into office.
I’ll leave you with two quotes. One from Reagan, one from Cheney.
"I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself." - Ronald Reagan
“Deficits don’t matter.” – Dick Cheney
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