Government is the Problem

– By: Larry Walker II –

“Originally passed as part of the Budget Control Act of 2011 on the heels of the debt ceiling compromise, the sequester was intended to pressure the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (the “Supercommittee”) to agree on a budget of $1.5 trillion by way of spending cuts and revenue increases over the next decade.”

The above excerpt is from the National Council on Disability’s webpage entitled, What Will Sequestration Mean for People with Disabilities? A similar blurb may now be found on about every other government agency website, followed by a breakdown of how many disabled, homeless, widows and orphans will be left for dead, unless the federal government repeals its week-old budgetary cuts and instead raises taxes by around 40.7% across-the-board, which is about what it would take to come anywhere close to balancing the federal budget without such cuts.

But, the real question is what does the sequestration mean to you? I can’t answer that, but I can tell you what it means to me. What the sequestration means to me is that the U.S. government has decayed to the point of passing dummy laws, solely for the purpose of pressuring the very lawmakers who pass them, to enact real laws. In other words, government enacted the Sequester as law; solely as a means of pressuring itself into repealing it, and when its attempt failed, the mock law remained permanent.

I mean it’s akin to me signing a blood covenant stating that, “In my household, we will do without cable television, cell phone data plans, dining out, movies, snacks, and all other non-necessities, until such time as we actually have the money to pay for it,” but doing so, solely for the purpose of pressuring myself into deciding which we are going to do without – cable television, cell phone data plans, dining out, movies, snacks, or all other non-necessities. However, since there already wasn’t enough money to go around, and since I had already signed the covenant in my own blood, there was really nothing else to decide. So why didn’t I just make that decision from the get go? Actually, I did. “To thine own self be true.” ~ Anonymous

The lesson for government: Don’t pass a law you don’t intend to enforce. And for the public: Government is not the solution to our problems, government is the problem. Signing a bill into law, solely for the purpose of pressuring lawmakers to repeal it, and then whining about it when they refuse, is indicative of the kind of leadership emanating from the White House these days. “In America you have a right to be stupid – if you want to be.” ~ John Kerry, Secretary of State (2/26/2013). Yeah, so who’s looking stupid now?