Guest: A Response to “Big Government Is Absolutely Necessary”

The following comes from Gibbs Burke, a friend and former coworker, who lives in Maryland and is an Engineer. He took the time to email me a well thought-out response to “Big Government Is Absolutely Necessary” (2/8/2010), and while I don’t agree completely with his points, I consider them all to be valid and thought it only appropriate to give it some public attention.

— — —

Kyle,

In knowing you for many years, I am glad to see that you have matured into a well rounded intellectual young man, and although I do not agree completely with you in regards to your political points I find them well researched and educated. I greatly enjoy reading your insights.

I am responding to your piece, Big Government is Absolutely Necessary. I believe that government should play a key role in providing for its citizens the requirements that are needed to carry on basic functions of living. We take for granted the infrastructure that any form of government has provided for us within our daily lives. The roads that we drive on to go to work, the water we drink from our faucet, or management of our waste, are perfect examples of what government should be burdened with doing. However, it continues to be more and more apparent that government itself is not responsible for such things, but rather just provides the funding for such operations and contracts said jobs out to sub-entities. Instead of my property taxes going to pay for the cost of providing me water or disposing of my waste, or even providing me electricity, it in turns goes to pay some cheating politicians pension fund, or paying their 2.5% increase in salary that they themselves vote on.

I am on your side when it comes to smart spending I think that is the key to the turn around. Obama talks about giving students rebates for student loans, or possibly lowering interest rates. But yet there is no evidence of factoring this in with the recent Health Care Reform. People believe that doctors get paid too much, but with the average doctor coming out of medical school with over 500,000 dollars in debt, and over millions of dollars in malpractice cost it becomes more apparent that to reform the healthcare system you need to start from the bottom up. You need to provide reimbursement for individuals who provide medical care to people, and you need to make it harder for individuals to sue doctors over minor implications. I am always boggled to find out that an 80 year old man is suing a doctor over such minor things, and asking for exuberate amounts of money. Its funny you don’t sue your mechanic when he fixes something in your car and then 1000 miles later something breaks down again. Above all we need the tough American attitude that was present in our past. We need the die hard live to be free, and not expect everything to be given to us attitude. We need to understand that life is a gift not a right. If a doctor messed up, one must understand that he is human too. I myself am all too familiar with this, being run over by a lawn mower when I was 5 and having multiple surgeries throughout my life to fix such complications. Do you think I sued the doctors when I didn’t get full feeling back in my right foot? No I took in the satisfaction that I was alive and kicking as the only reassuring factor that they had done their job.

We don’t need more government spending we have enough money to spend we just need to do it smartly. We need smart people in key positions to make the bull-headed decision, and say, “That’s stupid were not spending money on that, now sit down and STFU.” If you want perfect examples just look at projects that are funded by the Federal Government to the States, under the Obama relief at home efforts. Such states as Illinois, putting a bypass in a local town for the train crossing, 1.5 million in spending to do jack crap, or Milwaukee were they repaved tennis courts that get iced over for 9 months out of the year. There are no gray areas for such matters. If they can spend, they will, and they will do it without provocation. So the simple answer is to not allow them to spend. Cut all ability for the government to allocate money.

You in no way can compare the government spending process of today and relate it to World War I and World War II. The government spending during these times was to create new industries and job opportunities that developed into long-term positions. Were as in today’s government spending is in place to save dying industries or provide simple economic blips to give the illusion of growth. The famous Cash for Clunkers for which spent how many millions or billions of dollars to help individuals buy cars to save gasoline, while in doing so saved someone where near a mere 500,000 dollars in gasoline over the next 5 years. This program nether provided no jobs, nor opened any new industry, but rather allowed the American car companies to gather a little more cash to pay off creditors before declaring bankruptcy.

If we must spend we must spend on things that benefit the greatest number of people. I hope to see healthcare reform, because I believe that it is a moral issue not an economic one. I hope to see gay unions be given the same tax rights and legal laws as married couples (just don’t call it marriage). And I hate to see the same people who protested for the freedoms, protest against other people hindering their freedoms.

I vote republican, but as I have communicated with you before it is becoming more and more apparent that the republican point of view is growing tiresomely old along with its main members. I don’t want to have a retired person speaking on behave of my political views. I hope that there is a turnover into a new wave of leadership that sees bipartisanship as the best way to do legislature, instead of this bull-headed “cock block.”

For New Republicans,

Gibbs Burke

Tags: America, Big Government, Comment, Federal Spending, Gibbs Burke, Guest Post, Obama, Politics