The electorate has changed – the majority want central planning

Well that’s it. During the past five years, I’ve been writing about conservative principals that I strongly believe in. I honestly think moving towards central planning – where we send trillions to the federal government, only for states and unsustainable programs to beg for some back  – is the wrong approach and is the root of all of our economic and cultural problems.

Yup, I was totally wrong with my prediction on the election. I was also wrong about the suggested move to the right of the electorate during the current administration. There certainly was a shift to the right, but not as big as I expected. People want to hear the federal government will support them. They want their free stuff. They are entitled. That’s how they are voting these days…

But when you talk about specific results, a large federal government sucks. As it gets bigger and bigger, it’s not getting better.

  • Regulations from the federal government are out of control. I’m involved with one small business who has elected not to provide a specific service simply because the federal DOT is a total pain in the ass to deal with and the risk of fines are too great. Customer costs went up 35% for that service.
  • We’ve seen increased health care costs and increased premiums. Exactly opposite of what was promised. There will be no “bending down” of the cost curve. Companies who now provide benefits will soon drop them completely because the “fine” will be less than half the cost of benefits. Eventually, you’ll have government health care simply by default. Of course, the wealthy will have access to their own private doctors and hospitals soon.
  • How the hell do liberals and supporters of President Obama intend to pay off the increasing national debt? How the hell do they propose to pay for the unfunded entitlements that will be due during the next two to three decades? Oh, that’s right … they couldn’t give a crap since all they care about is what they will be doing this weekend. Adults deal with problems, we’re voting to kick the can down the road again. No progress on Social Security reform is going to happen in the next four years, NONE.
  • We’re not leading in education. We’re falling behind. You know it … we’re not doing a damn thing about it. Money is not the fix.
  • We’ve thrown billions upon billions of dollars at emergency preparedness and response. Tonight, thousands of families don’t have power in Staten Island and they don’t expect to get it for another two days. That’s a storm-related outage of 10 days. Wind chills well below freezing tonight in the area.
  • Companies won’t just stop providing health care benefits, they will soon turn more and more to contractors instead of traditional full time employees to lower other costs and have a more flexible workforce.
  • How the rest of the world “likes” us more with Obama in office is beyond comprehension. The man that won the Nobel Peace Prize increased the war effort in Afghanistan, started drone attacks in Pakistan, invaded Pakistan to take out Bin Laden, and is expanding drone attacks to other Middle East countries is somehow not being defined as an out-of-control “cowboy” like G.W. Bush was? Explain that to me will ya?
  • How are we doing on that “war on poverty?” The poverty rate in the 1960s was damn close to what it is today. I guess we could say that if we didn’t spend all that money, it would be a lot worse…
  • How about the “war on drugs?”
  • How’s that Arab Spring working out when it comes to stability in the region?

Go ahead, keep demonizing the producers, the business owners, the capitalists and those who have inadvertently won “life’s lottery.” They didn’t earn it … they earned it on the backs of the little people. Keep thinking that … Whatever…

Good luck to all of you dependent on government. Good luck with central planning. I’ve got a start-up business to run, clients to serve, family and friends to hang out with, and we’ll continue to plan our retirement to ensure we don’t run out of money until were 102 years-old.

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

27 Comments

  1. Dimsdale on November 7, 2012 at 1:35 am

    Agreed. ?Romney underestimated the actual number of takers, and that number will do nothing but increase now.

    The preezy now owns the lousy economy, and Bush can now rest easy. ?Maybe we will now see what happened in Benghazi. ?Or not. ?Or maybe the lousy job FEMA is doing after Sandy?

    I do wonder about taxageddon though. ?I suppose the still Republican House will be the punching bag once again.

    Does this mean we will finally see a budget from the Senate? ?Or one that at least Democrats can even vote for from BO?

    You reap what you sow, fellow Greeks…?



  2. Shared Sacrifice on November 7, 2012 at 1:45 am

    The liberal media went easy on Romney- they wanted him as the alternative to a deposed Obama; and then?they trashed Romney as the nominee because they wanted Barry to win.? They are street fighters while while we can’t muster the intestinal fortitude to side with “birthers”.?? I never heard anyone?on the left taking the high road on Romney being a murderer.? I hope the AM band grows like the national debt because I’m all ears!



  3. Shared Sacrifice on November 7, 2012 at 1:55 am

    Samuel L Jackson telling voters and children?to wake the F**k UP!? But don’t?say, “Birther”! ?http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2012/09/27/samuel_l_jackson_to_obama_supporters_wake_the_f_ck_up_.html



  4. gillie28 on November 7, 2012 at 4:11 am

    From a spiritual point of view, a nation gets the leader that reflects its strengths and (in this case) weaknesses.? Politics has degenerated into a disgusting mess that has?practically no?God or truth in it.? ?As the Lord told Samuel when the people demanded a king like the nations surrounding them, “they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them…(1 Sam 8:7). ?The majority in US?voted for a European-like leader, so expect to see European-like consequences.? Secular society, highly intrusive,?government dependency, high taxes, disastrous economies, dictarorial-like central control.? God have mercy on us all.



