What This Country Needs

Thomas Riley Marshall who was vice president of the United States from 1913 to 1921 said, "What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar." Times have changed since Mr. Marshall’s day. Today I can think of two things this country needs and neither of them is a good five-cent cigar.

First we need massive tax cuts. I don’t mean this hocus pocus carp that they come up with where they estimate expenses will grow by 8 percent next year and they are only going to increase taxes by 7.5 percent so they are giving us a tax cut. No, I mean an honest to God cut. A significant cut. Reduce Income tax, excise tax, gasoline tax, tobacco tax, and any others the feds collect. Cut all of them. Take in a smaller percentage and less dollars. Why you ask? Well, Think of it like this, if you had an alcoholic brother in law that took all the money he could get his hands on and bought whiskey with it, would you have your paycheck directly deposited into his checking account? Giving money to the federal government is just as ridiculous. They do much more harm than they do good and they suck up the nations resources like a dry sponge in a pan of dishwater.

After the tax cutting is done, we need to move on the second thing this country needs, which is a massive cut in government spending. This cut will have to be much more severe than the tax cuts because we are already spending a lot more than we are taking in. The feds need to cut government spending back to a point where the money they collect with their new greatly reduced taxes provides a surplus. In fact I suggest that we pass a constitutional amendment that requires the federal government run an annual budget surplus and that it be required by law that the amount of that surplus get larger every year. That way we will be providing something positive for our children’s and our grandchildren’s future instead of leaving them a bankrupt nation. That will also make congress more effective since they won’t continually have to be voting to raise the debt ceiling.

Without money, most of the questionable government programs will go away. The good people in all those worthless government jobs will change occupations and become useful, productive citizens. All and all, I can’t think of any two things that would help this country more than a big tax cut and a bigger spending cut.