Please follow this link and read the entire report for yourself.

The opening paragraph says it all. The very people who are administering the programs say that the programs are NOT sustainable.

Over the last few years the Federal government has taxed us at rates of about 19% of Gross Domestic Product. In other words, out of every dollar spent in America the Federal government collects 19 cents in Federal taxes.

Social Security and Medicare currently account for 7% of GDP (or 40% of total government spending!) This is a huge and frightening statistic. 40% of all government spending is used to sustain these government programs!

By 2040 Federal spending on these two programs is expected to DOUBLE and it will be 14% of GDP (Or 80% of total government spending!) This is completely unsustainable. To allow for this the government would have to cut 2/3 of all other existing Federal programs if these Federal programs grow at a much smaller rate then they are growing today.

By 2079 Federal spending on these two programs is expected to hit 20% of GDP. This is more then the entire revenue of The Federal government (If it keeps taxation at 19% of GDP!)

The looming financial crisis cause by these two programs is the largest threat to our children and grand children. Terrorism is a minor threat when compared to this financial threat to our nation.

What are our politicians doing? Spending even more money and not worrying about the problems. They are leaving them for future politicians and for our children and grand children to deal with.

That is shameful.

Mike Sylvester
Chairman of the Libertarian party of Allen County

The Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation (A conservative think tank) just came out with their most recent Index of Economic Freedom. This index measures the relative economic freedom the people of each country have. This study is performed by economists from around the world.

The study takes into account too many factors to list here: Taxes, corruption, government spending, property rights, regulations, barriers to business, tariffs, etc. The countries with the best ratings are countries that have a free market economy and small governments. The countries with the worst ratings have large and oppressive governments and a lot of barriers to free enterprise.

The Founding Father’s of this country envisioned a small government and a free market economy; unfortunately, our current politicians believe in large government and excessive regulation. The United States has fallen to being tied for the 12th best country in regards to economic freedom. This poor ranking is due to excessive government spending and the enormous deficits the Republican and Democratic parties have managed to accumulate since World War Two.

According to the research performed by these economists, 36% of the entire GDP of the United States is government spending. This is an amazing and frightening statistic. What this means is that the government spends over one third of all money spent in this country. The other two thirds is spent by the citizens of this country, the ten million illegal aliens residing in this country, foreign tourists, and American and foreign businesses doing business in the United States. Prior to World War Two, government spending in the United States was under 4%! The government is growing at an alarming and unsustainable pace.

Both The Republican and Democratic parties believe in large government and increasing regulation. Neither party has made any attempt to do anything other then grow government. The main difference between the two parties is what they want to spend our tax money on, not how much of our money, our children’s money, and our grandchildren’s money they want to spend. Both parties want to spend every dollar they get their hands on, this is not enough for them, so they are now borrowing from future generations.

Consider this; Germany is a socialist country in every sense of the word. Their government is large. They have large and generous retirement and entitlement programs, they have a government health care system, and they have all of the social programs you would associate with a Socialist country. The German government spends 49% of its total GDP.

The United States is not far behind. We are becoming more Socialist each and every year. We are losing our civil liberties every year. I used to associate this with the Democratic Party, I no longer do. The Republican Party has had a majority in the House, Senate, and a Republican President in office for the last four years. In those four years the Federal government has increased education spending by 78%, passed a large and ineffective prescription drug program that benefits the drug companies rather then our senior citizens, and increased spending on EVERY government program.

I believe in a smaller, more efficient government. I believe in the power of the fifty states to make their own laws without undue Federal intervention. I believe that bigger is not necessarily better. I believe that individual’s are responsible for their own actions. I believe we need less regulation and fewer barriers to business owners. I believe in the United States Constitution. I believe this country is still the greatest country on Earth; however, I believe it is in grave danger.

Mike Sylvester
Chairman, Libertarian Party of Allen Country

*Publication of this article should not be construed as an endorsement of the Libertarian Party or Mike Sylvester by J.J. Jackson, this site (thelandofthefree.net) or Land of the Free Studios, Inc.
Fort Wayne

I strongly believe that nuclear power is a good source of energy and is safe. The nuclear power industry has been nearly destroyed by the United States government and its excessive regulations. The regulations are so oppressive that I decided to make a career change in 1998. I do not think we will ever complete a new nuclear power plant in The United States.
The government has undermined nuclear power in two different ways.

