Miracles DO Happen

I am witness to a real live miracle this week--a common sense solution to a community problem! The story goes like this...We've only lived in Spokane, WA for a year, but my understanding is that historically they have not charged children anything to use the community swimming pools. With the recent economic downturn the local park department was having a hard time making ends meet. They determined that the pools could no longer be free and started charging $1 per child. But when you're accustomed to free, it's hard to give that up. There was a huge outcry from the community and fears that the new policy would keep the poor from being able to swim. It was a big local hubbub. The parks department was between a rock and a hard place. They either had to find more money or shut down the pools. Raising taxes was not an option and ending the fees wouldn't work either. Amazingly enough, someone came up with a brilliant idea. They have decided to keep the $1 fee for those who can afford it and then held a fund-raiser to provide "scholarships" for those who can't. This provides an opportunity for those who have the means to be charitable and help out the less fortunate. The beautiful thing is that it's not being done through coercion (i.e. taxation). It also allows those who can't afford it the opportunity to partake in the fun. This is the kind of problem-solving that would go a long way to fix the problems that are crippling our economy and our fiscal future.

This local example provides a stark contrast with what happens at the federal level. Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of math knows that we are on a crash course with destiny. Our financial house of cards, built on huge debt at multiple levels, is about to come crashing down around our ears. Our government spending is vastly outpacing our earning capacity. The only way to fix the problem is to stop spending money on frivolous and wasteful programs. Unfortunately, that is not likely to happen any time soon.

A perfect example of this ridiculous spending is what happened in last weekend's Super Bowl. The Federal Government felt it necessary to spend $2.5 million dollars to buy a 30 second ad, during the Super Bowl, promoting the census. This is only part of the Census Bureau's $340 million ad campaign for the 2010 census. (See: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/80113-super-bowl-spot-kicks-off-debate-about-census-ad-campaign) If you have a slight clue and a weak pulse, you will be aware that the census is required of our government every ten years. It costs them plenty of money to do the census; is it really necessary to advertise it? I don't know about you, but I could do a lot with $340 million bucks. I can speculate with a great deal of confidence that were we to add up all of the tax dollars wasted on such garbage, it would add up to be a grundle of money and would go a long way to getting us out of debt. Does it ever occur to the people that dip into the bottomless taxpayer's wallet, that perhaps we should be more careful how we spend the money? No, not really.

This leads me to conclude that one of the biggest problems facing our nation today is federal funding. Thomas Jefferson once said, "A rigid economy of the public contributions and absolute interdiction of all useless expenses will go far towards keeping the government honest and unoppressive." We are living proof of the exact opposite. The further our tax dollars get from our community and the more hands they are passed through is an invitation for disaster. For example, it is relatively easy (compared to the federal gov't) for me to trace the tax dollars that go directly to the city of Spokane. I can go downtown and demand to know where the monies are being spent and the results are verifiable. Contrast that with what happens with the tax dollars sent to Washington DC and you have a mess. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to trace the money filtered through DC. There are too many hands in the pot, too many political "obligations" and debts to be repaid, too much secrecy and way too much back room dealing (can you say "earmarks"?). The practice of filtering money through Washington DC has also successfully circumvented the Constitutional powers delegated solely to the states. The federal government is supposed to only have the specific powers given to it in the Constitution; every other power was to be reserved by the individual states. But our collective dependence on federal funding has surrendered those rights. Any time Washington DC benevolently "gives" the states money, it always comes with strings attached. The money has to be spent where and how the federal government specifies or the funding will be pulled. Our founding fathers must be rolling in their graves, because Jefferson also said, "Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition". I am constantly amazed at the foresight of the men that carefully crafted our Constitutional government. The more I read, the more I realize that human nature has changed little. They knew that and they anticipated most of the problems that would plague the governance of our nation. If we don't heed their warnings, we are doomed to fail. We must return fiscal responsibility to our government and our governance to our Constitutional roots. Only by returning to our past can our future be saved.