Citizens for Principled Government

PART V

“RUNNING ON EMPTY”

Peter G. Peterson is a former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank in New York.  He critiqued the state of the national debt and congressional budgeting process in his book, Running on Empty. He calls for a comprehensive long-term budget for the next 50 years and not just one year at a time.  He calls for Congress to enact long term cost control reforms in all its current major programs.  He emphasizes the need to use the “accrual accounting” method that is so common in the private sector.  It tracks long term liabilities but “Congress pretends never to have heard of it.” (    ).  They are allowed to ignore some unfunded retirement obligations and leave over a trillion dollars off of its annual deficit calculations.  This is part of the illusory accounting methods that make government less than transparent.

Peterson also calls for a “generational impact statement” that calculates and discloses the long-term effects of any new spending or tax bill.  He notes that “what often makes marriage couples stop fighting is a good look at their kids.  Americans need to ask [their] leaders . . . to do the same – to look at our kids.”  (p. 224-225).  He further adds:

“Citizenship means looking out for one’s neighbors and giving a hand to those less fortunate. But it also means understanding the big issues of one’s time, seeing past the hype and spin, and working together to hold political leaders accountable.  Your time is coming, and when it does, your generation, like every generation, will get the government it deserves.  If it is distracted by pseudo-issues and gridlocked by special interest, it will be because too few of you paid attention and made your voices heard.

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PART III

“THE ONLY WAY TO KEEP GOVERNMENT FROM GROWING IS TO QUIT FEEDING IT” — Ronald Reagan

Today’s majority in Washington are willing to use deficit spending and the national debt to avoid tough decisions, which are often unpopular.  Resorting to more borrowing instead of making difficult but necessary budget cutting decisions provides the short-term cover and avoidance of political unpopularity that seems to be forever on their mind. The current uprising among the people, however, is beginning to blow that cover.  That is a positive development with great potential if it can be channeled into the corrective measures we sorely need at this time.

President Ronald Reagan said, “The only way to keep government from growing is to quit feeding it.” He pushed for the power of an executive “line item veto,” which he was able to use as Governor of California. When the Republicans took control of Congress in 1994, they tried to create and adopt such an added check and balance on Federal spending but the U.S. Supreme Court struck down that action.  Thus, today, we are left with outrageous “earmarks” (such as $200 million for an indoor tropical rain forest in Iowa) and the clever and less than transparent insertion of unrelated items into various Bills. This is shrewdly done to ensure passage and avoid a principled debate on the individual merits of such proposals.  (President Obama and the Democrat majority did that again recently to further their “sexual orientation” agenda.  They inserted unrelated “hate crimes” legislation into the military defense budget.  See prior post on this site in the archives, November 12, 2009).

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PART I

1 Year and Counting

After a year in office and a record increase of $1.4 trillion dollars in deficit spending, the President now tells us that our nation is experiencing a “deficit of trust” in our national government. This is strikingly similar to former President Jimmy Carter’s description of the “malaise” he saw among the people but somehow could not understand or remedy.  Fortunately, Ronald Reagan soon followed.  He ushered in the return to conservative principles and reduced taxes. This soon spawned a soaring and lasting economic recovery.  “Malaise” gave way to “Morning in America.”  It will happen again if the people reject the flawed assumptions and government dependency offered by the current Democrat majority in Washington.  We must reclaim the vision and wisdom of former times and apply the lessons of liberty and principled government, which they provide.

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2010 Utah Legislative Session

The 2010 session of the Utah State Legislature has begun.  The top priority is the need to shave as much as $700 million off of last year’s budget in order to meet the projected shortfall in government revenue from taxes, fees and other sources. (As quoted in Monday’s Deseret News, the House Speaker has stated, “The budget dominates.  It is the 800-pound gorilla in the room.  Less spending trickles down to all other policy issues”).

Most elected officials tend to think in terms of “raise the bridge” or “lower the water.” Some (like the Democrat majority in Washington) want to raise taxes and fees to guarantee the revenue needed to keep funding all existing government programs and give regular “cost of living” increases to all government employees.  (The self employed and most business owners have no such guarantee from year to year).  Others want to cut and reduce spending to stay beneath the reduced income ceiling.  The hard part is prioritizing and knowing where to focus and best apply the citizens’ combined resources.  (When it comes to budget cuts – there are no volunteers).

