LAST THOUGHTS

One last thought or two regarding the political discussion of the last two days. There's always a known quantity when you attempt to bring religion or politics into any dialogue. The polarization is predictable, and based on the few comments that I've published, that's exactly what has happened. In fact, I opened the blog of two days ago with the statement "at the risk of polarizing the conversation".

I will always welcome opposing views, and will never censure any comments as long as they are respectful. We as a nation have different opinions on a variety of issues, and the fact that we have the freedom to express those opinions is what sets us apart from many other countries.

The one thing that this blog will NOT become is a political forum. Having said that, there are times when I personally find it necessary to speak out about issues where I either disagree with something, or think that change is necessary.

The change that I feel is absolutely necessary is what started this conversation two days ago. The fact that our government is borrowing obscene amounts of money, and increasing the national debt to almost unrecoverable levels, is what compels me to speak out. The argument about fixing this problem kind of boils down to either raising taxes, or cutting spending. When you start talking about raising taxes, then the argument changes directions, and the popular opinion seems to be that the wealthy should pay more.

My argument is simple, taxes shouldn't be raised on the poor, the middle class, or the wealthy. The American people pay enough income taxes, property taxes, & sales taxes. Raising taxes on anyone, in an attempt to balance the governments out of control spending, is what's really immoral. Washington D.C. has to cut up it's credit card, and balance it's budget just like every city, county, and state must do. Granted, all of those entities are having a hard time due to economic conditions, but they are legally obligated to balance spending with revenues.

If any of us had a personal spending problem, and we kept asking our credit card company to raise it's credit limit, at some point that company is going to say "that's it, no higher limit".
At that point, the spending has to stop, or slow down. You're most likely not going to go to your boss, and say, I need a raise in order to make payments on my credit card. The solution is to cut up the card, quit charging, and systematically pay the debt down to a manageable level.

That analogy may seem overly simplified, but I'm here to say that millions of Americans are saying basically the same thing. The answer to the problem is for Washington D.C. to deal with their spending addiction. The idea of fixing this problem with higher taxes is absurd, but unfortunately, it's symptomatic of the thinking of many of our elected representatives.

I predicted that the last national election was as important as any in this nations history. I have a feeling that the next national election may be even more important!