Curmudgeon's Corner

What Will It Take?

Posted by Al Campbell on June 2, 2011

Economy, Political, Quality of Life, Taxes, U.S.

What will it take?  What will it take for us, who profess to be adults, to finally accept the fact that our economy is in a world of hurt?  What will it take to finally understand that we, the United States of America, really do have a spending problem…as in “we spend too much”?

What will it take for us to come to the understanding that we are in real economic trouble, and that more special interest spending programs are not going to work any better than those already history in the past two years?

What will it take, especially in the run-up to the 2012 elections for the presidency, for politicians to be honest, to be strong and to be principled?  No matter what you might think of Congressman Ryan’s budget, he put it out there to stimulate the debate.  How is that working for him and for us?  The budget served as nothing but fodder for the opposition; an opposition that so far is two budgets behind.  When real and sincere efforts are made and then are used to castigate those who would extend themselves to make serious proposals, we have a real problem.  This is an old problem, but a real problem nonetheless.  This is a problem not limited to one of the major political parties, either; both of the major parties can be equally as eager to demagogue.  What a great time for a President, a true leader, to take the noble stand even if it cost him a second term.  I don’t think I’ll hold my breath.

We have watched as our government has rewarded those who gave the most to the party in power.  GE, GM and Chrysler come to mind.  The automobile industry is not back strong as we were told it would be, and the bond holders will not ever get back what they lost in that deal that did nothing more than prop up the UAW and its sagging pension fund.  Used cars are in huge demand because many cannot afford anything else.

The only housing market in America that is strong today is found in our capitol city area.  Washington, D.C. has seen a boom in housing because the people’s money (taxes) was used to build the federal government even bigger in the name of stimulating the economy.

Government stimulus programs are one time fixes that end up costing us more to maintain after the federal money ends.  Our government has rewarded its favorites at the expense of us who do nothing but pay the cost.

We have received several warning signs about our economy.  We had better begin to heed those warnings if we are to avoid very serious issues in America.