A recent Wall Street Journal column by Stephen Moore entitled “We’ve become a nation of takers, not makers” really says it all. Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million). It gets worse. More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined.
This easily explains why the Republicans are caving on their promises to trim the budget.
They are clearly outnumbered even with the efforts of the Tea Party. The Democrats have an easy way of gaining loyal members. They hire them and give them pay and benefits that far exceed those in the private sector. Everyone knows that we cannot continue spending the way we are but Democrats simply refuse to adopt a coherent plan to stop the hemorrhaging. If the parties cannot reach a compromise, the Democrats, aided by the mainstream media, will label Republicans extremists who are at fault for shutting down the government. If the Republicans fail to stand their ground the Tea Party folks will be mad at them for not shutting the government down. It’s damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
The tragic part of all of this is that not too far down the road the only way the government will be able to pay its bills is to have a real shutdown.
Don Williamson
Arlington
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