Pedro's Podium: Fool Me Once

Monday, July 25, 2011

Fool Me Once

I’ve been watching the ongoing debate on raising the Federal Government’s credit limit. Once again our elected representatives are asked to increase the limit on the nation’s credit card. This limit has meant nothing for many years. To say that there is a cap to government spending but constantly raise it shows a total lack of respect for the voters and the values that have supported this nation. Members of Congress have promised to cut spending and turn around and increased spending. Too many times promises have been made and broken. Even the surpluses of the Clinton error were not maintained due to the spending that followed in later years. Our leaders continue to fail us, our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Their inability to control spending will eventually cripple our nation and rob the citizens of this country of our liberties.

In an effort to repeat history the Democrats in Congress have promised, as they did to the first President Bush, to cut $3 in spending for each dollar of tax increases. President Bush broke his promise and signed the tax increase. The tax increases were immediate and the cuts were to come in the “future.” Those cuts never came and Bill Clinton rode the broken promise into the White House.

There is an old saying: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Many of you know this saying and it is never been more relevant than it is today. This year once again the promise has been made again. The President promises some “future” cuts in spending for increases in “revenues” (taxes). The amount of 3 to 1 respectively has even been floated. The President and his party are sounding like “Wimpy” from the Popeye cartoons. They want to pay us Tuesday for a hamburger today. The one thing I noticed about Wimpy was that I never saw him pay for a single hamburger and I’ve never seen the Democratic leadership follow through with a single promise to make meaningful government spending cuts.

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The President has said in so many words that he will illegally withhold Social Security, Military checks, and general obligation payments if he is not given a blank check. He has tried to crash the stock markets and panic the American people if he is not given his way. He says he is going to cut spending, but he has never presented a plan to cut spending. He is good at making speeches full of contradictions, but he has never presented an actual plan. His budgets only increased spending.

I know that many people remember the betrayals of the past. We must not stand by and allow the tax and spend policies of the past continue. It is time for meaningful cuts NOW. Congress today can not impose spending limits and cuts on the future, but they can create long term spending obligations. It is very clear that the only way we can rein in spending, pay off the massive government debt, and support the foundation of our country is to enforce a balanced budget on the politicians. Without a Balanced Budget Amendment the mismanagement of the Federal government will continue. It is plain to see that politicians are not trustworthy when given an open credit line and a blank check.

Will we be fooled again? It seems that the President and his party think that the American people are fools. I fear that way too many Americans will accept the status quo and really believe the repeated lies that we are being spoon feed daily. If we do not hold Washington’s feet to the fire we will be treated like fools, once again.