Biden’s First Address to Congress – The Road to Serfdom
Dennis Prager is known for saying, “The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen.” Our federal debt, $28 trillion ($85,000 per person), has reached a near unsustainable level at 107 percent of GDP. This is before the addition of Biden’s proposed new spending. The total tax bill for select individuals (federal plus state taxes) is nearing 60 percent. This is not freedom. This is serfdom. An estimated 44 percent of Americans do not pay federal taxes and 19 percent of Americans receive monthly welfare payments.
Biden is proposing trillions in new spending, higher taxes, and wants to further weaponize the IRS with an $80 billion budget increase. Biden’s 100-day spending spree totals $6 trillion: $1.8 trillion for the American Families Plan, $2.3 trillion for his American Jobs Plan, along with the $1.9 trillion Coronavirus Rescue Package passed along party lines in March.
In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty. Since then, US taxpayers have spent $22 trillion on anti-poverty programs. Adjusted for inflation, this spending, which does not include Social Security or Medicare, is three times the cost of all military wars in U.S. history since the American Revolution. As late as 2014, the poverty rate was 14.8 percent, the same as it was in 1966. Total welfare costs have risen from $722 per person in poverty in 1964 to $22,740 per person in 2019. The poverty rate reached its lowest levels in 60 years during the Trump administration when it was reduced to 10.5 percent in 2019 which proved the adage that the best government program is a job.
American universities spend $33,000 per student, nearly two-times the world average, and $15,000 per K-12 student. PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) tests 15 years-old in 79 countries in mathematics, reading, and science. The PISA results from 2018 highlighted the fact that China scored No. 1 in all three categories. USA showed little improvement since 2000 placing 30th in math, 8th in reading, and 11th in science. The cost of US college education has grown at twice the inflation rate since 1986. Inflation adjusted K-12 spending per student has increased 280 percent since 1960.
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Despite this abysmal performance, Biden proposes to throw more good money after bad by spending more on early and higher education. Effectively, Biden proposed a cradle-to-college government welfare program to increase American citizens’ dependence on government despite its historical failures. First published in 1944, F.A. Hayek, recipient of the Medal of Freedom and the Nobel Prize in economics, wrote The Road to Serfdom. A perennial best seller, Hayek posited that the collectivist idea of empowering government with increasing economic control would inevitably lead not to a utopia but to the horrors of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. The Left and Democrats argue in favor of collectivism (socialism and communism) despite its failure in every country it has been attempted. In his first 100 days and during his address to Congress, Biden has fully adopted, brazenly proposed, and enthusiastically endorsed the socialist agenda. Margaret Thatcher already predicted the fundamental flaw with Biden’s policies, proposals, and programs when she said, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”
Biden pitched and peddled other progressive fantasy agenda items: gun control, immigration reform, $15 minimum wage, and federalized elections. Even the visual of the address was off message. The audience was entirely masked and socially distanced which did not reflect the fact that all members of Congress have already been vaccinated and is counter to the CDC’s revised guidelines; more anti-science and confusing medical theatre.
The big lie of the night is that these trillion-dollar programs are all paid for; it’s essentially free. In summary, a 60 years-old liberal wish list delivered by a 78-year-old president who has accomplished little despite his 40 plus years in DC; more spending, higher taxes, and increased federal economic control of our lives. Translation: The road to serfdom.
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