Partisanship Aside…

Here is another disturbing example of how quickly our government is running out of money. Apparently, due to the difficult economic conditions, both income and corporate taxes have plummeted.

That's going to make it difficult to pay for some of the programs the Obama administration has planned – namely, the new health care entitlement program, among other spending increases. Some of his other priorities, like cap 'n trade and financial regulations, will likely slow the economy further with extra costs. And that means even less tax revenues and more bailout programs.

This is not an anti-Obama or anti-Democrat monologue. That's not the point. Hell, if it were possible for Obama to wave a magic wand and fix everything as promised, I'd be as happy as anyone. I'm not fundamentally opposed to his administration – I'm opposed to the direction his policies are taking us because it's the wrong direction.

Here's how I define the wrong direction: increasing government deficits at the expense of real economic recovery. Unless we want a lower standard of living for everyone, we should oppose this direction in a big way.

One retort I often hear is, "Well, these problems were present during the Bush administration. We inherited them." Although that argument may have merit if our primary concern were allocating blame, it's no excuse for pouring gasoline on a wildfire. Using the recent deficits as a reason to propose deficits several times larger is just silly. If the Republicans were jumping off a bridge, would you do it too?

That argument attempts to make the discussion about fault, when it should be about the solution. Instead of throwing away the poison, we're drinking it as fast as we can while blaming whoever gave it to us last. Let me share something with you that my mom told me when I was young: two wrongs do not make a right.

Here's an idea: instead of wasting time pointing fingers, let's stop digging our own graves and start climbing out. We're constantly hearing about the government agencies and programs that are running out of money. Congress needs a billion for this, two billion for that. Next year we'll add over a trillion dollars to the public debt. That means every person in the country will owe this nation's creditors roughly $3,000 more.

Do you have an extra $3,000 on hand for wasteful government spending? I certainly don't. And it's not like we have a booming economy that could use a little cooling off to pay for all this.

We cannot fix irresponsible spending and meddling with the economy with more of the same. Nor can we fix it by convincing people of the other party's failure to fix the problem. If we want to move on, we need only to recognize that politicians are not deities, that their arbitrary power is no substitute for hundreds of millions of well-informed personal decisions, and that their promises to 'fix everything' are merely rhetoric.

Once we realize that, the way out of this mess is pretty simple. Rather than rely on elected officials to solve our problems, we rely on ourselves. As Calvin Coolidge said, "the chief business of the American people is business."

If we stick to that, we can't help but fix the economy. Then we can argue about blame.