Kindly note the impending bankruptcy
I suppose it’s possible to take this recurring melodrama seriously, but there’s no reason to. The problem facing the United States government is that it spends over a trillion dollars a year that it doesn’t have. If you want to make that number go away, you need either to reduce spending or to increase revenue. With the best will in the world, you can’t interpret the election result as a spectacular victory for less spending. Indeed, if nothing else, the unfortunate events of November 6 should have performed the useful task of disabusing us poor conservatives that America is any kind of “center-right nation.” A few months ago, I dined with a (pardon my English) French intellectual who, apropos Mitt Romney’s stump-speech warnings that we were on a one-way ticket to Continental-sized dependency, chortled to me, “Americans love Big Government as much as Europeans. The only difference is that Americans refuse to admit it.”
My Gallic charmer is on to something. According to the most recent (2009) OECD statistics: government expenditures per person in France, $18,866.00; in the United States, $19,266.00. That’s adjusted for purchasing-power parity, and yes, no comparison is perfect, but did you ever think the difference between America and the cheese-eating surrender monkeys would come down to quibbling over the fine print? In that sense, the federal debt might be better understood as an American Self-Delusion Index, measuring the ever widening gap between the national mythology (a republic of limited government and self-reliant citizens) and the reality (a 21st-century cradle-to-grave nanny state in which, as the Democrats’ convention boasted, “government is the only thing we do together”).
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Point: the Euro states are well past the peak of the Laugher curve, and, despite their higher tax rates, they don’t bring in more taxes per capita.
Count to 10 on December 1, 2012 at 7:43 PM
If no one can agree that we need to reduce entitlement and “defense” spending we can’t even begin to solve the problem. In fact, our govt is such a monolithic beast, so wasteful and glutiness that it I’ll only stop once it collapses upon its own weight. Even many so called “conservatives” here cant even agree to stop giving money to foreign governments such as Pakistan or Israel. Many of you are part of the problem.
MoreLiberty on December 1, 2012 at 7:44 PM
I suspect Mark Steyn is getting very, very tired of speaking truth to … whomever. Being a prophet of doom has to wear on you over time. And the kicker is, he’s 100% right. And he really, genuinely cares, about this, and about other people. Not like Obama cares. That’s something else.
Paul-Cincy on December 1, 2012 at 7:44 PM
When reality hits the road. Reality will kick in. It has to. That’s just a fact of life.
Paul-Cincy on December 1, 2012 at 7:47 PM
Hey – Canada actually drilling for oil and gas, and it stands up to Iran.
1) Apply for multi-entry visa.
2) Live there for 1095 days (3 years) as a US citizen.
3) In the wanning days of the Obama administration, you determine whether you want to apply for Canadian citizenship.
At least that way, you have a choice.
beatcanvas on December 1, 2012 at 7:58 PM
Hey – Canada actually ^likes^ drilling for oil and gas
beatcanvas on December 1, 2012 at 7:59 PM
Social Security. Medicare. Medicaid. Welfare. Refundable Tax Credits. Never-ending “educational” spending. Federally-guaranteed Student Loans.
We’ve been socialist for a long long time.
Revenant on December 1, 2012 at 8:01 PM
Sadly, the same would be true even had the election result been different … like with the 2010 elections, it would have been a screaming mandate by the American people for “less spending” — but, of course, would have realistically simply slowed the rate of government growth a little more than will otherwise happen under Obama and the Dems.
ShainS on December 1, 2012 at 8:35 PM
.
Jeeze Louise, look it up will ya? Laffer Curve, after Art Laffer.
ExpressoBold on December 1, 2012 at 8:39 PM
I usually like stynes write ups, but if he is going to go around arguing that 2012 proves we are not a center right nation, then he is going to lose credibility with me.
Romney being a pathetic candidate effected the election outcome.
astonerii on December 1, 2012 at 8:56 PM
Yeah – because the majority of voters voted for that noted centrist, Barack Obama.
You’re a genius.
By the way, did you know that Republicans nominated that guy who was pathetic? According to you, what does that say? It certainly doesn’t say conservative. And if the Republican party isn’t conservative…
beatcanvas on December 1, 2012 at 9:51 PM
If you’re arguing that it hasn’t, you’re going to lose credibility with anyone who isn’t completely self-deluded.
