Government Is a Cancer

There is no more dreaded disease than cancer. Cancer causes millions of deaths each year in America, and it is painful, debilitating, and causes horrible pain. Cancer is rarely discovered in time to cure it. Like termites in a home, cancer gnaws at the body, and until the pain begins, it is almost never discovered until it approaches its final stages. My Dad started smoking at age 15, and lung cancer killed him at age 63. Until almost the end, he never knew he had it. (A cough was the only indication of any problem.)

America has a cancer which has been eating at it for 77 years. Literally. The cancer America has, is the same cancer that killed the Roman Empire, and others as well. The cancer is government growth, and all that goes with it. When FDR started his Social Security system, many warned against it, but no heed was paid. After all, it would only cost 1% of rich people’s paychecks, and the old would be secure. We were a rich nation, we should care for our elderly, and make their old age free from worry. When the first public housing was built in 1937, the minimum wage installed in 1938, or various forms of welfare instituted, a few shouted “fire,” but were ignored. Republicans and Democrats both voted for all of FDR’s schemes. As years passed, wars fought, and more and more ‘programs’ approved, voted upon, and signed into law, they were just like an un-detected cancer or a home being eaten from within by termites.

The pressure on gold backed dollars became so strong that Nixon removed the backing, thereby allowing virtually unlimited printing. Politicians then could spend as much as they pleased because the bucks could be printed without any regard of re-paying the debts that were incurred as a result of irresponsible spending. After all, as the saying used to be, “We owe it to ourselves.” Not to worry, we’re going to raise everyone’s standard of living, take care of the poor, and eliminate poverty. We’re going to build an interstate highway system, and even though it will kill the passenger train and tens of thousands of businesses, when the highways by-pass their towns, everyone will be able to drive anywhere at high speed. We’ll sponsor a government passenger train, which will only cost a hundred million a year. “Not to worry, we are a rich nation and so rich that we can do anything we want,” was the usual explanation given by politicians.

Everyone got so happy that they didn’t need to do much hard work any longer, that Mexicans were imported to do what we white folk wouldn’t do. More and more welfare and public housing was handed out and built. The cities were going down pretty quickly, forcing “white flight,” but we were a rich nation, so not to worry. The cancer hadn’t really been noticed as yet. We’d start HUD and fix the cities.

In 1965, Medicare was passed, and the cancer caused a little pain, but we were caring for the sick, and we “Owed most of it to ourselves,” so not to worry. The cancer was at the point where it was at about a 25% cure rate, but few noticed. In 1972, the brains in D.C. brought on food stamps. Truman, LBJ, and Bush got us into wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, but after all, our soldiers were going into battle, “To protect us,” even though that was a blatant lie. The costs were usually not part of the budget, or were hidden, so even though the cancer was advancing, few bothered to worry. George Bush passed the prescription drug bailout program, and it’s only cost a trillion so far, and Republicans and Democrats voted for it. We need to ‘help’ the aged, of course. Government had robbed them of the dollar value, and incentives to save and plan ahead, but we furnished Social Security, Medicare, and Prescriptions. We were a rich nation.

Obama got nominated and elected, and as he was running for office he told everyone that he wanted to nationalize medicine and health, and actually turn America into a socialized state, but most were so sick of George Bush, and the Republicans picked a highly unelectable Senator as a candidate, that Obama got elected, and promptly kept his word. Now the cancer was so obvious that even the Republicans recognized it, and the majority of Americans recognized it also. The Democrats knew all along, but they thought that the cancerous handouts, welfare, programs, and other effluvia, were benign, and after all “We owe some of it to ourselves.” Now, America owes China a trillion unbacked dollars, Illegals are everywhere, and the deficit is hundreds of billions every month. Welfare recipients, Social Security recipients, Medicare recipients, public housing dwellers, and millions and millions of businesses, groups and citizens which have been addicted to government handouts, contracts, and checks, are totally incapable of going it alone, because it would be impossible to go it alone…thanks to the cancer which now is at the 95% fatality stage.

Suddenly, when it is probably too late, Republicans, who have been feeding the cancer for 77 years, say that they are opposed to Obama care. In strong speeches, and threats of lawsuits, Republicans now are covering up all the misdeeds they have committed, which fed the cancer. They, like the Democrats, have acted irresponsibly for 77 years, and now they are supposed to be able to cure the cancer? A vote in November will save America? Like it did when Republicans took over both houses before? When they controlled both houses, they quickly reverted to feeding the cancer.

The cancer has metastasized into the whole body of America. The few of us who have been warning of upcoming death have not been heeded. The cancer has given us a virtually worthless currency, unpayable debts, upcoming runaway inflation, and a huge, worthless, underclass. We are now bogged down in two pointless, expensive wars, which seem to be un-winnable, and we are about to lose our credit rating. America needs huge infusions of cancer hiding loans to keep alive, and the purveyors of those loans have about decided we are a bad risk.

Now what? Reform the Republicans with Tea Party threats? Throw the bums out in November, and take over the Congress? Even if that happened, and I hope it does, the debts are unpayable, and welfare recipients cannot be denied, because if they were, America would be in ruins pretty quickly from the riots and arson…which may happen anyway. Best thing, to me, is to get out of big cities and protect yourself with historic, beautiful, real, money, not government issued scrip.

Regards,
Don Stott, ColoradoGold.com
for Whiskey & Gunpowder

April 2, 2010

The Daily Reckoning