Viewpoints
The Government is Here to
Help
By Alan Lidstone
July 27, 2006
Thursday
On Wednesday, July 24th, 2006, the Washington Post reported that
"The federal government will need to either cut spending
or raise taxes down the road to pay for extending President Bush's
recent tax cuts, the Treasury Department said in a report released
yesterday, dismissing the idea popular with many Republicans
that such sacrifices can be avoided."
The President, the Administration, and the Republican members
of Congress keep telling us that the economy is doing great and
we should sleep well knowing what a great job they are all doing.
What I've noticed over the last six years is that:
(1) Energy Costs have been increasing at a dangerous rate. My
electric costs are up about 50% in six years and vehicle fuel
costs have risen from $1.30/gallon to over $3.00/gallon.
(2) Hundreds of major US corporations have eliminated providing
medical care for retirees.
(3) Hundreds of major US corporations have eliminated defined
benefit retirement plans for their employees. In addition, a
record number of US corporations have declared bankruptcy and
turned significantly under-funded pension plans to the Federal
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, increasing the deficit
for this Federal Agency from $2 Billion Dollars to over $20 Billion
Dollars and climbing.
(4) The President and his Administration made an intensive effort
to gut Social Security retirement benefits for tens of million
of Americans that fortunately failed.
(5) The Administration has gone from inheriting an annual $300
Billion Dollar surplus in the Federal Budget to increasing the
total deficit by almost 3 Trillion Dollars.
(6) Homeland Security officials tell us that there is no way
to inspect incoming cargo containers from foreign countries,
reduce the number of illegal aliens coming into the country,
or stop employers from violating Federal laws regarding the hiring
of illegal aliens. Homeland Security did manage to intercept
and seize approximately 40,000 consignments of prescription drugs
mailed from Canadian pharmacies to U.S. citizens (reported by
CNN on July 25, 2006).
I would deeply appreciate if the Government would stop trying
to help us.
Regards,
Alan Lidstone
Venice, FL - USA
About: Alan Lidstone is a retired
systems engineer and retired Naval Officer and is a freelance
RV lifestyle writer.
Note: Comments published
on Viewpoints are the opinions of the writer
and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sitnews.
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