Cut expenditures to save the country

With all of the talk in Washington about the “Fiscal Cliff”, you might have forgotten about the costs of Obamacare. All companies who have more than 50 employees but do not have a medical plan for those employees are going to start to pay the Obamacare “tax.”

This is going to cause several companies to shut down. Some companies will have layoffs, followed by hiring “Part Timers” to fill the voids, and others will simply break apart into pieces that do not employ 50 people.

Enough about Obamacare. I will cover the devastation of Obamacare another week.

Now lets focus on the cliff, and the alternatives. This column is written on Sunday night. It is likely that some revelation or agreement will occur before most of you get to read this, but I will try to forecast as best as possible. Indications are that both sides really want to say that they are trying to stop the cliff. Nonetheless, neither side is indicating that they are going to please the other side, and stiff their followers, for the sake of a 3 percent reduction in spending.

As I said in my last column, I want the cliff. I want the cliff, because it will be the first step in trying to get federal spending under control. I want a reduction in every single department in the federal government. I want this because it is the only way to get our economy back. If federal spending, of any sort, was good for the economy, we would be in an enormous boom right now. We have to cut, cut and cut some more, until expenditures equal incoming tax revenues. It is the only way our economy can come back. It is also the only way we can turn this country over to our children without a crippling excessive debt.

Since his 2009 inauguration, Mr. Obama has hired nearly 100 federal employees, per day. These employees make an average salary that is $30,000 more than the average worker. We cannot afford to pay high wages to unproductive people. We have to let many government workers go back to wealth producing jobs, or we will end up like Greece.

I am not against a tax increase. It will likely hurt the average, and below average wage earners a lot more than it will hurt the so-called millionaires. If a tax increase is the bargaining chip that gets a $150 billion spending cut, per year, then so be it.

Obama’s economic commission (Simpson-Bowles) came up with the plan to cut government spending by leaps and bounds, spread out over 10 years. Rush Limbaugh recently said that we have a spending problem, not a tax problem.

Think about how unlikely it is for an Obama commission to agree with Rush. This should make it very clear to Mr. Obama that cutting is what we really need.

John Boehner said that he would not kick the can down the road again. Please stick to your guns, Mr. Boehner. It is far better that we go over the cliff now than it will be 10 years from now.

It is much better that we stop spending and borrowing from China now, before they come here and buy up the big productive cities, like San Francisco, and Philadelphia.

If our wonderful representatives in Washington get a deal before Jan. 15, I surely hope that it includes most of the cuts which are scheduled to take effect. If they agree to postpone the cuts, once again, they should all be taken to Europe and shown what irresponsible spending does to a nation.

Our Constitution does not mandate that we spread democracy throughout the world. It does not say that we should give millions of hard earned dollars to countries who would like to see us in chaos.

It does not say that we are responsible to prevent AIDS from spreading in Africa. It says that our central government is supposed to be concerned about us.

Happy New Year.
David Snyder is the flight training program manager for two Israeli business jets. He is a former pilot for PanAm and is the former chairman of the Bucks County Airport Authority.