Growth of Dependency on Government Threatens the Future of American Democracy
From virtually the first day of his presidency, Barack Obama and his top deputies have advanced programs and initiatives that deepen and expand American citizens’ dependency on government. From new federal programs designed to boost economic activity to health care reform that could place the U.S. government at the center of the nation’s health care system, the central thrust of policy since January 2009 has been to increase Americans’ daily dependency on Washington.
However, the rapid expansion of dependency-creating programs did not begin with Barack Obama’s inauguration. Indeed, President Obama inherited substantial momentum toward greater dependency on government from the George W. Bush Administration and prior governments. President Bush’s years saw growth in all dependency creating categories, but particularly in programs aimed at health, education, and working-age income support.
Even more disturbing is the confluence of growth in the index with increases in the percentage of taxpayers who pay no taxes and Congress’s control over spending. The percentage who pay no taxes jumped from 21.3 percent in 1980 to 34 percent in 2008. In 1980, 20 million tax filers paid nothing; in 2008, 48 million paid nothing. This number will growth dramatically next year when the Index counts for the first time taxpayers who took advantage of Obama era credits, such as Making Work Pay and the first-time homebuyers credits.
Combine these two indexes with the Steuerle-Roeper Fiscal Democracy Index, and you have a perfect storm for the future of our republican form of government. The Fiscal Democracy Index measures the percent of revenues not allocated by previous Congresses to mandatory spending. In short, it measure the control that Congress has over outlays. This Index nearly hit zero in 2009 and is forecasted to be steadily below zero in 10 years.
The steady growth of dependency creating program, particularly the so-called entitlement programs, and the equally steady shrinking number of taxpayers who have any financial stake in the government threaten rapid growth in mandatory, dependency programs and our very democracy. Are Americans closing in on a tipping point that endangers the workings of their form of government? If citizens can vote ever greater outlays for their income, health, housing, education, and food support; will the growth of government overwhelm the delicate political balances between those citizens who provide the means for helping other citizens in need?
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Posted by Bill Smith at 3:28 PM - Post Link
2 Comments:
Some of us do not need more than ONE HIT ON THE HEAD to realize that the fun is over, and now we get to pay the teller.
There are very few ways to get the USA out of debt. We had the correct idea back in 1937 when we paid a percentage (small , but we did pay it) toward our old age security.
WHAT happened to the many many collections since 1937 which were to pay for those of us who are well passed 65, and are still eligible for the repayment of the deposits made since 1937, Payment of a percentage of salary continued to be required by the IRS. Where did that money end up --- as obviously there was NO LOCK BOX?
This is the money Johnson's War on Poverty was paying to those who were part of the CLOWARD- PIVEN strategy to run the US Gov't into bankruptcy... Those years in the 60s found workers searching through areas notorious for their self-reliance, and independence, and resistant to taking government "Welfare".
It was commonly noted that workers were going through the Ozarks ( and probably other similar self sufficient worker areas) and signing up the families for their monthly welfare checks for which they were ENTITLED.
THIS was the beginning of the nastiest enemy of our USA called "ENTITLEMENTS". This searching and beating the bushes to get names to add to the welfare rolls happened ON MY WATCH.
(to be continued ...)
I FEEL RESPONSIBLE.
And, so because this should NEVER have taken place. I (and those in agreement)should have stood up, and yelled 'HELP -- STOP THIEF," but we were too busy, too occupied, and not watching the current problems.
SO -- it is not our time to PAY UP..
The only way we can get our books back in balance is very simple. We change every amount paid to every department and every bureau, and every survey, and every council, and every general assembly of every kind, BARRING NONE.. and each check is to be cut 10% the first year,, and then another 10% cut the second year, and ditto the third year, and fourth year, until we reach the year 2020. By that time we might have reach the amount of our outlying debt down to normal.
There is only one other problem that our generation that caused this IMBALANCE of our US Govt, and that is to change the way our national government is held in the District of Columbia.
There is no law that our Representatives and Senators, NOW THAT WE HAVE Such SUPERIOR electronics systems, and can manage to send in their votes from the state where they represent.. NO MORE LOBBYISTS wining, whining, and taking the Congressmen by the arms and twisting them into voting for the highly organized LOBBYS.
By keeping our national representatives AWAY from the cesspool of the city of Washington, we can have more control over how our representatives actually DO VOTE TO REPRESENT THEIR constitutes..... and not the lobbyists multinationals.
We have the smoothest and quickest electronic systems, and there is now no reason why the the elected officials need to leave their home base.
This might be an answer to our faulty election laws. If the elected were kept in their home state, that is where they should be raising their re-election money. And another fringe benefit could easily become the raising of the election money to be restricted to the state where the electors constituents actually reside.
This "disseratation" from a "nonagenarian" who has become aware of the huge problems that my generation foisted upon my great grandkids, and that MY GREAT GRANDPARENTS bequeathed to me a super, great nation ( 1835). It is my bounden duty to make one more feint in the direction of what-in-hell-has - gone wrong? and how do we fix it?
I am referring to the simple fact that an entrepreneur doesn't have a chance to help create new jobs now that the huge corporations have enacted enough laws to stymied any individual from ever obeying all the rules and regs that would enable a new business to even stick it's head up before the BIG CORP would stomp on it... We do not have the same environment of the 1880s when we became the industrialized nation of the world..
NO MORE! We have allowed China, et. al., to do all the things that our own workers are NOT ALLOWED to develop.,
Now, IF this government WANTS TO DEVELOP MORE JOBS, JOBS. JOBS, the above sentence needs to be embroidered on all the towels that the US CONGRESS uses.
We must omit all the regulations on any small operation, any small grower, any small developer. As these are the basics that the large corporations have ARRANGED IN THEIR FAVOR to eliminate any possible competition. If the newbie manages to squeak past one or more of the handicaps, along comes the BIG BUSINESS MONEYBAGS, and buys out the entrepreneur.
This actually happened long ago with the electric street car system, by the gasoline companies who were throwing their weight toward the individual car owner.
GET IT??
Trying to use my final years on this earth to make up for all the mistakes my generation foisted upon my great grand kids... We done them wrong.
Sadly,
Muriel Schmidt
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