MelonCollie on December 1, 2012 at 9:55 PM
The bottom line.
If taxmaggedon happens and Obama and the Dems then demagogue and try to pass a tax cut after that, taking a page from the Dems own play book, how are they going to “pay for” it?
More and more the best option appears to be letting all of the tax cuts expire and then work from there. It’s not like there is another election in a year. As we have seen with Obamacare, the electorate has a very, very short attention span and it is not very bright. The Dems know this and exploit it.
farsighted on December 1, 2012 at 10:19 PM
I suggest this might be a good time to reread the Book of Revelations in the Bible, with special attention to the chapters describing the fall of Babylon the Great, cf Chapter 19:
9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
. . .
15 The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,
16 And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
Don’t call it the destruction of Babylon, call it a financial crisis or a fiscal cliff, whatever. It all comes from making and believing a Big Lie.
flataffect on December 1, 2012 at 10:53 PM
“Clearly there’s no mandate for small government in the election results. So, if you milquetoast pantywaist sad-sack excuses for the sorriest bunch of so-called Americans who ever lived want to vote for Swede-sized statism, it’s time to pony up.”
Okay, he might want to focus-group it first. But that fundamental dishonesty is the heart of the crisis. You cannot simultaneously enjoy American-sized taxes and European-sized government. One or the other has to go.
Schadenfreude on December 1, 2012 at 10:55 PM
Sorry, s/b in quotes
Schadenfreude on December 1, 2012 at 10:56 PM
-Mark Steyn
You can’t have European-sized government with European-sized taxes either. European-sized government is unsustainable with any tax structure.
zmdavid on December 1, 2012 at 10:59 PM
Steyn’s shooting low and left because every other solution he’s tried has failed to persuade people.
Europe’s model is failing inevitably but slowly enough to prevent insurrection.
Our model is doing Mach 2 with its hair on fire.
We are going to beat the Europeans to the collapse and the result will probably be rough.
CorporatePiggy on December 1, 2012 at 11:27 PM
Steyn reminds me of John the Baptist, walkin out of the desert, preachin doom and hellfire.
tommy71 on December 1, 2012 at 11:29 PM
Both were painful to listen to. One was proved right, and the other will be…unfortunately.
CorporatePiggy on December 1, 2012 at 11:38 PM
Probably?
Dude, it’s gonna be epic.
BallisticBob on December 2, 2012 at 12:06 AM
OK, so our governments spend that much per citizen, but what do they spend it on?
In the last couple of years, trillions were
spentwasted by this administration on paying back cronies in the solar and automotive industries (among others). Incredible as it sounds, France probably uses their money more wisely and productively than 0bama has since 2009.UltimateBob on December 2, 2012 at 2:34 AM
Since August 14, 1935.
itsacookbook on December 2, 2012 at 7:14 AM
This is irrelevant to the Left. Their religion is worship of Big Government (and occasionally Gaia). They’re zealots. No information, persuasion, facts, evidence, etc. will sway their Faith.
That, and the foundation of their Faith rests on economic illiteracy: they don’t really understand basic economics.
Therefore when their Faith-based plans go arwy, and they will because they defy human nature, they will always blame someone/something/anything else for their woes.
visions on December 2, 2012 at 7:55 AM
Right. The socialist state’s “soak the rich” economic model is unsustainable. There is not enough wealth to pay for it. The “wealthy” do not have enough “wealth” to confiscate, spend, and redistribute to sustain the model. And the model kills new wealth creation.
BO, Before Obama, I thought what would save the US is watching Europe’s unsustainable socialist welfare state fail and implode before ours did. I hoped that experience would sober up enough of the electorate to reverse the trend.
Instead the majority of the US electorate and the current President of the US want to drag race Europe to see who can reach and go off the economic cliff first.
Letting the tax cuts expire across the board might apply enough braking power to let the Europeans to inch ahead, but I doubt it.
At any rate, resetting to the Clinton era taxes and then forcing the Dems to justify anything they propose to do from that new baseline seems better than the alternative. All alternatives are bad but trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see and out of control government borrowing is the worst. If the electorate wants big government let them pay for it. Maybe, just maybe enough people will decide its not worth it to reverse the trend.
farsighted on December 2, 2012 at 8:11 AM