  5. chetisyourbet on November 7, 2012 at 4:34 am

    Steve,
    When companies start using contractual workers.? I don’t know how the UNIONS will survive.
    I am serving in a South East Asian country and they have a contractual work force here.? an employees is hired and after six months the contract is up they contract a new person.? The law here states that if they keep them longer than six months then they have to get benefits.? The big business get around it because there is a high population of unemployed college graduates to fill the contracts and it keeps growing every year.
    I guess that is what US of A is coming too.? It will be no better that developing and 3rd world Nations around the world.?
    People will stop illegally crossing the boarders as US of A isn’t going to have what they want anymore as the younger workers will take a job anywhere they can to eat and at a lower wage.?
    Americans will illegally be going to places like Brazil, China and the EU as they all seem to be doing better that the US for jobs.? Americans will be a poor nation soon enough.? Actually it already is it just doesn’t know it yet.



  6. Lynn on November 7, 2012 at 7:56 am

    Well, I am crushed. ?I knew CT would go blue, but I truly thought the battleground states were waking up. It turns out, too many want to be given everything. So be it. It is time to grieve for a while ?and then renew my spirit.



  7. Plainvillian on November 7, 2012 at 8:44 am

    Ben Franklin at the end of the constitutional convention:
    “I agree to this constitution….there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other.”
    Are at there yet?



    • Plainvillian on November 7, 2012 at 8:48 am

      Should be? – Are we there yet?



    • Lynn on November 7, 2012 at 10:50 am

      What an incredible sage, Benjamin Franklin was. He was an intellectual giant and knew history. We will have to see, whether the America we were born in, can survive ?another ?4 years of going Foward? I am frightened to think of ?where Forward will take us. ?It’s too bad, Benjamin Franklin did not give us suggestions how to overcome the corruption of the soul of the majority. We will have to do what we say here at RVO, be responsible and fight our way through this.



    • kateinmaine on November 7, 2012 at 3:39 pm

      of course he did, lynn–was he not a signatory on the declaration of independence?



  8. JBS on November 7, 2012 at 8:46 am

    I am observing today as a day of mourning.
    While I won’t say that the US is finished, it is another step along that road. Obama will do all that he can to finish-off what remains of the American spirit.
    Everyone who voted for him is a chump, a patsy. They are either starry-eyed saps who fell for the eu-phony-ous rhetoric or they are the ones with their snouts firmly planted in the public money? trough. The forty-seven percent (47%). They are the only ones who will benefit from continued Democrat rule.
    So, the rest of us, all of us who voted for Romney or Gary Johnson, be prepared for the coming onslaught. More onerous regulations, increasingly proscribed freedoms, enshrinement’s of liberal’s gun laws and outright firearms bans, curtailing of civil liberties, etc. Basically, you can kiss the First and Second Amendments good-bye. Obama has little use for the Constitution.
    Expect steadily increasing taxes. A national sales tax and an Internet tax on all transactions will accompany increases in state and local taxes. Government will get very creative in its efforts to confiscate money from people. Look for permits to broaden, i.e., tag sales will need a temporary…



    • Dimsdale on November 9, 2012 at 10:24 am

      The demise of unions would be poetic justice.? And a silver lining….



  9. JollyRoger on November 7, 2012 at 9:44 am

    Now the real executive orders will start, he’s got more flexibility with Russia, and immigration reform will be 1st agenda item along with giving away more stuff.



  10. Dimsdale on November 7, 2012 at 10:23 am

    Let us hope that he will be more concerned with his legacy than politics and reelections.



    • JBS on November 7, 2012 at 3:32 pm

      Fat chance. Socialists don’t like dissent. The long knives will come out and revenge will be the order. It is instructive that NBC, who had all the time, justification and inclination, chose after the election to dump Trump.
      Now, the enemies of the regime will know the result of not supporting Obama.?
      Plus, the lies from the Democrats are continuing and increasing. Example: The coming fiscal cliff could be avoided IF the Republicans would only compromise and raise the taxes on the “rich.” (The code is that once there is a tax increase on the rich, the narrative will shift to enacting a tax increase on everyone. Everyone, that is, except for the poor {those earning under $___, ___ [that’s six figures]}.)



