Welcome back!
I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of politicians and Beltway-pundits telling me not only what the issues are, but what "we" (meaning our Omnipotent Washington Overlords) NEED to do. Because the truth is ... they don't know jack!
I find it exciting to see the Tea Party movement growing, with more and more Americans waking-up to the financial train-wreck known as the federal government. It's promising to see so many people putting their foot down, but it's time we get specific.
"We the people" cannot simply rely on a politician's rhetoric (said only in reaction). Because relying on them will only result in yet further government destruction of our economy.
To successfully reduce federal spending, we need to eliminate subsidies! There's 2 categories of subsidy I believe we should focus on first: 1) foreign aid, and 2) corporate subsidies. This post will focus on the first eliminating foreign aid, America's largest welfare program.
Welfare for Dependent Dictators:
The federal government taxes us (taxpayers) to pay tribute to and/or bribe foreign ruling classes. Unfortunately, nobody really knows how much all this "aid" adds up to, because the money is dispersed via "gifts," bad loans (with no expectation for repayment), subsidies, military protection, and through other secret pathways labeled with different titles (you've never heard of), by multiple different agencies. In other words, our federal foreign aid program works just like ACORN!
Most of our foreign "aid," is arranged through backdoor deals between central banks and various ruling tyrants. As US taxpayers, we truly have no way of knowing how much and where our wealth has been transferred. "Official" foreign aid figures since WWII come in over $1 trillion!
Doesn't it make you wonder ... How much stronger would our economy be today if that money had been left in the hands of the taxpayers who earned it? How many more jobs would we have today? And how much of that money would have privately invested in third-world countries creating real jobs?
Who knows? We'll never find out. We'll never know the real dollar cost to US taxpayers to fund these transfers overseas. We'd have to find our way through the cloak and dagger maze designed to hide these expenditures from us, the taxpayers forced pay the bill. Let's see ... there's "official" aid, "loans" to Third-World dictators, communists, and other tyranical governments ...
Seriously, how much does it cost American taxpayers to subsidize the defense of wealthy nations in both Europe and the Pacific Rim? It's gotta be hundreds of billions! This is just more government secrecy at taxpayer expense.
The Enron Model:
All government agencies use accounting methods that would make Enron look like the model of corporate responsibility. For example, the 1994 Cato Institute book Perpetuating Poverty, found that in 1992 the US Congress placed only 3 percent of its World Bank contributions in the budget. The other 97 percent was in "callable capital pledges," i.e. illegal, unconstitutional, off-the-books debt (where the World Bank gets most of its money).
Then of course, there's the Export-Import Bank, the IMF, the UN (think 'oil for food' scandal), and USAID ... all of whom make the Enron accountants look like pikers. If there's any "silver-lining" in our foreign giveaways, instead of the money being spent building military regimes that embolden our enemies, most of the money just goes into the pockets of overpaid bureaucrats and politicians all over the globe.
Bribery:
The theory behind our foreign "aid," influenced by international organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the United World Federalists is as follows:
- If we arm friendly nations, they will help us fight communism/terrorism/etc.
- All underdeveloped nations yearn for industrialization.
- By providing the capital and know-how, all the backward peoples will benefit materially, causing them to desire representative government.
- If we don't elevate their standard of living, they will seek to take what they cannot produce by conquest.
In other words, rainbow and unicorn utopia!
Most of you are familiar with CFR, but you may not be aware of the United World Federalists, a collection of multiple organizations committed to global governance. The member group Citizens for Global Solutions, mission statement starts with the following (emphasis added):
The World Federalist Institute (WFI) serves as Citizens for Global Solutions' think tank by promoting debate, discussion and sharing research on the principle of federalism and its applicability to resolving global problems nations cannot solve alone. One goal of the WFI is to develop pragmatic proposals ultimately leading to the creation of a democratic global political system with a federal structure.
Sorry to break it to you like this ... but you don't need a tin-foil hat to see the truth behind foreign aid. The following is from Barry Goldwater's With No Apologies, published in 1979:
The giver of a bribe does so on the clear understanding the recipient will deliver some specific quid pro quo. The receiver of a bribe accepts payment with a clear understanding of what is expected and in most cases carries out the bargain.
Nations justify such direct payments or bribes on the grounds that the ensuing procured action benefits peace or improves trade or achieves some other generally desirable objective. In a discussion of this problem Hans Morgenthau says, "The government of Nation A, trying to buy political advantage from the government of Nation B, for, say, twenty million dollars, not only must pretend but also must act our in elaborate fashion the pretense that what it is actually doing is giving aid for economic development of Nation B - old-fashioned bribery is a straightforward transaction; services are rendered at a price, and both sides know what to expect. Bribery, disguised as aid for economic development, makes giver of and recipient actors in the play which, in the end, they can no longer distinguish from reality."
... much of our economic aid was going to enemy countries or countries whose public policy statements were not compatible with our concepts of freedom ... Our foreign aid has enriched individual rulers of many countries while doing nothing at all for the poor or the underpriviledged we were sincerely hoping to help.
Most of the money we have sent overseas for foreign aid has been borrowed ... Since federal deficit spending is clearly responsible for the major proportion of the disasterous inflation which threatens the solvency of every American family, we must recognize that the foreign aid giveaway program is responsible for as much as one-half of that inflation.
At first our motives were noble, humanitarian, and defensive. This is no longer true. The international bankers and the multinational corporations are the principle beneficiaries of American foreign aid. The most frightening aspect of this whole program is to be found in the fact that American taxpayers are contributing American capital to subsidize our implacable enemy, the Russion communist.
Ending Welfare for Dependent Dictators:
Foreign aid is not only unconstitutional, but very unwise. We can't buy genuine friends. Instead, we encourage false friendships, dependency, and a sense of entitlement in its recipients. And of course, it also builds resentment in nations that receive less than they feel they deserve, or receive none at all. These are the worst kind of foreign entaglements our Founder's warned us about.
More importantly though, it's simply immoral to confiscate the wealth of America citizens to send overseas, funding anti-freedom regimes. Besides, last I checked, we have serious financial problems here at home!
How much debt do you owe right now?
If "we the people" can’t agree on, and accomplish ending our Welfare for Dependent Dictators program, how can we expect to end spending on anything else?
2-Step Plan:
- Eliminate all US government-to-government foreign aid, including "off-budget" aid, funneled through bank "loans," thus "monetized" by the Federal Reserve.
- Remove all US trade barriers to allow American products and services easier access to the markets of these regimes. Not only would we benefit from the savings of ending "aid," but just think about the additional money we'd save, now that tariff enforcement isn't necessary and members of Congress can no longer be bribed for special trade "favors."
Ending foreign aid to dictators, oligarchies and other tyrants is an issue all Americans can get behind. In other words, it's a great place to start in our quest to end wasteful spending!
Tony Romo just dumped Jessica Simpson, so I'm callin' dibs!
