The Fleecing of the United States

Avarice and a hunger for power is what drives Washington.

Courtesy: Not in His Name

(HARRISVILLE, N.H.) - According to the Monthly Treasury Statement released on Wednesday, July 13, 2001, the United States ran a deficit of $43.1 billion dollars for the month of June 2011. This makes June 2011 the 33rd. straight month in the red. With only days to go before we crash into the current debt ceiling, the President and Congress are just beginning to talk seriously and at the same table, about cutting spending.

Let’s take a closer look at the situation we currently find ourselves in:

It is only mid-July and we have already spent more than the agreed-upon amount of expenditures for this fiscal year. We have borrowed heavily from China and other countries in order to continue spending at a rate that is fiscal suicide. Our fiscal house is not just a mess . . . it is a disaster.

We are now involved in three wars that all can be primarily attributed to our gluttonous thirst for oil. These wars are extremely expensive in both taxpayer dollars and human life. Taxpayer dollars are being freely used to kill our brothers and sisters around the world and to fund other governments who do the same.

We are in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression and there is no end in sight despite the propaganda and rhetoric being pumped our way by the Whitehouse.

The unemployment rate, which we were promised would not exceed 8%, continues to hover at over 9%. It hovers that low only because those unfortunates, who have used their maximum unemployment benefits and multiple extensions, simply drop off the unemployment rolls. The self-employed who cannot find work are not added to the unemployment rolls in the first place.

Foreclosure rates have hit new historic high after new historic high, in state after state, with the home state of the Senate Leader Harry Reid leading the pack. The government sponsored lending agencies of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as numerous other giant financial establishments, faced failure due to a lowering of lending regulations forced by the Federal Government.

Welfare rates and Food Stamp distributions have skyrocketed along with unemployment, reduced hours for the employed, and lost benefits. In June of 2010, there were 40.2 million U.S. citizens on food stamps. That represented a 21% increase over June of 2009. Even the Whitehouse admits that these two social programs will continue to grow during the near future. It estimates that the number of U.S. citizens on food stamps will probably reach 43.3 million during the 2011 fiscal year.

The real cost of living continues to climb led by energy, fuel, and food costs. However, these elements of what it costs us to live are not included in what the Whitehouse and Congress considers the cost of living.

The Whitehouse and Congress have refused a cost of living increase to Social Security recipients for the second year in a row, yet Congress had the unmitigated gall to vote themselves a $10,000 per year increase. To understand that more fully, you must know that these Congressional Representatives who were earning an average salary of $169,300.00 per year opted to disallow a meager cost of living increase for individuals earning an average of $12,824.00 per year while taking steps to protect themselves against the increase to the real cost of living they continue to tell us doesn’t exist.

Virtually every credit rating agency in the world has issued warnings that our credit rating will be damaged if we continue to spend like fools. Regardless of these warnings, Congress continues to insert obscene amounts of pork barrel projects into every bill. Each piece of pork meant to leverage votes for upcoming elections from individual Congressional constituencies.

Tax receipts fell below government expenditures in 2009 and worsened in 2010 with 2011 on the mark to be even worse than 2010. It is difficult to collect taxes from people who are not working and haven’t worked for two or more years. Property taxes cannot be collected from individuals who have been forced to live in their vehicles, tents, or campers.

Jobs have flowed out of our country continually for the last 10+ years but the Whitehouse and Congress has done nothing to stem the flow. Actually, subsidies and tax breaks have been made available to those companies responsible for this outflow of jobs.

The printing presses at the Treasury have been rolling non-stop since November of 2010 in a covert effort to devalue the dollar thereby reducing the actual cost of each loan our government has outstanding. Of course, an inflationary spiral will also result but then that will be blamed on someone or something else.

Between TARP, Stimulus, Cash for Clunkers, and other spur-of-the-moment expenditures, over a Trillion taxpayer dollars have been spent with little to show for the immense cost and effort. We have, however, seen our Federal deficit balloon to epic proportions as a direct result of these moves.

When do you expect to see this information listed for you by our so-called leaders folks? When do you expect to read a list from them outlining their failures? When do you expect to see them present truly workable solutions to these situations? If you expect these things anytime soon, you should also expect to be seriously disappointed. If information provided to you from Washington contains any truth, you may rest assured that it is purely accidental.

Avarice and a hunger for power is what drives Washington. The people we have elected to watch our backs have stabbed them and now they have begun to twist those blades of greed.

Ask yourself how many letters you have written to your Senators and Congressional Representatives. How many times in the last year have you made them aware that you know what is going on? How many letters have you written to your local newspaper complaining of the putrid job being done by the Whitehouse and Congress? If you continue to amble along fat, dumb, and happy while Washington continues with the fleecing of the United States and the world, you will eventually find yourself regretting the effort you didn’t make as you search for the non-existent soup-lines . . . but, that is just my opinion.

Writer Robert Collinsworth is an American who isn't hesitant to talk about the good side of his country, and that is a welcome thing in this day and age. Salem-News.com admittedly, is very critical of both American politics, as well as those of other nations that we perceive is being wrong in their motives and actions. At the same time, within these structures we criticize, are many outstanding people who make each day a better place for all those around them. They embody and personify the American spirit that is sometimes fleeting, but always present.

These are some of the things Robert takes into account when writing commentary that is designed reach people, to "get them thinking" in his words, and indeed it does. Salem-News.com's goal is for all people to be on the same page, we appreciate Bob's more conservative approach toward that same goal."

You can write to Bob Collingsworth at this email address: colli2@webryders.net