There is an old adage that goes, “If you can’t be a good example, at least be a horrible warning.”
That is a warning America should pay attention to as this nation heads into the 2016 election. The Democrats want America to be much more like Europe. Europe has never been a good example but now at least parts of Europe are a horrible warning of what will happen if America continues to elect liberal Democrats.
Greece is the nation that gave the world Democracy. It is also the nation that is the poster child for the tragedy of liberal policies. Greek is broke. It is more than broke, it is bankrupt.
In Greece, they have the kind of medical system the Democrats want America to have. That is a government-controlled, single-payer system. Today in Greece, the hospitals have run out of both painkillers and bed sheets. Greece, like the rest of Europe is facing an onslaught of illegal immigrants from northern Africa. They are crossing the Mediterranean to escape the Islamist violence in northern Africa. Greece has had to severely curtail operations by both its navy and air force because of budget short falls.
How did Greece get into this position?
In the 19th Century, French writer Alexis de Tocqueville in his book “Democracy in America,” warned Americans that, “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”
The Greek government discovered that truism a long time ago. They have also run into another immutable law of economics as offered by the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. “The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.”
The Greek politicians bribed the voters with ever more generous social benefits. Politicians dared not cut benefits lest they be voted out of office. So, they raised taxes. But taxes can only be raised so much so then the Greek politicians started borrowing money. Now the time has come to pay back the money and the Greek government cannot do it.
There is a lesson for America. When President Obama took office in 2009, the national debt stood at $8 Trillion. Today it is $18 trillion. What does America have to show for it? America’s military is falling apart. If you believe the Democrats, America’s inner cities and infrastructure are falling apart too and need more money.
Before America spends another dime, perhaps the first question that should be asked is where did $10 trillion go? In 2011, Gallup surveyed Americans and the average American believes the government wastes 51 cents of every dollar.
America is going down the Greek road. For almost a decade, America has enjoyed unnaturally low interest rates. Sooner or later, those rates are going to rise. They will rise because the market forces them up and they will rise because America is a greater credit risk. When that happens, the cost to simply service the debt will become unbearable.
America will become Greece.
When the Tea Party started in 2009, the issue that drove the Tea Party initially was the out of control spending. Ten trillion dollars later, the spending is well past being merely out of control. Sixty years ago, both political parties believed in fiscal sanity. Politicians of both parties believed that fiscal restrain was the appropriate policy for government.
Today both parties believe in government largess. Both parties gladly spend America’s tax dollars and every other dollar they can borrow.
America is not becoming Greece. America is Greece. And that should be a horrible warning for us all.
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