Dear Editor:
"Obama says some local police departments need more resources," July 20 article. This is code for more income redistribution and more federal control.
The federal government gets all its money from the same place state and local government gets it, the pockets of individual taxpayers and consumers (businesses don't pay taxes, they pass the cost along to consumers in the price of the product). There is no "magic money tree" in D.C.
Obama wants to raise taxes, or borrow more money, so that he can "redistribute" money for local police departments. That is code for take control of them. The feds regularly use the "power of the purse" to control state and local government.
Do we need the federal government to extort more money from Missouri taxpayers, use a significant portion of it to pay for countless federal bureaucrats, and then use the remaining portion of it to tell local police departments how the department should be operated? Can't we citizens decide whether or not we want to increase the size of our local police forces? Can't those of in Centertown decide if we want to our tax dollars to be used to pay for police forces in other Missouri cities? Is this just a ploy to force us to bail out Democrat-run big cities?
The contempt, by those in the federal government, for the intelligence of local citizens disgusts me! When did "We the People" become so dumbed down that we need the elite in an all-powerful federal government to take total control of our lives?
From 1930-40 the federal government cost taxpayers eight percent of GDP. from 1955-74 it cost us between 16.8 and 18.1 percent of GDP (for five of those years we had an average of over 400,000 troops fighting in Vietnam.) Under the Obama presidency the federal government has consumed over 20 percent of GDP and it has doubled our national debt.
Obama's proposed 2017 budget calls for federal spending to increase to 22.4 percent of GDP by 2021. The FY2016 deficit is now expected to top $600 billion. In only two years of our history did the annual deficit exceed $400 billion before the bailouts and massive increases in "free stuff" started in FY2009. At the same time tax collections hit record highs every year.
__________
Issue-oriented letters to the editor are welcome. All letters should be limited to 400 words; letters may be edited to conform to guidelines. The author's name must appear with the letter, and the name, address and phone number provided for verification. Letters that cannot be verified by telephone will not be published. Email to [email protected].