Poor Obama. Despite all his efforts, or maybe because of them, the U.S. economy keeps crumbling.
But to be fair, government is a failure everywhere. Exhibit A is the Big Fat Greek Bankruptcy. Have you heard? The Greek tragedy is unfolding…again. Greece is bankrupt and insolvent…again. Government thinks it can save Greece with taxpayer money…again. And the more money poured into Greece by the EU, IMF and central bankers, the worse it gets. The Greek GDP is going in reverse. The economy is crumbling despite hundreds of billions loaned by government only a year ago. Now it’s time for Groundhog Day…again.
Does this story sound familiar? It plays on the news here in the USA nightly. Government pours trillions into the U.S. economy and things get worse by the day. Unemployment won’t budge. The dollar is vanishing. Debt is multiplying. Real Estate is collapsing. Inflation is raging. So Obama spends more. The vicious cycle continues.
When will we ever learn? Politicians, bureaucrats, and central bank chiefs the world over keep repeating the mantra of big government- “If only you’ll give us more time and money, this time we’ll fix the problem.” But as one of my heroes Ronald Reagan often said, “Government isn’t the solution, it’s the problem.”
History proves that government ruins whatever it touches. The fact is, the economy will not improve until we stop government from interfering. Government may feel our pain…but that’s because they are the ones causing it.
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But don’t take my word for it. The Congressional Effect Fund, a mutual fund on Wall Street, has studied the effects of Congress on the economy for decades. Since 1964- whenever Congress is in session, the U.S. stock market is up about 1% on an annualized basis. During that same period, while Congress is on vacation, the stock market is up 17%. Coincidence?
Still don’t believe government is a walking disaster?
How about the Veterans Administration? A federal appeals court recently ruled that the VA suffers from “unchecked incompetence.” That incompetence is killing our brave veterans. It turns out that 18 returning vets commit suicide per day. 85,000 vets are on waiting lists for care. Even severely depressed vets must wait eight weeks to see a psychiatrist. 1,500 vets die each year while waiting for care. If you deserve a disability check, you’ll be waiting as long as four years. Still want to serve your country? Still want government to run your healthcare?
The U.S. Postal Service– enforced by law– has no competition. Yet it loses $8 billion per year. No results like that have ever been produced in the history of the private sector.
The government-run school system is in shambles. Taxpayers spend the most per student, and get among the worst results in the world. The Dept of Education budget went from $30 billion to $60 billion under Bush. Anyone think results doubled? Under Obama we spent an extra $125 billion in stimulus on education. Anyone see any improvement?
My wife Debra and I home-schooled our daughter from birth to her acceptance at Harvard. The first classroom of her entire life was inside the hallowed halls of Harvard. She just got her Harvard report card. Straight A’s. Think it might be time to call government-run education a failure?
When Medicare was founded in the 1960’s, government “experts” estimated its cost at $12 BB per year by 1990. Instead it was $110 Billion.
When NASA started the Space Shuttle, their “experts” estimated its future cost at $10.7 million per trip. The actual cost has turned out to be $1.7 billion per trip.
Those kinds of mistakes drive companies in the private sector out of business. But this doesn’t present a problem for government employees. They just raise your taxes and retire on $100,000 pensions.
How about the Dept of Energy? It was founded in 1977 to solve our energy crisis. It now has 100,000 employees and spends $24 billion per year. On what? Anyone think we are less energy independent than in 1977? Why didn’t we just spend that entire budget on buying gas for the American people?
How about the Federal Reserve’s track record? The Fed was created in 1913 with one main goal- protect the U.S. dollar. Since the Fed’s creation our dollar has lost 94% of its value. Ninety-four percent. With friends like that, who needs enemies?
Worst of all is the cost of the government employees themselves. The unfunded liability for the pensions of federal employees is now over $5 trillion dollars. On the state level it is estimated to be between $1 and $3 trillion. One state alone, California, has unfunded liabilities of as much as $500 billion.
All of this money is spent on government employees who have produced an annual deficit of $1.6 trillion, and a national debt of $14 trillion. With unfunded liabilities added in, the taxpayers owe an unimaginable $100 trillion, almost double world GDP. What do these 22 million employees do all day? Think up new ways to bankrupt the country?
Should any of this surprise you? This same federal government took over the most famous legal brothel in the history of Nevada, and bankrupted it in a year.
The moral to this story? If you can’t run a whorehouse and make a profit, you can’t run my healthcare. Or the VA. Or public schools. Or the post office. Or the war on drugs. Or the Dept of Energy. Or the economy. Or ANYTHING.
If you’re waiting for government to save you, or this economy, or Greece, get ready for a long wait. Eternity.
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