This is a little lengthy, but it’s a plain spoken explanation of just how much debt the Democrats have run up in the last 18 months. Although contrary to what the media would have you believe by shear numbers Republicans had no ability to stop this debt. Holding the white house and super majorities in both the house and senate have allowed this spending spree to take place. In one year Barry and his congress double the debt that it took the prior 43 presidents to accumulate.
This cannot go on.
Please support only fiscally responsible candidates this November; regardless of their party.
The quotations below are from the WSJ Opinion Piece by Brian Bolduc.
Senator Byrd thank you for your service to this state. Even though I disagreed with almost everyone of your political stances I have to believe that your heart was in the right place when it came to WV. However the billions of dollars in Federal Money that you sent to this state only allowed it to sink deeper into poverty while allowing some mistakenly to believe that progress was being made.
The state now has to maintain a sea of asphalt and concrete that our tax base will never in the near future be able to support. We now have to maintain large buildings and facilities that we never should have been able to build. WV has been the beneficiary or victim depending upon your view of wealth redistribution. You funneled money from other states to your own and allowed every single item to bear your name. Yet all this money did nothing.
When Byrd became senator in 1959, West Virginia ranked No. 39 in median family income, and No. 42 in per capita income. Today, it’s No. 48 in both categories.
Your continuous flow of money allowed WV the luxury of not having to make the hard choices that needed to be made. It allowed the budget to be balanced every year and hard choices to be continually put off. Almost every single bit of “advancement” that came as a result of your work was just more federal money being brought into the state. We have jails, the FBI center, large hospitals, but very little of the enormous amount of money that you robbed from other states created private investment. For decades WV has needed to make changes to its tax structure and business climate that would spur private sector growth. But we never did; the state just allowed Big Daddy to continue to write checks for money that was not his.
51.3% of the state’s economy relies on spending by the local, state and federal government—the highest level of any state. "We’ve created this culture of dependency," warns Mr. Sobel, "Our human capital is not good at competing in the marketplace; it’s good at securing federal grants."
I am both happy and sad at the days that are to come for my beloved state of WV. I am happy that maybe finally the elected officials will be made to force changes that will hopefully allow the state to grow. I am sad that it has to be done in such a compressed time frame. With only about 20 to 30 years of coal excise taxes left we have less than a generation to make changes that could have started in the 60’s and 70’s. WV’s workforce is strong and dedicated but they lack the opportunity to work and fulfill their potential. Until the business climate in WV is improved its economic status will continue to deteriorate.
An economy that grows because of government spending and not private sector investment is nothing more than redistribution of wealth. The faucet has now been turned off its time for WV to make the hard choices. Jake Stapleton 07-10-10
Today is Memorial Day here in the United States. Often the true meaning of this holiday is overlooked and treated as nothing more than a three day weekend. Memorial Day is a day that we should take time to honor those men and women who died to bring us the freedom that we enjoy today. Here is just one example
Samuel B. Roberts
I was going to do a blog post on a recent speech on the house floor from Felipe Calderon. However I located this video that does it so well. Thank you Representative McClintock (R-CA) for pointing all that was wrong with a disgraceful speech to the United States Congress by a guest in the people’s house.
Jake's Opinion
Opinion: A thought that a person has formed about a topic or issue