Opinion: Taking Our Country Back!
2 min readThe Endeavor News
by Ken Gerg
(Long-time Cameron County resident Ken Gerg has played an organizational role in the local Tea Party.)
Cameron County’s initial TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party meeting would, by any standards, have to be considered a major success. Approximately 150 citizens who are concerned over the country’s direction attended the two-hour meeting.
This event was prompted by the atrocious voter turnout in the spring primaries (approximately 29 percent in Cameron County, 19 percent in McKean). The Tea Party is gearing up for the Nov. 2 elections and is trying to put candidates in power who will stop the out of control spending in both Pennsylvania and Washington.
The Tea Party is not allied to any political party. Its goal is simply to take our country back from the tax-and-spend politicians; to stop the bloated bureaucracies of the local, state and federal governments; further, to try to get elected politicians to abide by the Constitution. Currently the federal government is spending money at the rate of $112,000 per second, or about $4.4 billion per day. The national debt is $13.3 trillion dollars.
During the first 10 months of President Obama’s administration, the federal debt grew by over $2.5 trillion dollars. This is more than the total debt accumulated during the administration of all United States presidents from Washington through Reagan.
What is a trillion dollars, you ask? If you filled Penn State’s football stadium (all 100,000 plus seats) and gave every person there $1,000, you would have to fill the stadium every weekend for roughly the next 40,000 years before you have a trillion dollars.
Many examples of the out of control government were brought up, one being the Department of Energy established in 1977 to eliminate our dependency on foreign oil. Today, this department has 16,000 employees and a $24 billion dollar budget and after 33 years we buy more foreign oil than we did in 1977.
The Constitution was quoted many times throughout the evening and it was mentioned how the current Washington insiders seem to be doing everything in their power to circumvent the most powerful document of our republic.
If there was any downside to the evening, it had to be the absence of younger voters who, in essence, have the most to lose if this wasteful, out of control spending is allowed to continue.
With a very few short weeks left until Nov. 2, now is not the time to be bashful about speaking out against the threat to American sovereignty, the blessings provided by our republic and our children’s future.
Read this story and more online at endeavornews.com or in this week’s edition of the Endeavor News.
I write regarding the following claim: “During the first 10 months of President Obama’s administration, the federal debt grew by over $2.5 trillion dollars. This is more than the total debt accumulated during the administration of all United States presidents from Washington through Reagan.” I think some additional context is helpful to keep the claim from being misleading.
First, the claim does not account for inflation. According to the CBO, publicly held debt stood at $2.2 trillion at the end of fiscal 1989 (the last budget signed by Reagan). That would be equivalent to $3.9 trillion in 2010. By way of comparison, while the publicly held federal debt has increased by 41 percent during the Obama administration, it actually increased by 103 percent during the Reagan administration.
Second, the claim appears to attribute this increase solely to President Obama. Not only did publicly held debt increase by $4.2 trillion during President George W. Bush’s eight years in office, about one-half of the increase in spending in 2009—i.e., the first 10 months of the Obama administration—was the result of the bank bailout (TARP), which was signed into law by President Bush in October 2008. I believe other spending increases in 2009 were also the result of “built-in” spending increases related to entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security. Of course, it must also be recognized that budget deficits and debt are a function of both federal spending and federal tax revenues.
My point being that, while it is perfectly legitimate to be concerned with the amount of federal spending and the national debt, many tend to attribute the spending solely to the Obama administration, forgetting the prominent role that the Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush played in increasing the national debt. Just something to keep in mind on Election Day.
Thank you for your well written and intelligent comment.
Very refreshing!
I am disturbed by the TEA people saying that they are “taking our country back.” Taking it back from whom? These folks forget the the current administration and Congress were lawfully elected, in most cases by a substantial majority. I guess that we are taking the country back from ourselves. Maybe the TEA folks should remember that and recognize the democratic process for what it is, good or bad. It also might be useful if they shared with us their miraculous plan .to cut taxes, reduce the deficit, and put us all to work. Talk is cheap
Actually, if you gave 100,000 people $1,000 every weekend of the year, it wouldn’t take 40,000 years to reach $1 trillion. It would “only” take 192 years.
100,000 x $1,000 x 52 x 192 = 1,000,000,000,000