Tax and Spend

Why Some Things Will Never Change

We are seeing the decline and fall of the American empire taking place before our eyes. Well, actually, it has been pretty evident for some time. For over two hundred years the United States has been infected with a malaise that finally appears to be developing into a terminal condition.

The United States has haboured in its bosom the belief in its own Manifest Destiny to lead the world as the most powerful nation upon the earth. Granted, it was a new kind of Manifest Destiny--the spawn of Enlightenment humanism--which believed that every human being on earth was entitled by right to enjoy the privileges of living under a social and political system that reproduced the accomplishments of the United States. The role and responsibility which fell to the United States was to showcase utopia, provide a beacon of hope to oppressed peoples, lead by example, make the world safe for democracy, and cajole, encourage, push and shove the rest of humanity towards the US version of heaven upon earth.

Now of course it would be an overstatement to suggest that this hubris was universally believed--there have been many in the history of that nation who have argued strenuously and trenchantly against such folly and idolatry. But they have always been out voted at the end of the day. The mantra "USA, USA USA!" has always pulled more votes than the contrary.

The burden of saving the world, coupled with the fatal internal contradictions of humanistic rights-based politics, has meant that for over two centuries the people of the United States have increasingly looked to their government as their god. Manifest destiny was always too big for individuals and the private sector to accomplish. The duty to save the world had to be invested in the government--man in his collective form--which would appropriate and pool all the resources of the nation and deploy them to showcase the US as a secular humanist utopia, and extend its salvific influence around the globe.

And that has meant an insatiable appetite for more and more money to fund an ever expanding government. The land of the free increasingly has become the land of the indebted. Successive governments have run up greater and greater debts, which, in the end, the people have to pay. It's a costly business saving the world. For in order to save the world, one has to keep America in a "saved" condition--and that means government spending.

What we have seen in recent months is a massive increase in government spending in that country, spending way above and beyond the income of the federal and state governments (which by any reasonable measure must be regarded as bankrupt). The graphic illustrates the quantum and scale of Obama's mania.



(Hat Tip ScrubOne. Please note that this projected deficit is the "best case" scenario--that is, it is fantasy land. It does not take into account the lower economic growth to result from higher corporate taxes. It assumes that growth in the US economy will "grow by a solid 3.2 percent in 2010. That growth would be followed by even stronger increases of 4 percent in 2011, 4.6 percent in 2012 and 4.2 percent in 2013". Good luck with that. As some political wags noted, it looks like one of the most popular woman, Rosy Scenario, is back in town. Also, the deficit factors in only an "initial deposit" on some of the largest Obama spending programmes: that is, the deficit does not reflect the full cost of the maniacal "bold vision.")

There are only three known ways to fund this enormous spending splurge. The government can increase taxes--and Obama has already announced a one trillion dollar increase in taxes--most of which are aimed at the higher socio-economic group and at businesses. Secondly, it can borrow--and the Treasury is now running a debt issuance programme of historic proportions. And, thirdly, it can simply print money--which the Federal Reserve is increasingly being driven towards. "Helicopter" Ben looks like living up to his sobriquet.

The end result will be a significant drag on the productive sector of the nation as state enterprise squeezes out private enterprise, replacing it with the inevitable inefficiencies, waste, and featherbedding of state-run, artificially-propped-up enterprise. Increased business taxes will also impede and drag upon the private commercial sector, weakening it still further in the face of global competition. And the United States will increasingly become indebted to other nations. It alone does not have the financial resources any longer to buy up its own government issued debt. The monster's appetite can no longer be satiated by its own citizens. It needs the world.

But the borrower becomes the lender's slave. So, the enslavement of the people of the United States to their government is morphing into enslavement to other nations. American Manifest Destiny lies shattered. It is just that few Americans have noticed yet.

The secular humanists do not have many options. Because they believe in the omni-competence of governments to deliver their materialistic rights-based utopia, they insist on the government spending more and more and more, and growing and growing and growing. Whatever the problem, government must do something to fix it. Everybody has a right of every kind which the government must deliver upon. The bigger the problem, the more it must do. Higher taxes inevitably come into play.

Throw in a so-called crisis, such as the present economic difficulties, and the powers and influence, the spending and the taxes, the indebtedness and folly of government grows exponentially and rapidly. Neophyte Obama has become the biggest government spender in all human history. He calls it a bold vision. We call it a death wish.

It is possible that Obama will turn out to be the final nail in the coffin--or if not, that he will come to be understood as having hammered more than a good few. The days of Western dominance and hegemony are passing. The UK is close to being a basket case; Europe is progressively weighed down with the dead weight of Brussels imposition of human rights fanaticism; the United States is now rapidly following in their train.

All that the United States has left is unrivalled military power. But it is increasingly becoming obvious that being the global military policeman is a weight which cannot be sustained. Regardless of its aspirations, the US simply cannot afford its military any longer--it will need to downsize, shrink, and pull back.

So passes the folly and stupidity of trying to build a nation on the idolatrous sand of human rights. In the end it all devolves into taxing and spending. How tawdry and crass. The vaunting apogee of modern secular rationalist man has morphed into the shameful quivering paroxysm of the debt addict.