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The Forgotten Wisdom of Harry Truman

Harry Truman declared, “Never trade principles for votes.”  Those who do are what George Washington described and rejected as “mere politicians.”  The recent healthcare reform bill vote in the United States Senate has set a new low in Washington politics.  The party of Truman chose to disregard their former leader’s counsel.  To reach the required 60 vote total, the Senate majority dished out massive pork and individual favors to get the votes they needed.  Some are calling it a modern version of the “Louisiana Purchase” and a “Corn Husker Kickback”.  (See Human Events January 4, 2010 p. 1, 6, 10-11).   The form of currency is unprecedented preferential treatment on a state by state basis to fund government Medicare and Medicaid payments back home and provide other requested earmarks and benefits.

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A CHRISTMAS CAROL

Towards the end of 1843, in South London, a gifted young writer could be seen late at night, wrapped in a long coat, feverishly pacing the City sidewalks. As he walked fifteen and twenty miles at a stretch, he shouted out in the cold night air, laughed aloud and even wept at times. Those who knew Charles Dickens understood that he was writing again. They knew that Dickens always took his imagination to the streets and the streets into his imagination. His writings were characteristically sensitive to the human condition and especially the plight of the less fortunate. For that reason and the many popular Christmas stories that he published each December for so many years, the name Dickens has become forever linked with the spirit of Christmas. It is the “Christmas Carol” that he first developed while braving the chilly night air and briskly pacing the streets of London in November, 1843, for which he is best known and loved today more than a century and half later.

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In September, we wrote to you and warned of the pending Federal “Hate Crimes” legislation that President Obama and the Democrat majority in Washington were about to pass. It was expected that this controversial new law would be thoroughly reviewed and debated because of the significant threat which it poses to current constitutional law. We identified key constitutional objections and potential adverse consequences of classifying citizens and crimes according to “sexual orientation.” 45 states (including Utah) already have their own version of “hate crimes” statutes. No new Federal legislation is needed in this area. Nonetheless, activists have pushed this Bill as part of a larger expansion of “gay rights”, which President Obama has promised to deliver.

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The U.S. Supreme Court is about to decide whether a war memorial in the form of a Christian cross that has stood unchallenged for 75 years in the Mohave Desert of California will be allowed to stand. The upcoming decision of the Supreme Court will add to the confusing line of cases that have evolved in recent decades as the High Court has intellectualized (secularized) the First Amendment’s provision that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Surely the Court cannot fail to see the longstanding heritage that Americans enjoy under our national motto, “In God We Trust”. Is the American Cemetery at Normandy, France, for example, to be abolished with its many traditional grave markers such as that which now stands covered and boxed up in the Mohave Desert? Now we must wait for the Court to decide whether the judgment of prior generations will stand as legal precedent or be disregarded as merely fleeting sentiment? Why? What has changed? What does that say about our country and the direction we are headed? Are we less in need of and, therefore, more willing to retreat from the “firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence” expressed in our Declaration of Independence? Absolutely not.

President John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” And yet, today, we are witnessing the distortion and misapplication of our Constitution to prohibit the full and free expression of moral and religious truths in public life.

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The recent gathering of the United Nations with its many controversial and contentious speeches by world leaders, war and conflict in sundry places, Congressional wrangling over “healthcare reform,” unemployment and lingering economic problems — they capture and dominate the daily headlines but most basic of all to every generation is the strength and stability of the family as the fundamental unit of society.

Utah Families

What are the individual dynamics of Utah families and how do they compare with the rest of the Country? The latest national census reports that Utah leads the nation in family size, two parent families, homes headed by a married couple rather than simply “cohabitants” and families with children under the age of 18 headed by married couples raising their own children together. Utah has the most stay-at-home Moms and a higher percentage of marriages and births than other states. (28.4% of women are married and only 17.9% nationally and the birth rate in Utah is 82 per 1000 compared to 58 nationwide). Young women marry three years sooner in Utah than the national average (23.5 instead of 26.2). Because Utah has more children and larger families, the average age of its citizenry is the lowest in the nation at 28.7 compared to 36.9 nationally. (These statistics support our recent report on both the challenges and the success of our schools and education system).

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There is no limit to what we would do for our children if we had unlimited resources.  What parent could ever deny their children any available means or asset that would enhance their growth and learning?  However, we do not have unlimited resources and when it comes to our schools, taxpayers do not have unlimited funds.  Thus, thrift, prudence and prioritizations are continually required.

I am passionate about and very proud of our education system in Utah.  My years on the Education Committee in the Utah State Legislature and my continuing efforts as a member of the State Commission on Civic and Character Education continue to fuel that passion.  I strive to promote Civic and Character Education wherever and whenever possible because I know that informed and active citizenship is the heart of self government.  That is why George Washington said to Congress at the end of his Presidency that there is no duty more pressing upon a Legislature than to support a plan for teaching the science of government to the rising generation who are the future guardians of the liberties of this Country.

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