The first way is through excessive levels of government regulation. The nuclear power plant I worked at (The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Station) is a perfect example. In 1978 (Before Three Mile Island) the plant employed about 80 people, mostly equipment operators and security guards. The plant was operated in a safe and efficient manner.

Today, that same plant employs about 550 people. The plant makes the same amount of power today that it did in 1978, it just costs a whole lot more to produce that power. The plant hired about 470 people just to comply with government regulations after Three Mile Island.

The second problem is dealing with nuclear waste in the form of spent fuel rods. These fuel rods are radioactive and must be safely disposed of. The United States government decided to tax all consumers of nuclear power in the country and collect enough money so the government could fund and build a disposal facility.

The Nuclear Waste Fund was created in 1982. One tenth of a cent was charged for each kWh of electricity produced at a nuclear power plant. By 1992 the government had collected enough tax revenue to build a “state of the art” disposal facility. Eventually, due to pressure from the Utility industry, the government finally agreed to build the facility by Jan 31, 1998 at Yucca Mountain.
Yucca Mountain was not completed in 1998 and approximately sixty lawsuits were filed by the Utility industry and various States against the Federal government for breach of contract. It is estimated these lawsuits could cost the Federal government (taxpayers) as much as fifty billion dollars.

In 2001 the Department of Energy completed a cost study and determined it would cost four and a half billion dollars to build the Yucca Mountain facility. Today, The Nuclear Waste Fund has almost 16 billion dollars. This fund is currently used by Congress to offset a small portion of the annual budget deficit. The nuclear waste disposal facility at Yucca Mountain is no where near completion, in fact, Department of Energy officials now openly question whether the facility will be completed by 2010, twelve years after the promised completion date.

Since the disposal facility is not operational nuclear power plants have been forced to store their own spent fuel rods at their own cost.

President Bush wants to spur the growth of nuclear power plants. I am all for nuclear power, that being said, President Bush’s proposal makes no sense; in fact, it will waste billions of dollars. The new Energy Bill provides almost six and a half billion dollars of subsidies and direct spending to nuclear power generation companies to convince them to build new nuclear power plants. This is absurd. I would suggest The Department of Energy finish Yucca Mountain before it gets involved in building new nuclear power plants.

If we want new nuclear power plants to be constructed we need to minimize government regulation. A new nuclear power plant has not been started since 1973 due to excessive government regulation. The free market should dictate which power generation companies succeed and which ones fail, not the government.

We have experience with failed nuclear power plants right here in Indiana. Public Service Indiana proposed The Marble Hill nuclear power plant in 1973 with an estimated cost of 700 million dollars. Construction on the plant began in 1977 and expenses quickly doubled to about 1.4 billion dollars. In 1984 the project was halted and the plant was abandoned. This failed project cost The State of Indiana 2.8 billion dollars.

Mike Sylvester
Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Allen County
Fort Wayne

Stats Indiana tracks school enrollment data county by county; the most recent data they have is for the 2004-2005 school year. Stats Indiana excludes home schooled children from its database. 34.6% of all children in Allen County are enrolled in private schools!

If you include children who are home schooled in these statistics then fewer then 64% of all children in Allen County are attending Public Schools; in fact, Allen County has the highest percentage of children enrolled in private schools in the entire state. Allen County has 5.4% of the total population of Indiana. Allen County has 21.3% of all children enrolled in Private schools in Indiana.

I believe that parental involvement is the key to a successful public education system. I often hear that we do not have enough parental involvement in our local schools. I find that statement to be completely untrue, at least in Allen County.

34.6% of all children in Allen County are enrolled by their parents in Private Schools. These parents spend their hard earned money to pay both their property taxes (to fund Public Schools) and these same parents pay fees to the Private schools their children attend. These parents feel that their children can get a better education in Private schools then Public schools. I think it is obvious that this shows a great deal of parental concern and involvement in their child’s education.

2% of all children in Allen County are Home Schooled by their parents. These parents pay property taxes to fund the Public School system and they spend a great deal of their own time and money to educate their children themselves. These parents are extremely concerned with their children’s education.

I think that these statistics demonstrate that a large number of parents in Allen County care deeply about the education of their children. I attended Public Schools in Allen County. I know that many parents of Public School children also care deeply about the education of their children. I think that parents in Allen County should be given a great deal of credit.

For some reason that I cannot fathom our Public Education system insists that the only way to improve our school system is to spend increasing amounts of money on education every year. Per the Indiana Department of Education’s website we are spending twice as much money per student as we were spending twenty five years ago. This statistic takes into account for and adjusts for inflation.

