Letters to the Editor!

Word coming out of Chesterfield County, SC is that a major logic bomb got dropped in the pages of The Link yesterday in the form of a letter to the editor written by Mr. JR Joyner. As readers of this blog are aware JR is a co-host of the podcast and lawyer extraordinaire. JR felt compelled to respond to a letter written into The Link last week from someone out of Rock Hill who made a feeble attempt to attack an editorial written by Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R) on the possibility of a government shutdown. JR's letter was anything but feeble. I know it's a little out of context without the letter he was responding to, but just imagine your average lefty talking points about social security, extreme Republicans, taxes being too low, etc. and you'll be able to figure out what JR was writing about.

From the March 29, 2011 issue of The Link, THE paper of record in Chesterfield County:

Proverbs 18:17 says, “The first to bring his case seems right, until another comes forward and cross-examines him.” With that in mind, I felt the need to address the letter to the editor submitted by our neighbor from Rock Hill last week.

I voted for Mick Mulvaney last November and I am glad that he is remaining true to his campaign promise and attempting what the people of the 5^th district elected him to do; bring fiscal sanity to Washington DC.

Rep. Mulvaney did not mention Social Security (the world’s biggest pyramid scheme), Medicare, or Medicaid in his op ed. He was specifically trying to explain the government shutdown, and yet our neighbor from Rock Hill cited them. Why? Fear mongering. It’s an age old tactic by advocates of big government to use fear instead of reason whenever discussing budget issues. This is what Rep. Mulvaney is trying to fight by writing letters to his constituents.

The Federal government is broke and as a result of trying to fix this there may be a government shutdown. One of the primary reasons we are in the current budgetary mess is because of John Spratt and the previous Congress failing to pass a budget solely for political reasons. Rep. Mulvaney and a small group of republicans are trying not only to pass a budget, but also attempt to cut Federal spending before we really are bankrupt.

Erskine Bowles, a democrat, may have said that Social Security does not have any immediate solvency issues, but that does not mean we should not wait to deal with Social Security until it goes broke. Our neighbor from Rock Hill may not plan on being around when Social Security goes broke, but I am only 33 and have a young child, and I would rather not pass the burden on to his generation. Speaking of Erskine Bowles, let me ask, how many recommendations did President Obama adopt from his own deficit commission co chaired by Bowles? Zero. This lack of leadership by the President stands in stark contrast to what Rep. Mulvaney is attempting in the House.

The Federal government is inherently inefficient and does almost nothing better than the private sector, so why would you trust it to provide for your education and retirement when it has already proven it can’t do either? If anyone thinks taxes are too low, I would strongly encourage them to voluntarily send more of their own income to the IRS. Personally, I already surrender too much of my income to the government and I don’t want to continue to be punished for trying to earn a greater income to support my family.

Confiscatory tax rates of 90% or higher were wrong under Eisenhower and would be wrong today. If you want to use fear tactics instead of reasoned arguments, how about this for a fear tactic; the government could confiscate every penny from every individual in the country and it still would not be enough to pay off the current national debt which stands at about 14 trillion dollars (14,000,000,000,000.00). Higher tax rates are not the solution to out of control government spending. If we don’t seriously deal with the budget now, one day we will have to explain to our grandchildren why we let politics blind us to reality.

- In case anyone thought JR may have exaggerated his claim that we could confiscate the wealth of everyone in the country and still not be able to pay off the debt, check this excellent video out: