What About Spending “Loopholes”?

The politicians have sold a bill of goods to the public via grabbing the word” loophole” as a way to get around the money they confiscate. But a loophole works two ways. If you find a way to spend money that is beyond the limit that fiscal accountability calls for, you have capitalized on a spending loophole. If you ignore the fiscal trail to bankruptcy that you are trotting merrily along on, you are smack dab in the middle of spending loopholes. Spending loopholes begin when government latches on to the the idea that the sky is the limit and anything goes. Any spending that is not restrained by a limitation on government’s propensity to gouge is a failure of government to be aware of its finite existence.

No individual or private company or organization can spend will nilly without regard to the future. Government cannot do this either, but governments have historically been willing to take the chance. The politicians have this fantasy in their head that irresponsible spending is fine if it has the sanction of law. But law does not prevent bankruptcy. Only fiscal accountability can do that. And what is fiscal accountability for a government? Since government is created for the protection of individual rights and paid for by individuals who operate successfully on a profit motive, this limits the functions of government to a legalized protection racket. It does not mean the government should be an all knowing, all wise re-distributor of wealth that can dabble in health care, railroad passenger service, first class mail delivery or any other enterprise that could be done better and cheaper with competition which is only visible in the private sector.

The government today , when it isn’t shouting down the opposition and calling for someone to be fired, expresses a real concern that people paying for an overly expensive government may be avoiding to pay into coffers that tosses hard earned money down thousands of government waste chutes. It is way past time for the bill payers to call these spenders to task and ask them what they are doing to reduce the cost of government. Why is there not a review process that demands all bills to be justified in terms of affordability? If the Congress spent more time reviewing and cutting costs instead of dreaming up new expensive intrusions and giveaways, they could be much more efficient and it would keep them from ending up with bills that are so voluminous they couldn’t read and understand them in a millennium. And bills to pay they cannot afford.

They use the word loophole to connote someone in the paying public is not doing all they can to support the government if they avoid paying something by doing something Congress forgot to clearly confiscate. But what is Congress doing to show their employer ( the taxpayer ) that they are cutting costs , reducing the expansion of government and staying our of debt? Absolutely nothing. All the distraction of new programs and services when old ones like Social Security are going broke shows clearly to anyone who is willing to examine with a critical eye that government has forgotten what it is to govern and is rampant with one purpose. That purpose is to get away with prolonging this spending spree as long as they can. Short sighted people who subscribe to the notion that nothing can be done or it has always been that way are doing just what the parasites in Washington are counting on. The Washington crowd only responds to taxpayers when they make enough noise to wake up the pompous grifters and promise to throw out the near-do wells. The politicians don’t change their message for they know no other and the crop coming on is a product of the same institutions that produced the failures of today. You would think the realization that a train wreck is on the horizon would alert someone to try to avoid a disaster. But unless it is so far in the future that it cannot be verified , like global warming, there is no concern. Pass it on to the next Congress and meanwhile keep that pork barrel full.

The next town hall meeting I think it would be informative to ask the congressman speaking if he going to do anything about the spending loopholes. When he says he doesn’t know what spending loopholes are, tell him they are the the dodges that legislatures use to avoid accountability of their spending. For instance all of the Congress points to others and take no personal responsibility for their fiscal wastefulness. They shout about what they have managed to bring to their state ( at someone’s expense) and pretend their wheeling and dealing doesn’t have a cost. The national debt didn’t arise from a leak in the piggy bank. It was the disregard for whether there was money available then and in the future to fund such schemes as Social Security , Medicare and an untold number of other scams designed to buy votes and redistribute wealth.

Spending loopholes need to be filled. If an individual is off budget the recommendation of counseling is offered. Then the credit is dried up and the person is told to live within their means. If this is good advice and the only workable way to get out of debt ( which it is ), why is Congress living under the illusion that they can do something about debt by continuous over budget spending? No financial counselor would tell his client that he should ignore the debt and just keep on overspending. But Congress lives in a fantasy world where debt has no consequences. Even though they pay for analysts to tell them when Social Security will go broke, they ignore the information and utilize the loophole of evasion to avoid the issue. If a tornado warning sounds, it s time to head to the cellar. If a fiscal crisis is on the horizon is it time to ignore the impending disaster and wait for the collapse? I am fascinated by the worry about the 50 to 100 year consequences of global warming and the utter ignoring of the much sooner crises of government social spending collapse. But global warming may never happen ( and they know this ) but it makes for a diversion for what is blowing up in their basement. The language of the American politician of today is filled with accusatory rhetoric. Don’t you think they should have this malarky thrown in their faces to explain and defend? All that needs to be done is to turn the tables. When they talk about gouging, ask them about the size of the fines and taxes they levee. When they talk about the need for regulation ask them what regulations they are willing to impose on themselves. When they speak of loopholes, ask them what spending loopholes they are wiling to close. The way to control a conversation is to ask questions. The way to challenge Congress is to demand straight answers and take away their tools of evasion. Accept their inferences and they’ll continue their reckless ways. Close their loopholes and watch them squirm.