Spending more money every year is not the way to improve our Public School system.

Property taxes are increasing at an alarming pace all across Allen County. In Perry Township, our property taxes increased on average 63% last year The final numbers are not in yet for this year; however, I am estimating that our property taxes will be increasing another 18% in Perry Township this year.

I am a product of the Public School system. My children will attend public schools in Northwest Allen County. I will do my best to help improve the Northwest Allen County School District. We have great teachers and we need to let them spend their time teaching students instead of following silly regulations dictated by Indianapolis and Washington D.C.

Mike Sylvester
President of The Valley Place Homeowner’s Association
Candidate for Northwest Allen County School Board in 2006

*Publication of this article should not be construed as an endorsement of the Libertarian Party or Mike Sylvester by J.J. Jackson, this site (thelandofthefree.net) or Land of the Free Studios, Inc.

Most small businesses are forced to hire a Certified Public Accountant to help them deal with the complicated Indiana tax code. That is good for me; my wife is a Certified Public Accountant. That is bad for small businesses and for our economy. We can make Indiana more business friendly by doing nothing other then simplifying the tax code. My taxation plan will simplify our tax code and will generate an extra fifty million dollars over the two year budget cycle.

We should eliminate several Indiana taxes completely. One of the first to eliminate is the small portion of property taxes that is paid to the State. Believe it or not, we actually pay a small amount of property taxes to the State of Indiana; the State of Indiana then turns around and pays it back (and a lot more) to various localities. What a wasteful idea. Property taxes should have nothing to do with State government. Only a politician could come up this “revolving door” method; no self-respecting economist would create the current system.

The State of Indiana charges an estate tax on people when they die, this is wrong. We pay taxes on our income every year, we pay taxes on almost every item we purchase, we pay fees (Some hidden) on countless items; enough is enough. We pay a tax for the privilege to consume alcoholic beverages in Indiana. This tax on alcohol consumption should be repealed, Prohibition ended in 1933. There are also many other additional taxes listed as “other.” All of these taxes should be abolished immediately.

After abolishing the above taxes I would levy a new tax. “Cherry Masters” should be legal and taxed. “Cherry Masters” are video gambling machines that have been in operation in many Indiana businesses for years. “Cherry Masters” allow consumers to play games like video poker. I propose that each machine cost $500 to license per year and the profits be taxed at a flat rate of 20%. This would enable businesses that rely on “Cherry Masters” to profit from these machines and would generate enough revenue to allow Indiana to abolish the previously mentioned taxes. These machines have been in operation for years and harm no one. They provide revenue for many Indiana small businesses and for various organizations such as The American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars.

This proposal will generate an extra fifty million dollars of tax revenue over the two year budget cycle. Indiana currently has over four billion dollars of debt upon which the taxpayers are paying interest. This is absurd. I want to give my children and grand children a better future; I do not want them to pay for the spending excesses of our current government officials. The State should act in a fiscally responsible manner and use this excess revenue to lower the shameful four billion dollar debt our elected officials have incurred.

We need one additional immediate change to our tax system and we need it badly. We must eliminate the Property Tax Replacement Fund. What happens currently is the State collects taxes in excess of what it requires. Then, using a complex formula, it “re-distributes” these taxes to various local government entities to subsidize local property taxes. This is wasteful and unnecessary; even worse, it masks the true cost of both local and State government.

I propose that we change the system to one that applies common sense. I propose that 75% of all Sales tax revenues be distributed to the 92 counties based on population. The State would then completely remove the Property Tax Replacement Fund from its budget. This is a revenue-neutral proposal.

This second proposal would prevent the State from doing what it did this last session. The State lowered the amount it paid to subsidize local property taxes; this forced localities all over Indiana to raise property taxes or to cut spending. We all know which one both Republican and Democratic localities will choose. Expect so see your property taxes go up another 7% this year!

Mike Sylvester
Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Allen County
Fort Wayne

HR 418 is a Bill that will allow the Federal Government to require all citizens of this great country to carry a National Identification card; this is scary enough by itself. You will not be able to use Federal services unless you carry this ID card with you. Without this card, you will not be able to be a passenger on an airplane, get a problem with your Social Security account fixed, or deal with the countless other Federal agencies that exist.

