Viewing government (big or small) through a different lens

Opinion: September 13, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

It’s time to set the record straight about a balanced budget amendment, which is a high priority among Tea Party people. They feel that it would solve all our budget problems over night. Even the speaker of the House said that if there had been a balanced budget amendment already in place, the country wouldn’t be in this mess. That’s true; we would be far worse off. In fact, we would probably be speaking German or Japanese right now.

Republicans act as if they are the only ones who want a balanced budget, which is simply not true. After all it was a Democratic president who left office not only with a balanced budget, but a surplus to start paying down the debt. Republicans, in their infinite wisdom, immediately reversed that during the Bush years.

What is more evident is that the Founding Fathers understood that a country, especially a new one, would have to borrow from time to time, especially during times of economic challenges. The French helped us out greatly at the start of our country.

As to the sugggestion that the country be run the way a person runs a household budget, there also aren’t many households that meet the type of balanced budget the Tea Party and the Republicans claim to want. You know the phrase, “live within your means.” Not many people can afford to pay cash for their home or a new car or even a refrigerator. So if you have any debt whatsoever are you living within your means? Not according to the Tea Party and the Republicans.

Would you be able to continue making your payments if you lost your job or a good percentage of your income? Probably not, yet every policy the Republicans propose is simply to decrease the government’s income and cut spending to the poor and middle class programs and continue spending tax money by giving corporations and the rich more of our tax dollars. That is what people who support the Tea Party are really supporting.

People look at the amount of what the government takes in and spends and say it is too much. If they thought about it, big business is a far greater threat than the so-called “big government.” What would you want to counter balance big business and protect you, a small government? Unfortunately, corporations are made up of people who only care about themselves and their take or profit. A balanced budget amendment would certainly help corporate America.

Leif P Damstoft, Warren