The Government and Money: I Don’t Get It

Last updated on: December 15, 2012 at 8:40 pm by Andrew Marin

The Government and Money: I Don’t Get It 2012-12-15T20:40:23-06:00 Andrew Marin

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I don’t get how the US government can’t stay within a budget without grossly exceeding it every year.

When regular businesses spend all their money and can’t pay, they get shut down (unless you’re a huge bank with lots of ties to the White House, but that’s another thing I don’t understand that frustrates me to no end).

When regular people spend all of their money and can’t pay their bills they get evicted or foreclosed and end up on the street.

When our government spends all of their money they just raise the debt ceiling and go further in debt to, let’s say, China.

One day China will come-a-calling for their money. All of it. And its interest.

And when that happens our country and its economic sustainability is going to be screwed anyway. We’ll probably have to go to war because China won’t be so happy with whatever excuses we come up with. So why not clean up our own house right now?

We’re already in a recession (even with our Federal income at $2.7 trillion!). We’re already going to have our taxes raised; again. We’re already trillions and trillions of dollars in debt. Why not stay within a budget? I’m talking about a real budget. Not those government-pretend-budgets that can be loaned against over and over and over again.

I know their main argument is, “If any part of our (Federal or State) government collapses we (our country or individual State) will turn to chaos.

Is this not already chaos?

CNN shows that every single State is in debt. My State, Illinois, and California, are the worst! Billions of dollars in debt!

Sure, it could get worse. Anything, could always get worse. But this default // raising the debt ceiling // borrowing against pension stuff is ridiculous. We need to dramatically cut our spending to stay within a budget that will actually yield savings, not debt. So you might be asking yourself, well, Mr. Smarty-pants, how then would you cut our spending to do such a thing.

Thanks for asking. Here are the 4 quickest ways I see this happening:

1. Get the masses of troops and military equipment out of Iraq and Afghanistan:

We can still assist their governments in organizing themselves, their infrastructure and their sustainability diplomatically without having full artillery on site. We’ve tried the other way, and look where that has got us. We’ve spent more money on military than the rest of the world combined. From what I understand, a new plan by Defense Secretary Robert Gates would save us $100 billion. That’s if his warning is actually listened to.

2. Cut foreign aid:

The US gave $25 billion in foreign aid last year. The next country is Germany, which gave $13 billion. It’s one thing to support the world’s economy when we’re in the black or close to it. It’s another to do it when our dollar means nothing and our country owes other countries more than the amount of money there is in the entire world put together. The United States also must stop paying for everyone else’s Olympics (See most recently Greece and Brazil). Our foreign aid must be prioritized to the poor countries with nothing – no food, water, infrastructure; and those that suffer natural disasters. Anything else is not needed at this crucial point.

3. Stop forgiving foreign debt to our country:

This is not the Bible. The United States of America is not run through a Christian worldview. It’s run like biblical Rome. Or Babylon. Our country is a capitalistic business. Our country can’t be the forgiver of debts while simultaneously being the governor of war. China will collect on its loans to us. Do you ever see them forgiving our debt?

4. Keep politicians and government employees accountable for their spending:

Too many private jets, expensive meals, shopping sprees, “discretionable funds”, golfing, etc. If politicians are supposed to speak for the people, let them live like us too.

Now I know my 4 ideas are simplistic in nature, and if they were to be accomplished there would have to be many more nuances involved. It has to start somewhere, and these leaders need to be held accountable. Though, I understand accountability is hard when our politically polarized and power-hungry country and its leaders continue to work in the same metric regardless of who is in charge. I can only pray clarity comes to this situation.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

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