Don't you find it amazing that the U.S. Government can be running in the red in the early 1980’s and despite huge growth in tax revenues since then, we still cannot balance the federal budget or get programs "fully funded"?  I shake my head every time I hear a politician whine and complain that there  isn't enough money to fund this program or that program.  Every time federal revenues increase, federal spending increases at the same rate plus an extra 2% it seems.

But stop for a moment.  Wouldn't it be so nice if you and I could spend more money than we made each year without fear of reprisal?  That is what the government does.  And they do it year after year.  They do it because we don't force them to be responsible.  And we don't hold them responsible for many reasons; some of which I will discuss shortly.

How is it that even as we increase federal revenues (i.e. taxes) that we still cannot reach a point where programs are funded to their fullest extent?   It's simple, and its not because taxes aren't high enough either.   It's because once the federal government has your money they don’t want to give it back.

Now, some of you are probably thinking, “But I get a refund check every year.  The government IS giving me back the money it doesn't need.”  Not true, and that is the great façade of the income tax rebate/return.

You see the rebate is not a return of the money the government doesn't need.  Time and time again they show us just how easily it is for them to spend any and all money they get. The rebate is a return of the money the government was not legally allowed to collect from you in the first place.  So you see there is a difference; a huge difference.  The money you get back is physically your money.  Not that of the government.  So they must, by law, return it to you.

Damn law.  It's always getting in the way of bureaucratic spending.

The fact is that each year the government is fiscally irresponsible.  They spend more money than they have available.  Not that taxes aren't high enough.  And the sooner we come to realize this, the sooner we can fix the problem.  And the fix is NOT to raise taxes.

The problem is that the more money the government collects, the more money it will spend  because the more they spend, the more people they make dependent on them.  They prove it year after year after year.  They think that it is their right and duty to spend every last dime and then some.  They have it .after all  And what good can politicians be if they aren't spending your money.  What they should be doing is upholding their duties.  Not tax and spending the country into an abyss.

Of course the second that you try to reign in the size of government to spend only what it collects in revenues (or heaven forbid less!) everyone starts screaming about how that will mean cuts to Medicare, Social Security, education, or whatever taboo subject the politicians feel will draw the most ire of the public.  (Note: the fact that most of these programs aren't even things the federal, state or local governments should be doing anyway is an argument for another day)

Why is their first attempt always to scare us?  Because they know that if budgets are cut so that budgets must be balanced or running at a surplus then the first things to go will have to be all the little pork programs that they use to get constituents to vote for them.  Heaven forbid they would actually have to run on platforms of public service instead of platforms of providing pork and invoking fear.

So they attempt to scare us.  It's easier for them that way.  It makes fewer people question their motives.  It makes people with something to loose quake in their boots.  Heck if you received a $10,000 check from the government each year and you thought that your pet program was going to draw the axes in order to decrease spending you'd probably run out and vote for whomever promised to not let that happen.  It makes many people vote in fear of their bank account instead of in fact.  And the fact is that most of what the government spends money on is just big rolls of pork designed to reward people for voting a certain way.  In essence, they buy an election.  And then the rest of us get stuck footing the bill.

The facts are that the government will have to start accounting for the money it simply looses and cannot account for ($17 Billion in 2001 alone) at some point.  It means that we will no longer be able to afford to pay farmers not to farm.  It means we will no longer be able to pay citizens capable of working not to work.  It means that pork projects that benefit a simple few must be slashed. Etc., etc., etc.

It means, simply, that the government has to be responsible and not attempting to circumvent such core principles as the free market.

There is only one way that the government can make a weak claim to hold onto as much money as it can each year.  That is to continually make certain that it operates (purposefully) in the red and demand that it needs more money to fund "necessary" programs.  By doing this they can make a halfhearted claim that they need the money.

And let's face it.  If they didn't “need” the money what would they be obligated to do?  Why quite simply they would have to return it to the American people who paid the taxes!  Again, this is taboo however because it means that the money has to be returned to those that paid it, and not those leeching off the government for handouts.  That means that a person who paid $40,000 in taxes would get back more money than someone that paid $3,000.  It's simple logic but so "unfair" to many.

But watch out for slick tricks.  I guarantee that their first attempt at returning any surplus funds would be to fund programs supposedly for the people like building roads and hospitals and whatnot.  Hence simply redistributing the money about the government in a veiled attempt at promoting “the general welfare”.  But in the end it would simply mean promoting new ways to hide waste and create pork.

After all, for example, if the government uses money to build hospitals is it  not a huge leap for the government to start requiring that people use those hospitals?  Wouldn't want the tax payers dollars to go to waste after all.  We are a society based on the ideals of the free market.  But when we allow the government to control too much money and skirt the free market and subsidize unprofitable activities just because they feel a need we have tilted the playing field.  Private industry that has to account for it's money can not compete against a government entity that does not have to be fiscally sound. Thus in the above scenario private hospitals fall by the wayside until all that is left is big brother taking care of you.

It would mean more ways to make you and I even more dependent on the government.  When citizens become dependent on government we are no longer a free society.

Not only must we force the government remain with in the confines of its monetary limits except in the direst of emergencies, but we also must maintain the government within the confines of what the Constitution says she can do.  Maybe we all need to reread this document from time to time because it sure seems as though many of the men and women we send to Washington DC completely contradict it with every other piece of legislation that they breath life into.  Not to mention some judges who are sworn to uphold the Constitution and laws.

Without spending constraints, the government quickly ceases to be of, for and by the people but instead becomes of, for and by the government and the non elected bureaucrats.  The moment that we the people allow the government to feed itself by increasing spending past the level of revenues collected is the moment that we become increasingly more dependent on the government for simple things that we used to provide for our selves.  It is the moment we begin to loose our basics rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness because slowly but surely as the government gets more and more money and you have less and less, it will desire to manage those rights for us.

It is the moment that the will of the people ceases to be heard, and the exact moment our last gasp of freedoms air is squeezed from our lungs.

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