I am for MUCH less government than the massive, nauseating amounts with which we are currently befouled.
The federal government alone spends MORE THAN FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR.
The entire United States economy’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – the total productivity of every productive man, woman and child in the nation – is around $20 trillion.
So The Feds alone – spend TWENTY PERCENT of what THE ENTIRE COUNTRY produces.
Pardon the caps spasms. But that spending – and the percentage of our GDP it represents – is mind-numbingly obnoxious.
A Constitutionally-delimited budget – would be less than $ 1 trillion per annum. So we’re a little high.
Would I like tomorrow to shrink the federal budget by three-quarters? More than mere words can express. But I like Reality – and I know that is not in any way possible.
As I’m sure the late Captain Edward Smith would tell you – you can’t turn The Titanic on a dime.
What we need to practice – is incrementalism. Many, many small steps – rather than one mighty leap.
How does one eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
The political Party purporting to represent the less government side of things – is the Republican Party. Except they barely talk a good game – and they play a terrible one.
The Republican-majority Congress and Republican President Donald Trump just very necessarily cut taxes. As a result, revenue to the federal Treasury – rose nine percent in Year One.
But the federal deficit this year – is $985 billion. Because federal spending – from a government controlled entirely by Republicans – continued to skyrocket.
Because the Republicans say they want to cut spending – but they do not actually want to cut spending.
There are a few Republicans who actually lake less government seriously. And understand the need to eat the elephant one bite at a time.
To wit: Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has introduced his “Penny Plan Balanced Budget.” Which cuts much federal spending (not including Social Security) by a single penny on the dollar. ONE CENT. Those are some seriously small elephant bites.
Paul’s bill – would balance the budget in five years.
The Republican-controlled Senate voted 21-76 – against taking up Paul’s bill. Because the GOP is REALLY serious about less government.
As insane, out-of-control and completely incorrect the Left nigh always is – they aren’t as stridently anti-incrementalism as the GOP appears to be. At least in one instance.
The Barack Obama Administration loved government – and wanted government doing as much as possible. Including to the Internet – on which the administration unilaterally imposed the all-encompassing government power grab known as Network Neutrality.
The Trump Administration thankfully undid the grab. And seemingly every Leftist any and everywhere – immediately sued to reimpose.
But while working on re-consuming in one swallow the entire pachyderm – the Left is looking to masticate tiny portions as well.
One of the dumbest of the very many dumb things about Net Neutrality – is it prohibits a whole bunch of things We the Consumers very clearly like and want.
The FCC OKs Streaming for Free – But Net Neutrality Will Pay:
“The Federal Communications Commission’s new chairman made what could be the least politically risky move of his entire tenure: He’s ending the agency’s investigations into companies for giving away free stuff. The practice is called zero-rating….
“‘These free-data plans have proven to be popular among consumers, particularly low-income Americans, and have enhanced competition in the wireless marketplace,’ Republican FCC chairman Ajit Pai said today.”
Who cares if “Net Neutrality will pay” – so long as we don’t have to pay for all this extra data.
Who cares? These pro-Net Neutrality Leftists do.
And they’re at it again with Robo-Texts – or SPAM Texts. What they’re trying – is just the sort of incrementalism Republicans should learn and emulate.
We the Consumers have asked our text service providers to block SPAM texts to our phones. Our text service providers – being in the customer-service business – have listened to us and have been doing so.
And it has worked. The SPAM rate for email – is about 50%. The corresponding text rate – is 2.8%.
But the Left shrieks that blocking SPAM texts is…wait for it…a Net Neutrality violation. <GASP>
Because under very stupid Net Neutrality – all data bits MUST be treated equally. Which very stupidly includes SPAM text messages. No one can be allowed to differentiate between wanted text messages – and SPAM text messages. Because government.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) meets monthly to consider policy items. At December’s meeting, the Trump FCC is considering a rule to ensconce in statute what We the Consumers and our text providers have already long ago agreed to do.
We have asked our text providers to block SPAM texts. Our text providers have graciously abided.
The FCC – is about to vote on whether or not to allow us to continue this very pleasant private sector arrangement.
The only reason to vote against allowing us to continue this very pleasant private sector arrangement – is Net Neutrality.
Which means there is no good reason at all – to vote against allowing us to continue this very pleasant private sector arrangement.
I admire the Left’s attempt at incrementalism.
As nigh always, their attempted step is in the absolutely wrong direction.
Nevertheless, the GOP should take much heed of this small-bite approach.
This first appeared in Red State.