Saturday, November 12, 2011

AUSTERITY—Are We Americans Allergic To It?

As our country roils toward more and more economic chaos, I ask you, “Are we able to counter this profligate spending by tightening our belts and lowering our standard of living—or, are we just going on and on in a splurge of overspending?” Both Italy and Greece are showing signs of correcting their overly extravagant spending habits—can we, Americans do likewise?

Last Tuesday, the results of Ohio’s voting indicated that we cannot do it. Ohio voters, after a campaign fueled by union dollars, voted down Issue 2, a measure designed to shift the cost of health care and pensions for government workers back to the workers and away from the taxpayers of the state. Those same voters voted Yes on Issue 3, a measure to get rid of the health insurance mandate of the ObamaCare law in Ohio. In other words, Ohio voters voted for more continued Big Brother payments for their living benefits. They do not want to pay for their own health care or their pension benefits—they want the government to pay for their pension benefits; and they want the private health care sector to pay for their uninsured health care. I believe that these two moves by the Ohio electorate were driven by the same voter motivation, i.e., the wish for the government and the private sector hospitals to do more spending on their behalf.

To be fair in this accusation of mine, I must say that I, also, voted Yes on Issue 3. But…I voted that way for a far different reason. I voted Yes because I fear the overweening increase in government regulation that threatens to increase government costs to the taxpayer. The whole Obama plan for health care will not decrease costs—it will INCREASE it.

America will never get itself out of its financial woes and into its former position as world leader unless we change our ways. We must decide to take responsibility for our own personal family economies. We must tighten our belts and decide that we cannot have a free lunch. Getting more jobs and a better economy is a reasonable goal for each of us. It is not something that we must wait for the government to provide for us.

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