Michael Swickard
“In general, presidents and congressmen have very limited power to do good for the economy and awesome power to do bad. The best good thing that politicians can do for the economy is to stop doing bad. In part, this can be achieved through reducing taxes and economic regulation, and staying out of our lives.” – Walter Williams
Most Americans have little interest in the congressional health-care debate other than to wonder how much worse government will make our lives. Given their track record, most people realize there is little chance of Congress making anything better.
For the most part, the good things in our lives are of our own construction, and the bad came from Congress.
Not all things have been bad. Congress has kept the military active in our defense and there have been a few good programs out of Congress. But, mostly, we endure Congress. Example: the millions of pages of special tax rules so that not even the IRS knows what your tax really should be. Congress could simplify taxes but would lose power doing so.
Another example: programs like Social Security that take your money and write a future IOU for your benefits, essentially a government-sponsored Ponzi operation.
Reverse what Congress has long been doing
Business in America, the engine of prosperity, operates in all sorts of twisted ways because of government rules, which brings us back to the health-care debate. The media and politicians are absorbed in this debate because it is really only about government becoming more powerful and intrusive in our lives. As Congress increases its power, individual Americans surrender their power. Once surrendered, power is forever lost.
For Americans, there is something much more compelling than debating giving more power to Congress: the weak American economy. Most Americans concentrate on keeping some of their paycheck and not going nuts with their kids. The problem with kids may never have a solution other than enough years passing, but there is a solution for the crisis of our economy tanking: Reverse what Congress has long been doing that tanked the economy.
Very simple, eh?
Glenn Beck notes, “One party taxes and spends while the other party just spends. Both are addicted to spending.” Read the addiction to spending as also an addiction to making government bigger and more intrusive in our lives.
The last two presidents, a Republican and a Democrat, have expanded government further than all former presidents combined. This has been done on the back of our economy, which subsequently faltered.
Congress should look in the mirror
Money that goes to government spending or servicing that debt leaves the private sector and is not available to support the vitality of the economy. In all of the world economies, when enough money leaves the private sector to support the public sector, it causes that economy to fade.
Economic climate describes the actions of the government in making business either harder or easier. If it becomes easier for the private sector to do business, more people are hired and the economy improves. More regulations and taxes make it much harder to do business, so jobs become scarcer.
Rather than debate making government much larger and more intrusive with a takeover of health care, most Americans would rather Congress spend their time and focus on the task of making the American economy more vibrant. To do so, Congress has to only look in the mirror to see the problem.
The notion of job creation is really prosperity development. Our nation becomes more prosperous and its citizens, from top to bottom, become wealthier when the engine of prosperity – our private sector – works.
The enemy of Congress
All of the political constraints on our economy, especially in energy independence, do the work of our enemies in reducing the wealth and independence of America. The good news is that the day we want out of the jail of our own making, we have the ability to set ourselves free.
Every moment an employer spends thinking about how to do business despite the rules made by Congress is a moment of productivity wasted. You might ask, “Well, then why not just do business the way Congress intends?” Congress intends for small businesses to become extinct because small business does not want government to become larger and more intrusive. They are the enemy of Congress.
The other thing that happens both nationally, statewide and locally is that activists push government to do things that are bad for the economy. Example: New Mexico, which is starving for oil money, enacted a few years ago a barrier rule that make it more attractive for companies to drill in other states instead of New Mexico.
Congress, likewise, makes rules that ensure jobs shift offshore for political reasons such as the loud environmental lobby. Congress gets power from these lobby organizations.
Change at the ballot box
Our freedom is directly connected to changing the role of government from making itself bigger and more intrusive to the improvement of our private sector. Changing Congress may only be achieved at the ballot box. It certainly is not a party vote.
Stopping Congress from bad actions such as the health-care reform and the cap-and-trade legislation takes people voting against making government even bigger and more unfriendly to the private sector.
The power-hungry politicians must realize a new wind is blowing in Congress. We want and need a vibrant economy despite all of the various lobby efforts to the contrary. We can and must make this change.
Swickard is a weekly columnist for this site. You can reach him at michael@swickard.com.
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