In the United States today there are two types of politicians. There are those at the state level, and those at the national level. Politicians at the state level and lower are in direct contact with the people they serve, therefore they are more responsible to those people in case something goes wrong. Local politicians seem to always agree on the same platform issues of better education, better police, safer and cleaner city, promote business, and etc… Everyone can agree on these issues and it seems that the competition between politician campaigns at the local levels are run on the bases of who can do a better job. Business men and woman generally win these elections based on previous experience in workplace environments, and try to run the government as a business. This way of running local governments works because on the very small scale, bureaucracy is very efficient. It is able to micromanage its’ responsibilities and is able to manage governmental programs depending on the community’s need for these programs. This efficiency does not exist pass the state or local level. Large bureaucracies are not efficient to begin with; but what exacerbates the problem is the politicians who run this national government.
National politicians require people to reelect them to the senate, house, and presidency. This would make it seem that these politicians are directly responsible to their states. This is not the case however, because these national politicians run on the same platforms as their mirrors in the local levels. They run on educational reform, welfare, a cleaner nation, more business, a better economy, etc… These national programs seem great to the individual citizen, because they have been voting for local politicians who have used these same platforms. On the national level however, programs become very large, requiring large amounts of money to support not only the thousands of governmental workers that run the programs, but also because of the inherent inefficiency of the process. These programs become a huge mess because they are being controlled from a national level. The bureaucracy becomes extremely inefficient because it cannot micromanage its programs; and so it wastes millions of tax payer’s money, that could have been given to the states and local governments that would use the money more efficiently.
The national government is overstepping its appointed position, its position is not a responsibility to the people; that is the states responsibility or even merely the individual citizen’s responsiblity. National government’s responsibility is the welfare of our nation’s diplomatic and military relations with the rest of the world. It is the buffer between the citizens of America, and the outside world, it is not a free life store!
The national government should be able to pressure the states for certain reforms if need be (and provide money) only if the nation is in depression. The people of America do not need a national welfare program if we are not in depression, there is no reason! Everyone should be working and getting paid. It is said that if you cannot vote, you are not represented. It is more deep than this simple understanding, if a person does not work, if a person does not pay taxes, if they are payed to live, they should not, cannot and will not be represented by congress! Congress is suported by tax payer’s money and it is they, the tax payer who should decide the law, not anyone else. I will list the exact money payed by taxpayers and to what departments:
| Department of Agriculture | 93,534 | (In Millions) | ||||
| Department of Commerce | 6,373 | |||||
| Department of Education | 93,429 | |||||
| Department of Energy | 21,098 | |||||
| Department of Health and Human Services | 684,959 | Huge | ||||
| Department of Homeland Security | 32,358 | |||||
| Department of Housing and Urban Development | 52,405 | |||||
| Department of Labor | 43,138 | |||||
| Department of Transportation | 60,139 | |||||
| Department of Social Security | 585,743 | Huge | ||||
| Sum | 1,673,176 | |||||
| Total Governmental Spending on all programs (2007). | 2,799,382 | |||||
It seems that more than half of federal spending could be cut on two programs, social security and health and human services.
The amount of Americans uninsured is not the fault of every other American who is insured. You are guilty, you should not be reading this article, you shouldn’t even have a computer, because your next door neighbor does not have a car to get to work and has to take the bus. This is the national government’s outlook. The national government is encroaching on the states ability to help their people. It is extremely inefficient, it will do a terrible job, it cannot keep these programs! Our country will go into a recession if it tries to create programs that will tax us dry. There is a large division of loyalty in this country. What do you support, the states’ right to be able to help its people in an efficient and localized manner or the national government that will put this nation into a recession because of its large ineffiecient programs.
Sources:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy08/browse.html http://www.heritage.org/research/features/BudgetChartBook/contents.cfm http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/ http://www.cbo.gov/publications/bysubject.cfm?cat=35
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