Get Your Hands Off My Taxpayer Bill of Rights
In the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, Bernie Buescher tipped off the real source of the budget mess. Of Colorado's $6.1 billion general-fund budget, $5.2 billion is beyond legislative control, including Medicaid and public-schools funding, he said. "We control about $900 million, and about $600 million of that is higher ed," Buescher said. Buescher won election to the Colorado 55th House District.
Legislators Becoming Increasingly Irrelevant
Hats off to Bernie, who has perhaps inadvertently revealed a major source of Colorado's supposed budget woes: unfunded and under-funded federally-mandated programs that gobble up resources and supply state legislators with an excuse to make a grab for our Taxpayer Bill of Rights. What an amazing admission--the numbers prove that the Colorado legislature controls only about 15% of the state budget, and are therefore becoming increasingly irrelevant.
Of course, the Taxpayer Bill of Rights must factor into that equation, but the reason that voters added it to the Colorado Constitution was to counter spend-happy legislators. Obviously, the lesson is that if the voters' elected representation will not do their job and make sensible choices, the voters can and will do it for them with the blunt instruments available to them.
Now a number of Colorado legislators come before the voters with much hand-wringing asking voters to approve Referenda C and D. Referendum C, if approved, enables the state to keep more tax revenue. Whether a refund of income tax overpayment or a tax rebate, tax money that's not returned is money removed from the pocket of a taxpayer. Referendum D, if approved, enables the state to borrow money and use the cash from Referendum C to create the illusion that the state nevertheless has balanced its budget. Referendum C: Confiscation. Referendum D: Debt. If this scheme sounds familiar, it's the same battle fought on the federal level, where congressmen use the Social Security Trust Fund to make the federal debt appear smaller than it really is, to spend more money than they really have, to dupe taxpayers into ensuring that government agencies and employees never lack for cash flow or pay raises, which ensures that each government agency always has enough loyal employees and recipients to vote for its continued existence and growth.
Taxation Without Representation
It's not just a state-level issue. Unfunded and under-funded federal mandates, for instance, Medicaid, create programs that states, by federal law, must provide. However, the majority of the federal lawmakers who go to Washington, D.C. and vote for new programs, or even more money for existing ones, don't come from Colorado. Therefore, the state's taxpayers are in effect taxed without representation. Simply stated, voters in Colorado for instance who dislike a federal program launched by a coalition of congressmen from other states can't vote the big-spenders out of office.
Unfunded and Underfunded Federal Mandates
In the United States House, which originates spending bills, no single state controls enough votes to avert unfunded programs. Every state's congressman wants to "bring home the bacon." Trouble is, it's someone else's hard-earned bacon that the country's congress converts into pork. Few federal lawmakers read every page of the voluminous spending bills that cross their desks, but they all sponsor spending legislation. Taxpayers in all the states have come to depend on federal programs without a thought for just where that money comes from--their own pockets.
Free Federal Money: The Great Mirage
Worse, much of each state's budget funding is funnelled from the federal level so that states typically provide perhaps 30% of program funding with only 20% coming from the local level. Local governments subsidize their programs with state and federal funds and become dependent on out-of-community cash. In this environment, programs grow without regard to sustainability. In short, there really is no free lunch--in a national emergency or economic downturn, the "free money" makes local and state government even more dependent on tax hikes to maintain accustomed program funding levels. As Colorado representative Buescher inadvertently acknowledged, the result is the loss of control over the budget.
Add the convenient mechanism of payroll deduction, and the taxpayer is lulled away from the harsh truth of a monthly payment for which he must write a personal check as he would for a mortgage, health insurance, utilities, or other recurring expense. There's nothing quite so convincing as recurring monthly bills payable to each level of government to cure each American of the temptation to believe in or expect some level of government to provide "free money."Once in office, legislators lose their ability to see federal money for what it is: cash taken from families, individuals, small businesses, entrepeneurs, large employers etc that no longer
circulates freely in the economy. When the federal government gets it, money tends to stagnate in an inefficient pool of bureaucracy rather than provide capital for productive enterprise and therefore job creation. And that's just the beginning. Not content with confiscating the earnings of productive Americans to pay for Constitutionally-authorized purposes as well as pet projects, the United States Congress habitually raids the so-called Social Security Trust Fund. In short, the federal government deprives Americans of a large share of their earnings while they're workers so that they have little left to save for their retirement--then promptly spends their Social Security contributions as well.Enough is Enough
Taxpayers in all states no longer have recourse or redress through the ballot box against the big-spenders from the U.S. Congressional Districts of other states. Taxpayers can of course write a letter to the worst offenders, but such a letter doesn't carry the threat of "or else." A sample letter serves to illustrate the point:
Dear United States Congressman:
I've been following your voting record on www.house.gov and object to your porkbarrel spending. I pay federal income and Social Security tax, too and want you to stop spending MY money...now. Ok, I admit that I can't vote you out of office, but I want you to stop your runaway spending habits. Never, ever bring home MY bacon to YOUR state. In return, I will never again ask my congressman to bring home YOUR bacon to MY state. Fair enough? There are a few exceptions in the United States Constitution--you've at least managed to read that, haven't you? No? Ok, I'll send you a copy. I do approve of using my bacon for my share of the national defense, for my personal share of our national highway system so we can all get our goods and services to market, to market, and for my share of important things that benefit EVERYONE in the country, not just the folks in your congressional district. You have the census and the budgets for the things that benefit everyone. When I get my bill for my share on a postcard, I'll write the check. Hands-off my paycheck! What's more, regularly send me a statement showing what I owe my country as a reminder of what it costs to be an American. And if there's not enough left over to spend on your pork projects, consider it a wake-up-call that it's time for you get used to living within a budget like the rest of us.
Sincerely,
John Q. Taxpayer
PS: I'm going to write to the Senators to ask them to stop approving your spending bills. I can't vote out 48 of them, but the other two may be paying you a visit soon. I've told them that until they grow a backbone, my friends and I won't vote for them again for anything else. Ever. Not even for dogcatcher. I also taught my Senators a dirty word: filibuster. Sure, you can still waddle up to the trough, but you'll have to see if you get 3/5 of the Senate to vote yes on your bucket of hogwash. And my friends will see to it that our Senators have plenty of interesting material to read for the filibuster so that it will be fun for us peons to watch. We'll start by searching talk radio and the Internet for jokes with YOU as the punch-line. See you on C-SPAN!
