Homestead mailing list

["Lynn Wigglesworth" <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com>]

I keep reading about states and cities cutting services, needing handouts. I 
was happy to see that our County Commissioners just finished the 2009 
budget...balanced with no tax increase. This area has been economically 
'challenged' for so long that putting together a frugal, balanced budget has 
become second nature. Maybe we've been in a recession for so long here that 
we don't even notice when the rest of the country joins us..

Lynn Wigglesworth
Tioga Co. PA

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "bob ford" <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>
To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 1:46 PM
Subject: [Homestead] "No" to bail-outs from a couple of govs


> This was into today's WSJ.  What caught my attention most was the figure 
> that each houseld in America essentially has, right now, a $450,000.00 
> mortgage to the feds, just for taxes on what is our current liabilities. 
> Since half the households pay no taxes, that means those who do have about 
> a $900,000.00 mortgage to the feds for current liabilities.  The people on 
> the list who advocating removing oneself from the 'system' in general are 
> sounding smarter and smarter......................
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> OPINION DECEMBER 2, 2008 Governors Against State Bailouts
>
> Hard to believe, but not everyone in politics wants a free lunch.
>
> By RICK PERRY and MARK SANFORD
>
> As governors and citizens, we've grown increasingly concerned over the 
> past weeks as Washington has thrown bailout after bailout at the national 
> economy with little to show for it.
>
> In the process, the federal government is not only burying future 
> generations under mountains of debt. It is also taking our country in a 
> very dangerous direction -- toward a "bailout mentality" where we look to 
> government rather than ourselves for solutions. We're asking other 
> governors from both sides of the political aisle to join with us in 
> opposing further federal bailout intervention for three reasons.
>
> First, we're crossing the Rubicon with regard to debt.
>
> One fact that's been continually glossed over in the bailout debate is 
> that Washington doesn't have money in hand for any of these proposals. 
> Every penny would be borrowed. Estimates for what the government is 
> willing to spend on bailouts and stimulus efforts for this year reach as 
> much as $7.7 trillion according to Bloomberg.com -- a full half of the 
> United States' yearly economic output.
>
> With all the zeroes in the numbers, it's no wonder Washington politicians 
> have lost track.
>
> That trillion-dollar figure is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to 
> checks written by the federal government that it can't cash. Former U.S. 
> Comptroller General David Walker puts our nation's total debt and unpaid 
> promises, like Social Security, at roughly $52 trillion -- an invisible 
> mortgage of $450,000 on every American household. Borrowing money to 
> "solve" a problem created by too much debt seems odd. And as fiscally 
> conservative Republicans, we take no pleasure in pointing out that many in 
> our own party have been just as complicit in running up the tab as those 
> on the political left.
>
> Second, the bailout mentality threatens Americans' sense of personal 
> responsibility.
>
> In a free-market system, competition and one's own personal stake motivate 
> people to do their best. In this process, the winners create wealth, jobs 
> and new investment, while others go back to the drawing board better 
> prepared to try again.
>
> To an unprecedented degree, government is currently picking winners and 
> losers in the private marketplace, and throwing good money after bad. A 
> prudent investor takes money from low-yield investments and puts them in 
> those that yield better returns. Recent government intervention is doing 
> the opposite -- taking capital generated from productive activities and 
> throwing it at enterprises that in many cases need to reorganize their 
> business model.
>
> Take for example the proposed Big Three auto-maker bailout. We think it's 
> very telling that each of the three CEO's flew on their own private jets 
> to Washington to ask for a taxpayer handout. No amount of taxpayer largess 
> could fix a business culture so fundamentally flawed.
>
> Third, we'd ask the federal government to stop believing it has all the 
> answers.
>
> Our Founding Fathers were clear and deliberate in setting up a system 
> whereby the federal government would only step in for that which states 
> cannot do themselves. An expansionist federal government of the last 
> century has moved us light-years away from that model, but it doesn't mean 
> that Congress can't learn from states that are coming up with solutions 
> that work.
>
> In Texas and South Carolina, we've focused on improving "soil conditions" 
> for businesses by cutting taxes, reforming our legal system and our 
> workers' compensation system. We'd humbly suggest that Congress take a 
> page from those playbooks by focusing on targeted tax relief paid for by 
> cutting spending, not by borrowing.
>
> In the rush to do "something" to help, federal leaders would be wise to 
> take a line from the Hippocratic Oath, and pledge to do no (more) harm to 
> our country's finances. We can weather this storm if we commit to fiscal 
> prudence and hold true to the values of individual freedom and 
> responsibility that made our nation great.
>
> Mr. Perry, a Republican, is the governor of Texas. Mr. Sanford, a 
> Republican, is the governor of South Carolina.
>
> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122818170073571049.html
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