Huzzah! Finally some politicians with gumption!
Authored: January 29th, 2009 @ 9:31 AM
House Republicans Stand Firm on their principles.
According to IOUSA we (in the form of our government) have about $8.7T (that’s T for Trillion) in unsecured debt. That’s essentially credit card debt (no collateral) that we have promised to pay off using our future income stream (taxes). If you look at the promissory notes we hold (promises made, like Medicare and Social Security) that number becomes $53T. Considering that our net collection (income tax, private and corporate) for 2007 was about $2.39T, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that there is trouble in river city …
Yesterday (28 Jan 2009) House Republicans stood their ground … the bill they rejected had so many earmarks that you could barely see the pork underneath. One choice editorial cartoon says it all:
We are borrowing from our children … saddling them with debt, the immoral equivalent of maxing out a credit card, then handing it to the kids with a hearty “here, I believe this is yours“. We oughta be ashamed, but right now I know some people who should be very heartily congratulated. They will face scathing press, and I am sure some of our party will need to be re-educated to understand that their principled stand trumps our selfish need for more pork at our children’s expense. So we shout out …
Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!
References:
- We heartily recommend you watch this 35-minute video. This was a topic at a recent Politics and a Pint in Northfield.
The associated movie is described as “To the U.S. economy what ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ was to the environment.” (Reuters).
- IRS website for 2006, 2007 tax figures.