How Much Is Enough?

The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy!

H. L. Mencken, Notes on Democracy, 1926

The entirety of mass media has been focused almost entirely on the tragedy of the missing Malaysian Airlines flight. The number of hours dedicated to an issue for which there is achingly little information is staggering.

It is thus perhaps understandable that the aforementioned media has chosen not to focus its attention on more domestic issues. In this era of political gridlock and ridiculous claims of ‘unfairness’, there still remains some hard realities that must be addressed by our elected leaders.

To wit:

This nation is still far from a true economic recovery, and yet the body politic refuses to address the issues of debt, deficit and responsible budgetary restraint. There are continued cries for increasing taxes on the rich, and that more money is needed for this infrastructure or another.

In short, the electorate is bombarded daily with the message that the government requires more cash to continue fulfilling its purpose.

The reality is that government as a whole can longer manage its fiduciary mandate and as such has voluntarily relinquished its responsibility to America for no other reason that political cowardice and budgetary ineptitude.

For proof of that fact, consider this edited compendium of information from various sources relative to the budgetary madness currently in play in Washington. It should be of both deep concern and outrage on the part of the American people.

As they say, you can’t make this stuff up. The numbers do not lie.

Consider:

Inflation-adjusted federal tax revenues hit a record $1,104,947,000,000 in the first five months of fiscal 2014, but the federal government still ran a $377,379,000,000 deficit during that time, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement for February.

Each month, the Treasury publishes the government’s “total receipts,” including all revenue from individual income taxes, corporate income taxes, social insurance and retirement taxes (including Social Security and Medicare taxes), unemployment insurance taxes, excise taxes, estate and gift taxes, customs duties, and “miscellaneous receipts.”

In constant 2014 dollars, the $1,104,947,000,000 that the federal government collected from October through February in fiscal 2014 was $90,193,750,000 more than the 1,014,753,250,000 it collected in October through February in fiscal 2013.

Although the federal government brought in a record  of approximately $1,104,947,000,000 in revenue in the first five months of fiscal 2014, according to the Treasury, it also spent approximately 1,482,327,000,000—leaving a deficit of approximately 377,379, 000,000.

After the current fiscal year, the second highest federal tax intake in the first five months of a fiscal year occurred in the first five months of fiscal 2007, when the government collected 1,076,721,860,000 in 2014 dollars—or 28,225,140,000 less than in the first five months of this fiscal year.

At the beginning of 2013, Congress passed and President Obama signed “The American Taxpayer Relief Act.” While this act made permanent some of the lower tax rates enacted for ten-year periods under President George W. Bush, it also increased some tax rates.

The Congressional Research Service summary of the law said it: “Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) revise income tax rates for individual taxpayers whose taxable income is at or below the $400,000 threshold amount ($450,000 for married couples filing a joint return) and increase the rate to 39.6% for taxpayers whose taxable income exceeds the threshold, (2) set the threshold for the phaseout of personal tax exemptions and itemized deductions at $250,000 for individual taxpayers ($300,000 for married couples filing a joint return), and (3) increase the top marginal estate tax rate from 35% to 40%.

The law also: “Increases the capital gains tax rate from 15% to 20% for taxpayers whose taxable income exceeds the $400,000 threshold amount.”

Eighteen Point Four

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety” – attributed to Benjamin Franklin

In the midst of the haze, hysteria and raging examples of political cowardice that was the debt ceiling debate these past several weeks, a commonly voiced, but little noted, concern of both political extremes held that there needed to be federal funding to help salvage our crumbling roads and assorted related infrastructure and that said funding needed to be appropriated separate and distinct from any imagined compromise on the debt ceiling requirements. We were told by the political class and their media flacks that crumbling roads and accompanying injuries or worse would be attributed to those who opted not to help preserve this part of America.

A solid sounding, if otherwise ridiculous, talking point to be sure, spewed forth with solemnity but wildly inaccurate and sadly one that was never confronted or even questioned in passing. This is an example of the canards floated by our elected officials when faced with the realities of our national financial health and their delinquency of duty in addressing these national concerns.

They either outright lie or exemplify stupidity in action. These are not ad hominum attacks; they are observations based upon factual actions and responses by those who are entrusted with the fiduciary health of this nation.

There can be little debate on the collective incompetence of Congress when the following facts are ignored, or chosen to be the subject of obfuscation.

(ed. Note: the following information was gathered directly from the official United States Department of Transportation and the

Federal Highway

Administration website. This information is available to any citizen, even those who hold elected office)

On November 5, 1990, President George H. W. Bush approved the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990. It embodied a compromise the Republican President had reached with the Democratic-controlled Congress to reduce the Federal budget deficit. The Act increased the Federal gas tax by 5 cents, with half the increase going to the Highway Trust Fund, the other half to deficit reduction.

The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, signed by President Bill Clinton on August 10, 1993, increased the gas tax by 4.3 cents, bringing the total tax to 18.4 cents per gallon. The increase was entirely for deficit reduction, with none credited to the Highway Trust Fund. However, the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, which President Clinton approved on August 5, 1997, redirected the 4.3-cents general fund gas tax increase to the Highway Trust Fund.

So the question demands an answer: How can there be a need for additional national debt relief and highway financing when there is a tax of 18.4 cents on every gallon of gasoline sold being redirected to the national coffers to be absorbed into the general fund instead of its intended usage?

The American electorate must answer this question in the only way those who live in a free and democratic society have at their disposal; Receive an intelligent response from those entrusted with the budgetary responsibilities for this nation, or in the absence of any substantive and salient answers, vote those responsible out of office en masse’.

American can not long prosper if those with fiduciary responsibilities handle our finances with this level of ignorance.

18.4 cents of each and every gallon of gasoline –almost two dollars on the average fill up -  the number is staggering.

Demand an answer: it is YOUR money.