Stupid government overspending is talked about a lot in Washington, but rarely by people that actually get it. Today was an exception at the CPAC panel “It’s the Spending, Stupid!”
Let Freedom Ring President Colin Hanna opened up the panel featuring three freshmen legislators by all-too-accurately stating: “The problem is indeed the spending, and we are too stupid if we can’t figure out how to fix it.”
Senator Mike Lee spoke first and said when he first came to Washington he found out the hard way it wasn’t only conservatives like himself and Jim DeMint that got to vote. For that reason, today at the panel he announced his endorsements of Missouri Senate candidate Sarah Steelman and Michigan Senate candidate Clark Durant, conservatives he believes will help to cut spending.
Up next was Congressmen Tom Graves (R-WI), who described himself as a “North Georgia, country boy conservative that grew up in a single wide trailer”. As a native Chicago boy, I had no clue what “single wide” meant. Thank goodness for Google.
Graves made an important, common-sense point, one I don’t think I’ve ever heard from a legislator: “Fathers need to be teaching their children not to depend on the government”. He continued that if they don’t, we will live in an America for which too many will depend on the government, making it almost possible to cut spending programs for which they believe they need.
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) spoke last. Johnson is a lifelong businessmen and, not surprisingly, ran through a whole host of statistics to demonstrate how out of control our spending crisis truly is. He promoted the Heritage Foundation’s brand-new report that found dependency on government is up 23% since President Obama took office, a shocking figure. Further, he noted that 100 years ago total government spending was 7% of GDP, while today it is 39% of GDP. This brings America to the lower level of European style social welfare, among the likes of Norway, whose at 40% of GDP.
If don’t turn things around, America’s next stop is Greece, whose spending is at 47% of GDP. Senator Johnson appropriately concluded the panel by saying that in order to ultimately stop the spending and not become another Greek Tragedy, it is imperative we defeat President Obama—someone who is completely unwillingly to address the great challenges we face.
