Why Politicians Won't Wean Us from Pork

Much has been written here already on the turmoil in Greece… a semi-failed country that used its EU membership to borrow at artificially low rates to fund its growing Socialist welfare state. Now, the bills are coming due and cutting back on the pork is proving to be a problem:

“There is an all-out war against public servants, those who earn the least,” said Spyros Papaspyros president of ADEDY, an umbrella union for public-sector workers. “We will fight to keep the little we have. The government and the EU must understand the crisis must be paid by the rich.”

Greece must cut its spending.  Unfortunately, years of spooning out money has allowed its citizens to grow used to all of the benefits they enjoy even if those very same benefits are killing their economy (unemployment hovers between 9% and 10%).

With Greece in danger of defaulting on billions of dollars in loans and Germany leading the way to block any financial bailout of Greece, things are getting very bad there.  If no solution is found, it is likely Greece will leave the monetary union, revert to its original currency, the Drachma, and allow it to devalue so as to reduce its debts.

According to the Financial Times:

Standard & Poor’s said Greece faced a downgrade to triple B minus on its long-term credit ratings – just one notch above junk grade and the same as Hungary. This could make it increasingly difficult for Greece to tap capital markets for loans, with the clock running out before they have to refinance more than €25bn of debt in April and May.

On Wednesday, investors sold off two-year Greek government debt, which has been the most volatile in recent weeks, seeing one of its biggest one-day falls this year.

As the American welfare state grows, we plunge deeper into debt.  It is not only domestic spending that is hurting us, but, as Patrick Buchanan recently wrote:

Our Navy exceeds in firepower the next 13 navies combined. We have 100,000 troops in Iraq, 100,000 in Afghanistan or headed there, 28,000 in Korea, over 35,000 in Japan and 50,000 in Germany. By the Department of Defense’s “Base Structure Report,” there are 716 U.S. bases in 38 countries.

It is preposterous to argue that all these bases are essential to our security.

Liquidation of this empire should have begun with the end of the Cold War. Now it is being forced upon us by the deficit-debt crisis.

Indeed, how do conservatives justify borrowing hundreds of billions yearly from Europe, Japan and the Gulf states — to defend Europe, Japan and the Arab Gulf states? Is it not absurd to borrow hundreds of billion annually from China — to defend Asia from China? Is it not a symptom of senility to borrow from all over the world in order to defend that world?

The Greek and European welfare state spends little on their military or on foreign aid as a percentage of their GDP when compared to the United States but America – though larger, wealthier, and more powerful – spends taxpayer dollars on the welfare state and on defending the world and funding the world.

Taxpayers constantly reject pork, waste, and Obama’s “stimulus” yet they keep re-electing their politicians because they bring the pork, waste, and “stimulus” to their home districts.  It’s okay if Mary next door benefits just not Bob in the next state over.  Thus politicians vote for pork and get re-elected.  Often congressmen and women will spend their entire lives in government with no idea what life is like on the outside.  They keep delivering the pork knowing that they will be rewarded come election time.  Withhold wasteful spending (the other guy’s, not theirs) and lose at the ballot box.

But with so much money going out every month and so little coming in, perhaps it is time to start the weaning process now before Americans become accustomed to all of the big, ungainly, and expensive programs enjoyed, but not affordable, by the Greeks.

Mr. Buchanan is not someone with whom I generally agree (social issues, trade, etc…) but he has a point.  Unless this country is re-made into a smaller, faster, more agile nation we are going to see – like Greece – everything change overnight and when the fire sale comes it’s not going to be pretty.

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