Snoopy and The Peanuts Comic Strip and The $13 TRILLION Federal Budget Deficit

A number of stories come together for today's post. The various stories remind me of an old Sunday Peanuts comic strip. Snoopy is out jogging one day when his knees start to complain about the punishment they are taking from the jog. The feet then chime in about how they are taking the most pounding and how much they hurt. The lungs then volunteer that they are absorbing the most punishment since they have to work so hard pumping air into the body. The ears even complain about how cold they are and why were they outside jogging anyway. At that point, the heart says something to the effect that they are jogging for the heart's benefit because if the heart goes, everything goes. At that point, all body parts go silent and the jog continues.

So it goes with the Federal deficit. If we cannot fix our fiscal situation, nothing else matters. Much like the heart, if the financial foundation of our country is destroyed, then nothing else has any importance. You cannot not talk about global warming, a national energy program, improving public schools, defending the country, helping out the needy, creating and maintaining job growth and economic growth, nothing else. If the heart goes, it does not matter how strong your legs are or how much air your lungs can pump. Much like the heart, sound fiscal policy makes everything else possible.

The severity of our fiscal distress was brought to mind again today while reading the May 31, 2010 issue of Business Week magazine. In a short blurb, Business Week asserted that total U.S. debt, as of May 26, was $12.996 TRILLION. Given that we are a week past that date, I think it is safe to assume we have broken through the $13 TRILLION threshold. What does this mean:

• At $13 TRILLION, the average U.S. household is on the hook for about $113,000 worth of government debt. Since the government does not create wealth, it can only confiscate wealth from its citizens, at some point we are all responsible for paying down this debt.
• At $13 TRILLION, every man, woman, and child in the country is responsible for about $42,000. Thus, a family of four is on the hook for about $168,000.
• The Obama administration's ten year budget plan calls for another $8 TRILLION or so in debt to be accumulated by the Federal government, boosting each household's debt burden to about $175,000 if nothing is done to change the trend.
• From a freedom perspective, you cannot live in a free country if the political class and the government in that country burden you with such debt. By running up such a huge deficit, a deficit that we will all have to pay down or suffer the consequences of default, we lose our freedom to spend our wealth on what we want to spend it on. We cannot send our kids to a better school, start our own business, retire when we want to, help out a charity or blow it all in Las Vegas.

In a previous post we did the exercise where we assumed that the Federal government confiscated the total wealth of the richest 400 Americans. Their total wealth, not their income, so this confiscation would be a one time shot. The total wealth that could be confiscated was estimated by Forbes to be far less than $3 TRILLION so soaking the rich will not come close to paying down the debt.

The second story that intertwines with our theme today was a piece on Fox news this morning. I do not remember their expert's name but he made a very logical and straightforward argument of how the nation could easily take a trillion dollars out of its budget without causing significant pain to most Americans, including the needy, but causing pain and discomfort to politicians, Federal bureaucracies, and vested special interests. For those of you that do not like Fox News, please to not throw this budget reduction baby out with the bath water. This gentleman's arguments were nonpartisan and well thought out. He was an expert but we have done several posts ourselves in this blog where we, non experts, identified over a dozen ways to start getting spending under control without much pain to American citizens.

The third story that feeds into this theme is an Associated Press (AP) article today that discussed how the U.S. Department Of Transportation (DOT) was issuing new guidelines concerning airline passengers. These guidelines include the following:

• increasing the amount a bumped passenger would receive from an airline.
• prominent disclosure of baggage fees.
• prominent disclosure of refunds and expense reimbursement if baggage are not delivered on time.
• provide disclosure if baggage fees change.
• prohibiting price increases after a ticket has been purchased.

Given that the country is hemorrhaging red ink. do we really need to employ dozens if not hundreds of people that worry about airlines' operating procedures, customer satisfaction procedures , and signage procedures? I rarely travel via airlines so none of this applies to me, or a high percentage of the American public. Thus, why not dump this kind of government waste and start paying down the debt and returning our taxes/wealth to us? If I have a problem with any airline, whether it was fees, baggage lost, bumping, or anything else, why not let myself and other citizens take the personal responsibility of working it out with the airlines?

If I do not get a satisfactory answer, I can take legal action if warranted, take another airline that is more customer friendly, or choose another mode of transportation. I do not need bureaucrats coming up with regulations, that wastes money for the sole purpose of justifying their existence, that I can personally handle myself. Its called the free market and if the airlines want to stay in business, they will take care of the customer. This type of government dysfunction and waste is like Snoopy's ears complaining while poor Snoopy is having a heart attack. Cold ears do not matter, much like this section of the DOT and its rule making waste does not matter.

Step 1 of "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" calls not only for an annual reduction in the Federal government but a complete overall of what functions the government does and what can be chopped in order to maximize budget reduction and minimize pain. These DOT rules are just the type of waste centers that would be eliminated since they deal with only a small portion of American citizens and their function can be much better done by the free market and the airlines need to have happy customers.

Our new book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.