The Selling Of America

With the Democrat inspired economic crash now in full flower, it's worth discussing how it is that they plan to get us out of the current morass.

Since the explosion in public spending in the mid-60s, Dem's have exhausted most of the traditional sources of wealth that would have qualified to right the economy. Consumer debt had of course been the foremost, but that's gone now that credit card debt and the mortgage debt incurred to cover the credit card debt are both at an all-time high. Taxes and other Public Sector costs as a percentage of national wealth are also at an all-time high - and now at levels comparable to those of World War II - consuming 60% of our GDP. Corporate and Capital gains taxes are at unsustainable levels that destroy our competitiveness. Foreign ownership of America's corporations, land, buildings, homes and now, increasingly, our infrastructure is at the point of exhaustion, unless we come up with additional means to incent further "investment". Likewise with government debt. We can't sell more without devaluing our currency further, thus risking the stagflation inflicted on us by Jimmy Carter and his three immediate predecessors, two of whom were Republicans with a huge Democrat stripe down their backs.

Bipartisan plundering also includes the imposition of State Lotteries and Casino gambling. Isn't it odd to think that the very things that Pols used to consider as crimes against society are now virtuous enterprises? When the Mafia did these things, it was bad, and corrupted the populace. When government does it, it's a good thing. Either way, Lotteries and Casino Gambling have pretty much been tapped out as sources of revenue, yet another well we can't go back to.

But with all of these obstacles, don't sell the Democrats short. Along with certain Fellow Travelling Republicans, they are, even as we speak, devising new and creative methods to sustain the unsustainable levels of government they've imposed on us, with the motto of "let no government job go unfunded".

Since State government action is always the precursor to what the Feds can do, it's interesting to note that the reaction of the States to the current economic meltdown is not to cut spending, but to increase revenues. Absent the bothersome realities that confront Corporate America and Joe Sixpack when things get tough, the States are making a few cosmetic cuts in the cost of governance, but that's about it. They're angling for a federal government bailout, and they're about to get it.

And who can blame them? GW Bush established the ground rules that fueled their expectations of a bailout, abandoning all fiscal sanity by giving the criminal Bankers that got us into this mess the keys to the vault, unlimited funds, and no accountability. Fiscal responsibility has been dropped down a rabbit hole that would seem queer even to the Cheshire Cat, and that's saying a lot, given his capacity to endure weirdness. That said, it's no wonder the States have put themselves in line for what will be a trillion dollar handout, courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer.

So, with government debt at all levels at an all time high, with consumer and corporate debt at an all time high, and with the taxable revenue base dropping through the floor, where will new income come from to allow the States to sustain the unsustainable? The answer is simple, since the States cannot incur additional debt at this point; They will expect a handout of additional revenue sharing from the Federal Government, and they will sell everything else they can get their hands on. Think I'm kidding? The centerpiece of Barack Obama's "stimulus" package is more revenue sharing with the States; and mark my words: it will balloon from $775 billion to $1.5 trillion this year.

Of all Democrat boondoggles, revenue sharing has been one of the most insidious. States can increase spending without tax increases, and thus, without political consequences. It is so addictive that otherwise sensible Republican governors line up at the trough as enthusiastically as their Dem counterparts.

And here's the shopping list of assets the States desire to sell, hot off the pages of the Houston Chronicle:

- State and county owned toll roads.

- The afore-mentioned State Lotteries.

- The rights to ownership of inter-state roads, such as the proposed Trans Mexico/Canada corridor. This would include the land and all toll rights, by the way.

- Airports.

- Port facilities.

And that's just the short list. If you're asking yourself "gosh, these are all current and future revenue generators. Aren't we cutting off our noses to spite our faces?", the answer to your question is, yes, but they're hoping you won't notice. Democrats have been selling or mortgaging our seed corn for almost fifty years. It is a testament to how staggeringly wealthy we were as a nation that it took them this long to exhaust all of it as collateral for loans.

Now, here's the really good part: since nobody in America has any money left, and the dollar has been so devalued by irresponsible government spending, the sale of the bulk of these assets will be to foreign governments, foreign banks, and what I'll charitably call "other foreign interests", most of them hostile to the U.S. So along with selling out the assets, they are selling out America to indentured servitude to a bunch of tyrants.

Democrats.