The "Big Whoop"

My initial reaction to the Deficit Reduction Commission plan is to find it underwhelming as to the amount itself; $4 trillion deficit reduction in the next ten years. Our current deficit is $1.3 trillion per year so, depending on the economy, that could mean the plan reduces the deficit by a whopping 30% or so. Let’s give the commission a Chinese cheer for that. Fui, fui, fui.

The only thing I ask of government is that it be responsive to the people it governs and that it be sustainable, and the one we have now is neither. It can be a big spending big government, or a small spending small government, whichever the majority of my fellow citizens choose, and I will accept it without complaint.

If the people of this nation don’t want to pay taxes, and want to have a government which does nothing beyond the specific provisions of the constitution of guarding the border and providing common currency, I will go along and will not complain. That would not be my preferred form of governance, but it is sustainable and I am fully on board with the concept of the rule of the majority.

If the people of this nation want a government that provides a social safety net in addition to the constitutionally mandated functions, and is willing to pay the taxes necessary to support that process, I am happy to support that decision. That is, in fact, my preferred form of governance.

This government, however, is attempting to use the big government model in the provision of services and operation, and the small government model in the realm of taxation, and that is simply unsustainable. The people of this nation seem to be demanding that the government do this, and it is a failure of leadership that no one is willing to stand up and spell out what is needed to set this ship on course.

Obama and Congress, rather than taking on that responsibility themselves, tried to punt it off to a “bipartisan commission” to do what they lacked the courage to do, and the commission seems to have failed in its mission.