The Struggle to Downsize Government | Teen Ink

The Struggle to Downsize Government

December 1, 2010
By Slightly-Sane SILVER, Glenwood, Utah
Slightly-Sane SILVER, Glenwood, Utah
9 articles 0 photos 2 comments

Steam pours out from under the hood of the car. The man engages the brakes and when the car halts he shifts into park. He gets out of the car and opens the hood, steam pours out momentarily blinding him. From within his business suit he withdraws a phone and hastily calls someone. After a brief moment of ringing, the other person answers and asks, “How may I help you?”

“Yes my car is steaming, it seems to be broken,” He cries, “I need a new one now, there is no hope in fixing this one, get me a new one now!”

The person on the other line pauses, briefly, and replies, “Of course sir that will only cost you…”

When something in this country is broken we cry for change, we cry for progress, we cry for difference. Yet we also cry for damnation, for the suffering of the future generations, and for our own downfall. When something breaks, American’s have adapted the mindset that it must be replaced, they don’t even try to fix it, but the problem is they can’t afford it. So let’s not change the government, but fix the one we already have. We have been given the tools to do so already, and they only wait for us, the people, to use them. Why, then, don’t we pick up the tools and fix our broken government? The answer is simple: Fear. We are told that if we stray from change, if we stray from the path of progressivism that we will all perish, that our nation will crumble, but that’s a lie! Progressivism is the cancer that is destroying our nation because it is devouring the foundation of our nation, the Constitution.

A quote from a pamphlet titled “Progress and Democracy of Rhode Island” proclaims, “We communists are ready to join with all liberty-loving people in defending democracy. Democracy is the rule of the majority. And it can only operate as well as our Constitution permits it to operate. But our Constitution is now over a hundred years old and fast out-living its usefulness.”

Really? Did they just claim the Constitution, that Constitution which has held this nation together for hundreds of years, was restricting Democracy? I thought the Constitution was written to uphold and sustain Democracy!

I show you all these facts, tell you the symptoms and the causes of this cancer that is killing America, and now I propose the answer: smaller government, but I’m not one to show you the answer and let you struggle for the solution, no, today I present the answer and the rubric to complete it.

This government we call our protector has sucked the marrow from our bones, yet still drains us. As stated in the article “The Coming Collapse of the U.S. Dollar”, author remains unanimous, states, “Most Americans do not understand economics, but if they did, they would realize that the American Dream is literally being destroyed right in front of their eyes. Not only have we squandered the vast amounts of wealth that our forefathers left us, we have also piled up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world. We have created an economic nightmare from which there is no escape. Our children and our grandchildren will be trapped in it for their entire lives. What we have done to future generations of Americans is absolutely criminal.”

Is that what we want to be remembered as? The generation that caused several generations after us to work and suffer for our mistakes? I highly doubt it.

The opposition has the people of America hooked on the lie that total change is good, that if something is broken we must change it, and that is why we are in a debt and why we are all miserable. When was the last time a politician thought, “I want to change this for you, the people!” Never? Maybe once? Or was he thinking more along the lines of, “If I change this I increase my own pocket book by thousands!”

Humor me, consider this, when a politician makes a decision or writes a bill does he see your face, or the face of those who heavily financed their campaigns?

Change is good, but change in the right direction, not change to increase the wealth of the political financiers, but to increase the wealth and security of every person in the United States of America.

www.downsizinggovernment.org is an extension of the CATO Institute that has proposed several finance cuts that will reduce the government, yet not destroy our entire system. I will propose only one in this article, but as always I tell you this is my opinion and I challenge you to do the research to find out the truth for yourself, whether it be with me or against me.

Healthcare. Lets take a closer look Medicare and Medicaid are two massive money draining programs which still fail to provide healthcare, sufficiently, to us. So why do we spend over 869 billion dollars a year to support a system that is failing? Probably the same reason the government forced the banks to give out loans to those with poor credit scores and low income and then had to bail them out, the government enables people. No longer do people have to struggle to survive, become poor enough and the government will support you under the pretense of welfare.

So lets cut, or trim, a more accurate term, this one branch of the government and save over 81 billion dollars a year, and over 400 billion dollars in the long run. First let’s reform Medicare, transforming it into a voucher based system and letting it become part of the competitive insurance market, for without big brother’s massive hand holding it up, it will have to fight for itself and do what the rest of America is having to do, survive.

Next, lets reform Medicaid, converting it into a block grant for states, with low income health coverage, providing health coverage for the less fortunate and not draining our governmental funds to do so.

Finally lets reform the Welfare systems and TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) by changing them to private charities instead of government funded programs.

I will give credit where credit is due, so lets look over the oppositions stance and rebuttals. They claim that they are helping people, telling us that programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and TANF, are really changing and helping us. Really? If so, why haven’t I, or the other millions of us seen it? They claim that all the laws they pass and every single action they do is for the betterment of the people, but which people? Definitely not the people struggling day to day to pay the rent, no not those people, but the people who pour money into the politician’s campaign. They tell us that change is good, that the Constitution is a good guideline, but we need to have a more Socialist based America, eliminate the free market economy, and reduce everyone, except of course themselves, to equal status. Isn’t that what we ran from? Isn’t that why our founders wrote the Constitution and the Supreme Court, under John Marshall, passed the Dartmouth College case, to protect Capitalism? Their final rebuttal and lie is that they aren’t wasting money, which everything they do is for the best interest of the people, for the best interest of the nation. Why can’t one party finally stand up and have enough common courtesy to confess the truth, that they have a problem, a problem with spending money and that they need help. The first politician to stand up and to say, “I ____ represent the Democrat/Republican/ (all other parties), have a problem with spending money and need help!” would gain such respect and finally enable the country in the right way, enable us to struggle and to survive and to make it, because isn’t that what America is about, finally succeeding? When you can look at your life and mean it when you say that you have completed your pursuit of happiness that is when you have truly grasped what it means to be an American.


The author's comments:
The failing economy. The corrupt Government. Glenn Beck.

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