This is enough to frighten many of the citizens of this country all by itself; but, it gets worse. If this bill is passed the Federal government will force the 50 states to issue driver’s licenses that comply with a new stack of Federal rules and regulations. These rules and regulations will make it much harder for law abiding tax payers to obtain a driver’s license from the Indiana Department of Motor Vehicles (The BMV already has enough problems without making them comply with another pile of silly Federal regulations). This law will also require the Indiana Department of Motor Vehicles to submit a bunch of information to the Federal government so they can maintain a massive database about the taxpayers of this country.

This is bad enough; but, it again gets worse. Guess who will pay for this stupid Federal scheme? The tax payers of Indiana! We have enough financial problems in this state as it is. Why is Mark Souder adding to them? I though he was supposed to be on our side? There are provisions in this Bill allowing the Federal government to withhold highway money until Indiana complies with these new Federal regulations. Mark Souder just voted for and co-sponsored a Bill that will allow the Federal government to EXTORT the taxpayers of his own district!

This Bill has not yet passed the Senate. Maybe we will get lucky and Richard Lugar and Evan Bayh will stand up for the state of Indiana and stop this expansion of the Federal government and prevent them from extorting us, again.

If you think HR 418 is a terrible idea please contact us. We can make a difference and we will keep doing our best to inform the taxpayers of this area of the continued expansion of the Federal government and the loss of States rights. You can reach me at Mike.Sylvester@Verizon.net or by phone at 260-338-0833. See us on the web at AllenCountyLP.org. Enough is enough, join the Libertarian Party!

Mike Sylvester
Chairman of The Libertarian Party of Allen County
Fort Wayne

*Publication of this article should not be construed as an endorsement of the Libertarian Party by J.J. Jackson, this site (thelandofthefree.net) or Land of the Free Studios, Inc.

Look at some of what President Bush wanted to accomplish in his first term: A better public education system, fiscal responsibility, and less Federal involvement in the affairs of the fifty States. Let’s look at each of these goals President Bush set for himself.

President Bush increased Federal spending on education by 83%. He signed a bill called “No Child left Behind.” This bill established a set of Federal mandates to the fifty states; many of which are not funded. Not one single educator I have discussed this bill with thinks it will help Indiana; in fact, all of them feel that it will hurt our school systems. With all of this extra spending and this extra layer of beauracracy what has happened to the test scores of our school children? Unfortunately, they have dropped even further. I would give President Bush an “F” on education reform. He sure spent a lot of money; but, spending more money and adding another layer of administrators is not the way to fix the system.

After being elected in 2000, President Bush promised more fiscal responsibility. He inherited a 5.6 trillion dollar deficit. The Federal deficit is now over 7.6 trillion dollars. Our Republican Congress, Republican Senate, and Republican President have increased the Federal deficit by one third in four short years. The Republican Party can no longer call themselves fiscal conservatives. Our Federal deficit is so high that our currency has sunk to new lows against foreign currency. The main reason for the plunge of the dollar is foreign investors are concerned about the massive debt that our government is incurring. There is no doubt that President Bush receives an “F” for fiscal responsibility. Our children and grand children will regret the spending excesses of our generation.

President Bush got his start in politics as the Governor of Texas. He often said that the Federal government should stay out of the business of the fifty states. He often said that local and state governments can spend the tax payer’s money better then the distant Federal government. On this point, President Bush and I agree. So what has President Bush done to remove power from the Federal government and pass it back to the fifty states as our Constitution intended?

During the last four years the Federal government has taken even more power from the fifty states. President Bush has done the exact opposite of what he promised. “No Child left Behind” is a perfect example of going in the wrong direction. “No Child left Behind” mandates rules to the fifty states instead of giving them more power to handle things locally.

The Federal government is extorting the fifty states for all kinds of reasons. In the last three years the Federal government has withheld over thirty million dollars of Indiana’s highway funds because they feel that we do not comply with the Federal “open container laws.” How did “open container laws” become a Federal issue in the first place, it is absurd. President Bush must yet again receive a grade of “F” on restoring power to the fifty states and that is a shame. I feel that one of his best ideas was restoring power to the fifty states.

The Libertarian Party of Allen County stands for fiscal responsibility, the rights of the fifty states, personal responsibility and accountability, and less government regulation in our lives. If you would like to learn more please contact me at 260-338-0833 or see us online at AllenCountyLP.org.

Mike Sylvester
Chairman, Libertarian Party of Allen County
Fort Wayne

*Publication of this article should not be construed as an endorsement of the Libertarian Party by J.J. Jackson, this site (thelandofthefree.net) or Land of the Free Studios, Inc.