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 Every time Democrats want to execute a newly concocted leftist
scheme, they have one motive: to expand federalism. Augmenting the power of the
central government is diminishing the independence of individual states by
assuming responsibilities assigned to them within the 10th Amendment. Big
government was the colonies greatest fear. It would negate everything they had
rebelled against. Big government would increase taxing without representation
for things they did not want or need.
Although the colonies revolted for many reasons; taxation
without representation to finance the wars and the spending of British big
government ignited the fuse of the Revolution. The colonies discovered quickly
after they began to reap the harvest of their investment in the New World that
"the more they produced, the more homage they had to pay to the king" as a
punishment for their success. They revolted because big government was too
expensive and they wanted no part of it.
Since the Great Depression, government has been expanding and usurping states
rights at an unprecedented pace. With a rising interest in socialism during the
Great Depression and their promise to bring economic and socioeconomic security
to America, FDR quickly recreated the theology for future Democrats: "Big
government is the answer for every problem in America."
FDR created so many new government programs and agencies even Democrats bemoaned
the costs and rising national debt. He spoon-fed Americans and kept them on life
support long after they didn't need it. And Americans are still paying for FDR's
"alphabet soup" menu of bequests today.
"Socialism can best be described simply as redistribution of capital." – Norman
Thomas
As Democrats in Congress move ahead with their $1 trillion infrastructure bill
and the $3.5 trillion bill to expand entitlements, the devil is in the details.
Both bills fund programs that the states are responsible for already. Democrats
preach the merits of these federal gifts as an improvement over what the states
are doing now since they will be paid for and managed by the federal government.
Milton Friedman once reminded us, “Government is doing so many things it ought
not to be doing. And it performs the functions it ought to be performing
poorly.” The federal government is already on overload with over 2,300 programs!
Policy-makers can't manage what they have. Biden is more focused on expanding
the welfare state than he is on fixing the economic crisis the leftists created.
According to Democrats, Biden's infrastructure and entitlement schemes will be
funded by huge tax hikes on the rich. His corporate tax increase will destroy
business investment, which will result in more unemployment. His capital-gains
tax increases will discourage new investment and start-ups.
"It is time big business and the wealthiest pay their fair share for these
entitlements." – Joe Biden
Biden's wish list cannot be funded solely by tax increases. Congress is aware of
this. According to the CBO, if both bills pass as written federal debt per U.S.
household will rise from over $180,000 today to a projected $290,000 by 2031. As
debt rises, taxes will be increased on everyone since the rich will either stop
producing or eventually run out of money to give to the federal government.
In nine months, we have seen what over borrowing and spending has done to the
Trump recovery. Rising debt has already triggered an economic crisis with
soaring interest rates and less economic output. We are following the path that
Greece took a decade ago when their economy went belly up. Even with all the EU
bailout money the Greeks received, their per capita income is down 35%.
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Almost all of Biden's infrastructure proposals can
be funded from the state level. The only one who is making out is
the Democrats. Every dime the states get "back" from the federal
government is money that they paid in taxes. The devil is always in
the details. By the time the states get their money back, there are
so many strings attached they were far better off keeping it in the
first place. "Socialism works because people don't
know how to manage their own money." – Hugo Chavez
 For the last decade, almost all states have increased their state
gas tax to fund their own highway and rapid transit systems to meet
their personal needs. Biden's infrastructure bill allocates funding
politically. Blue states get a much larger piece of federal pie for
state projects than the red states.
Entitlements are subjective to the needs of individual states.
States are currently funding programs that Democrats want the
federal government to take over and federalize. This is federalism
in its finest hour. Taking over and running state entitlement
programs and turning them into a national mandate puts the federal
government in charge of providing services that belong to the
states.
Blue states have a multitude of programs to attract and maintain
illegal immigrants while red states don't want them there at all.
Currently, states utilize federal subsidies to meet specific needs
within their states. But Biden's entitlement package eliminates
state management of entitlements and replaces them with a federal
"one size fits all potpourri" of federally mismanaged and regulated
entitlements. Nary a day goes by that Bernie
Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden don't caterwaul that big
business is greedy and selfish and vows to punish them. Yet Biden's
bill includes billions in federal gifts for manufacturing, research,
green energy, broadband, utilities, electric cars, wind power, etc.
This is socializing industry through the back door. Now they are
accountable to the government.
"Cuba is living proof that we socialists repair everything that the
capitalists destroy." – Fidel Castro
Ronald Reagan told us, "Anything the government gives you costs too
much." Federal handouts come with liberty-restricting strings
attached. This doubles and even triples the administrative cost of
managing anything that the state did on their own. Additionally,
these federal programs include massive regulations, rewards to the
labor unions, and costly environmental regulations attached.
 In his inaugural speech, Joe Biden promised to unite America for the
greater good of the nation. But he did not mention his intention was
to make everyone conjoin with the rest of the progressives so they
could turn America into a socialist nation. Expanding federal power
and refusing to work with the GOP and red states shows that his
hidden agenda was to ditch republicanism for socialism.
Federal failures are so common they are expected. Congress never
admits wasting our tax dollars. In fact, they use every failure as
an excuse to grab more power. Biden's package of freebees to the
states is designed to fail. And that is what progressives want. When
th efederally financed scheme fails, liberals blame local
mismanagement and take it over. Their plan will turn Federalism into
socialism.
"The main propaganda trick of supporters of the allegedly
progressive policy of government control is to blame capitalism for
all that is unsatisfactory in the present-day." – udwig von Mises |
