Taxes, Entitlements and the Truth

It is absolutely pathetic and frustrating to listen to all of the bickering in Washington these days over raising taxes and cutting spending. The Republicans want to cut spending and not raise taxes. The Democrats want to raise taxes and not cut spending. The bottom line is that we have become a people that is addicted to government money. We have convinced ourselves that it is the government's job to take care of us (e.g. Katrina, Sandy, etc.). Folks, we all know how Obama got back into office: entitlements. The American people decided that they wanted a big government that would continue to provide them with free contraception, abortion, unemployment, medicare, medicaid, education, military protection,  and the list goes on and on.

Just spent three and a half hours on a train the other day with a Spaniard and a Frenchmen. They are in absolute awe that America is running down the very road that destroyed their countries' economies. They are fleeing to countries like Peru just to hang on to what little money they have left. Americans are going to be doing the same thing if we don't wake up to reality. We cannot spend more money than we take in. Full stop. We cannot keep printing money. If America were a company, it would have already filed for bankruptcy.

The bottom line is that if we want to just keep going down the road we are going down (and apparently the majority of us do, based on the last election), taxes are going to have to go up. The best answer is to stop spending, but let's be serious, that's simply not going to happen because we have become addicted to big government.