For a wagon to move forward, someone has to pull it and the weight inside cannot be too much. The same is true for society, for an economy to move forward, people have to work to move the economy forward. Moreover, there cannot be too many people resting in the wagon adding unneeded weight.

How does this apply to the American election? Because every four years we are faced with politicians from both parties that make promises to gain votes. These promises are not just made from presidential candidates, but also from senators and congressmen, state and federal level. All of these promises, if fulfilled can weigh down on the American economy and the working class men and women. Once these promises are delivered, it is almost impossible for them to be taken away.

We hear from many candidates that they want to shrink government. However, government has never shrunk. Government has only been rearranged and contracted out. For instance, at a base I used to work at the military housing (thousands of units) used to be run by government employees. Now the housing units are contracted out and managed and maintained by a more efficient civilian company. This shift in responsibility shrinks the government jobs, only to increase the civilian contractor. Hence changes the information going to the GAO (Government Accounting Office). However, it does not change the financial responsibility, only manpower! In many cases it is more expensive to hire contractors than to use government employees.

We need to shrink government and shrink it fast.

Ask yourself the following questions:

1.If the government offered you to opt out of paying social security would you? I know I would even if it means losing the money I already contributed into it. I would invest my money into my 401K and manage it myself.

2.Would you pay into disability insurance if you knew you could never collect it? I know disability insurance is handled on the state level, but wouldn’t you rather invest and save your money incase of an emergency vice contributing to this fund?

3.How about getting rid of student aid and having student finance through loans and savings? If your taxes were lower would you invest in a 529 plan to finance college?

4.How about getting rid of many of the 20 year pension plans and increasing it to 30 or 40 years like most jobs?

5.How about getting rid of school buses and driving your children to school. I already have to do this since the buses are so over crowded my children cannot bring their band instruments on board.

6.Get rid of the school assisted breakfast/lunch program. How many parents would send their children to school without lunch!

7.So many more social programs to list, we could go on forever…..

The problem is that these ‘benefits’ have already been established by politicians (whatever their motivation) and now we consider them ‘entitlements’. Now that they are established most people have no intention to get rid of them.

How many people have benefited from college financial aid? How many people are receiving school financial aid? Too many to mention, we can’t even fathom not having these benefits.

I am retired military and I cannot imagine losing my military retirement after 20 years. I feel it was a right that I sacrificed for. But many state governments are facing financial problems due to pension plans. In my state there are many school teachers / police officers that retire at 20 years, work for another 20 years as a school administrator and by the time they are 60 they are collecting two state pensions. People are making more in retirement than they were while working. Good for them to work for so many years, but 20 year pension hurt the state pension plans. To increase these pensions’ plans now will never happen without the unions having the education boards in courts for years. It is very hard for a society to maintain itself when having more income going to people not working than to people that are working.

The point I’m making is that as a collective we Americans need to cut back, and cut back drastically. It is not the job of the federal government to administer social programs. It is the responsibility of the individual to take charge of their future.

I want a candidate that is a six sigma black belt and knows how to really start reducing government.

I haven’t even started talking about military spending yet… more to come.

“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss” Pete Townsend.