    • Dimsdale on November 9, 2012 at 10:27 am

      Of course, the legacy he wants could be that of the one that ruined the American economy.?
      ?
      The parallels ?bama has with Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe are striking (http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1726919,00.html)



    • JBS on November 9, 2012 at 8:52 pm

      Funny how you should mention Zimbabwe. I just happen to have five sequential serial number Reserve Bank Of Zimbabwe one-hundred trillion dollar notes. (AA1102125-AA1102129, Series 2008. Crisp, uncirculated, PPQ)
      They are a real testament to runaway inflation does to a currency.
      Nice notes. Virtually worthless. But, their value as historical footnotes (pun intended) is invaluable.
      ?



  11. stinkfoot on November 7, 2012 at 12:44 pm

    Clearly the majority want handouts and a central authority whose primary purpose domestically is to enforce an arbitrary standard of fairness that effectively strips hard work of its value.? The country lost big time.? We allowed ourselves to be manipulated as though we were children and clearly enough have a childish sense of values to give this Treasodent another go at this once great country with his executive wrecking ball.



  12. DocD on November 7, 2012 at 3:33 pm

    Pastor Wil had an interesting comment that we (our society) has to hit bootom, like Greece, and we haven’t yet. ?Exactly.? Ann Wilson Schaef”s book, “When Society Becomes and Addict” written in 1987 depicts the path our country has been walking with scary accuracy.? When we are constanly bomarded with messages that it’s what we wear, what we drive, where we live and how much we?have that gives value and meaning to our lives, we?believe it, and strive for more and more.? Poorer people think richer people are happier ?because they have more stuff, and they want more stuff.? The discovery that this path leads only to resentment and unhappiness must be experienced to be believed.? Hang on for the ride, it’s going to get bumpier.



  13. just sayin on November 7, 2012 at 8:17 pm

    “Someday you will tell your children we were a nation that once valued freedom and liberty ? and had the courage to stand up for any man, any nation, and people who sought the same. A nation that stood strong against tyrants, despite public, popular or political opinion. We were once a nation that was not only the land of the free ? but also the home of the brave.” – Jim Vicevich, October 2009

    I highly recommend you listen to Mark Levin’s live stream or archive radio program for 11/7/12, the day after the election. ?http://marklevinshow.com/sectional.asp?id=32930 ?He was initially upset as anyone would be who understands the damage the liberals have done to our beloved country. ?But now he is p.o.’d. ?He has a vision that we 57,000,000 Patriots NOT give up our liberty to tyranny! ?Do NOT rollover and compromise – our beliefs and foundation are in The Constitution. ?We are right! ?But we are very happy about one thing: “…all that WE see that the left is unleashing and inflicting upon us is going to hit them and their families in the face. ?There is no escape for them what they have done.”
    ?



  14. Jeff S on November 7, 2012 at 8:53 pm

    It’s official … we are the “United Socialist States of America”.? Vladimir is very happy now that Barry doesn’t have to worry about that pesky election anymore.



  15. Murphy on November 8, 2012 at 9:07 am

    The Republican party has to get serious and field some one that can win! With Romney I think they underestimated the older crowds general belief that Mormons are a cult! My Aunt God rest her soul was the kindest person you could ever know. She was Church lady at small Protestant Church who would do anything for anybody (yes even Mormons, Atheists, Muslims, and the Dr. who took her wrong eye!) But she even called Mormons a cult and prayed for them.



    • JBS on November 8, 2012 at 9:52 am

      I thought that at the height of the anti-Mormon rhetoric from the Left, the Dems were going to announce that Obama really favored Islam as his religion of choice. Gee, who’da guessed?
      My stumper for the Lefty’s was: Who do you think is the more moral of the candidates?
      No matter how the argument evolves, it cannot be dismissed that Americans are regularly being killed by Muslims claiming the blessings of Allah.
      And, there is the tacit assertion that “honor killings” are the will of their god?
      Savages!
      ?



    • NH-Jim on November 11, 2012 at 9:23 am

      Imagine… you have survived the unfortunate sinking of the ship that you have been traveling on Life’s ocean.? You are in a life raft, not alone, but with one other person, clinging to life, no food, no water, no shade, no land in sight, NO Hope.? But, you are given the choice of whom you would prefer to have in the raft with you in your last hours.? Would you rather have an atheist to accompany you to the end or a Mormon (i.e. the likes of Mitt Romney) who will pray with you as you travel to the next “world”?



  16. Dimsdale on November 9, 2012 at 12:35 pm

    Best line of the day: from now on, instead of “Hail to the chief”, entrances by ?bama will be preceeded by “Here comes Santa Claus”…..



  17. NH-Jim on November 11, 2012 at 9:09 am

    “My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”
    Ayn Rand, (Atlas Shrugged, 1957)
    ………………………………………………Atlas has shrugged



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