The Difference Between the Republicans and the Democrats
I’ve long said that the only difference between the Republicans and the Democrats is how they want to spend the money they steal from us (taxpayers). Whether it’s welfare or war, it’s a waste of money. Paying people not to work or taking away their incomes (taxes) when they do work kills their incentive to become productive people. Blowing things up and then rebuilding them is also a waste of money. And it doesn’t matter who starts the program/war, the next administration just keeps it going…and the bottom line is that the government keeps getting bigger.
In fact, the U.S. government has wasted so much money over the years, that the money it raises through taxation isn’t enough to finance all the waste and expansion. So, not only are taxes raised, but the government keeps finding new enemies to wage war against (which is what an instrument of force needs to do)…there’s the war on poverty, there were Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, drugs, money laundering, illegal weapons, ISIS, tax evaders, and too many others to mention. It has gotten to the point that the U.S. government has to finance its wars by borrowing money from other countries around the world.
But, even that isn’t enough. It has to create money out of thin air. And, it took advantage of its position as suppliers of the world’s reserve currency. All it had to do was create more money and use it to buy goods and services from around the world. Nowadays, however, other countries are becoming less eager to exchange their goods and services for promissory notes (U.S. dollars) that aren’t backed by anything. Consequently, the U.S. central bank (the Fed) is having to buy more and more of the ubiquitous bills, notes, and bonds that the U.S. government and its agencies are issuing. While this scenario will eventually end badly, in the meantime, it appears to be government expansion as usual.
While campaigning, one candidate promises more money from the government, while another promises to get the government off the peoples’ backs. In the long run, however, the bureaucracy rarely changes and the results are always the same…the government expands and the taxpayers become poorer by the day.
What I sometimes wonder is, why doesn’t the government abolish all taxes and just borrow and print money? It would give everyone a greater incentive to be productive rather than spending billions of dollars and thousands of hours trying to avoid the government’s theft or getting on to the government dole. As it stands, the more productive someone is, the more he/she is harassed by the tax collectors to squeeze a little more substance out of him/her. That’s backwards.
But then I remember that the government is an instrument of force and so it needs someone to force (taxpayers). And then there are the politicians and bureaucrats who need to feel powerful by telling people what to do (or not to do). And after 232 years of government expansion, it’s become a competition between the Republicans and Democrats to see who can heap more rules and regulations on the hapless taxpayers. There aren’t many ways left to avoid such oppression. Taxpayers are better off either without any income; i.e., dependent upon the state, or by leaving the country and renouncing their U.S. citizenship.
Bottom line: It becomes a game to see who can stay in power to best milk the system…and when the system collapses, to blame the other party for not spending the money on the right things; i.e., war or welfare…but it’s all the same, it’s just a big waste.
Robert F. Sennholz