Essay that didn't make the D&C

My last post was a boiled down version of what I'm now posting. It was intended for the D&C Speaking Out Essay section. Unfortunately they told me they would not be publishing it. So here's the original version before I had to edit it down to fit within their word count restraints.



I really wonder if there is anyone other than myself who cannot see the truth and cruel reality that lies ahead for all of us. We as union, state, county and most of our towns are bankrupt. We are broke and nobody has the guts to stand up and say it to our politicians, or to the people for that matter. I’ve listened to elites from the federal level all the way down to the local level talk about how to spend our stimulus money or how best to use the unspent bailout money. They talk about it as if this money is really ours. Strike that, they talk about it as if this money is really “real”. Everything they’re doing to keep us solvent and afloat is being done by spending money we’ve borrowed from Japan, communist China, stolen from our children’s future, printed out of thin air by having our debts monetized by the Federal Reserve. This economic model does not work and we can’t expect these political elites to fix the very same problem that they themselves created. Expecting that to happen is just plain naïve because they are the problem.

Every single level of government is no longer able to pay the bills with the money they take in from taxes, fees, fines and surcharges. We need to borrow and print money to stay solvent. This is the very definition of bankruptcy.

Somebody had better have the guts to stand up and say enough is enough. Enough of bailing out failed banks and giving away the store to the transnational corporations. Enough of the unfunded mandates bankrupting our state and county. Enough of the ever increasing entitlement programs sending us into insolvency. Enough of the compassionate conservatives telling us we should be “spreading democracy” around the globe. We’ve spent well beyond our means and it’s time to face the reality that the party is over. Maybe it was fun while it lasted but it’s time to clean up the mess. Let’s all grow up and quit taking the easy way out and trying to pin the blame on just one party or another. The blame lies at the feet of the Statist’s in both major parties. They’re the only ones who have been in control for over a century.

The Statist’s have been legislating, taxing, borrowing and spending us into insolvency in order to protect us from every little physical, spiritual and emotional obstacle that we may encounter in our daily lives. For decades both parties have been marketing the idea that government can give you everything you ever wanted, and solve all of your problems as well. They accomplished none of that but they did manage to bankrupt us in the process. This theory of government doesn’t work and our current financial situation that we find ourselves in today, which has been in the making since the 70’s, is proof of the failure of that theory of government.

The political elites of the past 30 years, in both parties, envisioned a pain free utopia of fun and comfort for all and sacrifice of very few even if it meant they had to mortgage the financial security of future generations in order to accomplish it. And now that they realized they’ve gone to our well once too often, they’ve tapped into the well of our children and our children’s children. And that’s where we should draw the line in the sand and say enough is enough.

We as a community are going to face some serious fiscal issues from now through the foreseeable future and its going to be painful one way or another. The longer we wait to deal with it the worse the pain we’re going to feel. So why don’t we just be adults and just grab a hold of that bandage, yank it off and get it over with. The longer we wait the bigger of a bandage we’re going to have and the more pain we’re going to have to suffer through. Sooner or later we’re going to have to own up to this out of control spending, there’s no way to avoid it.

We do have a few choices to solve this matter. Unfortunately all of them will hurt in one way or another, but now is the time to choose one. Now is the time to face reality. We could just kick the can down the road, hide our heads in the sand and let our children and grandchildren deal with it. Unfortunately that has been the choice of just about every politician ever, and that’s a weak choice made by the weak minded. We can default on our debts and obligations and walk away from the problem and hope some other political entity comes along and cleans it up for us. I truly cherish my freedom and our sovereignty; I’ll pass on that option. Or we can take the common sense approach and take the pain. Start paying off our debts instead of racking up more debt just to put the pain off until later. The common sense answer isn’t an easy one and it would be a tough road. Everybody from the top to the bottom would to have to make huge sacrifices. Like any one of us who has worked to pay off personal debt, our Nation is going to have to drastically cut discretionary spending. There is just no other way to go about it. There will be no way to afford any sort of safe and functioning infrastructure, security, education or safety net if we continue on going about business as usual and foolishly spend ourselves into bankruptcy. We just won’t be able to afford anything, at all.

Now is the time for my generation to stand up to these misguided elites, to lead and make the sacrifices that will be required in order to right the ship. Let’s not hand off this mess to multiple generations of kids who didn’t even have a vote in how their financial security and sovereignty was sold off to communist China, transnational corporations, the Federal Reserve and others who don’t have our best interest at heart. Let’s not leave our kids to go down with this ship. This is gut check time and also time to gather up the intestinal fortitude that our Grandparents had and make serious sacrifices so our kids will have a better future, not so we as generation will have a more comfortable future, so our kids will have a better future.

Timothy Davis
Mumford, NY