Government spending is totally out of control and we can't rely on the two major political parties to do anything about it.

 

There have been many reasons given as to why the Roman Empire fell.  One of the most compelling is that they basically squandered their resources and spent themselves into a hole from which they could never recover.  When bad times came they did not have the reserves necessary to see them through.  That made the bad times a lot worse and a lot longer than they would have been if they had been a little better at saving for the future.

 

I see a lot of parallels with the United States of today and I would like to provide one small, concrete example.

 

Last week I was driving through Marina Del Rey, California and as I passed by the Ritz Carlton I happened to notice a whole lot of Sheriff's officers standing around the entrance to the hotel.   This struck me as strange and I wondered who was staying at the hotel to require all this extra security.  Over the weekend I talked with one of my Sheriff friend's and found out that all the extra security was there because Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was staying at the hotel and that I probably only saw a small portion of the Sheriff's deputies that were actually helping to provide security.

 

The more I thought about this, the more upset I became.  This is a really nice hotel on the water in a very expensive part of town.  What was a government official doing staying at a hotel like this at our cost?  Now, if it were just him staying at the hotel you could almost say, "Okay, he's the boss of a huge agency and deserves to stay somewhere nice on the road".  However, I know that he doesn't travel alone and I hate to think what he and his entourage staying at this hotel cost us, the American people.

 

Let me put it in perspective.  I just looked up what a room costs at the Ritz Carlton, Marina Del Rey and the cheapest room is $399 a night and they go up from there.  Like I said before, it is a very nice hotel.  I'm fairly certain that the Secretary did not stay in the cheapest room and even with discounts I'm sure his group was costing the American people thousands of dollars a night in room charges.  Of course, if you stay in a hotel like this you are probably also eating in the hotel now and then and that is also very expensive.  All in all, I bet this was a very expensive stay for the taxpayers of this country to be underwriting.

 

On it's own this may not be a big deal, but this is just one stay by one government bureaucrat.  When you add up all the government employees running around the country at our cost it must add up to a huge amount of money.  That cost could be trimmed by an fairly large amount if,starting at the top, the people working for our government started spending our money as if it were actually coming out of their pocket.

 

The problem these days with government officials is that they have no basis in reality when it comes to spending our money.  Allocating money for bridges to nowhere, monuments to themselves, $400 haircuts (John Edwards), raising hundreds of millions of dollars for campaigns and spending it like drunken sailors to get reelected gives public officials a very bizarre sense of entitlement and privilege.  It's not their money so how can they use it to get reelected seems to be their mantra.  When they run out, they'll just raise taxes or issue more debt.  What a great system it is for them.  They are no longer public servants, but government Princes and Princesses overseeing their own fiefdoms.

 

Well the system needs to be changed and one of the main platforms in my campaign for President is fiscal responsibility.  I grew up lower middle class and have had to work my whole life so I know the value of a dollar and appreciate the work that most Americans put out to earn those dollars.

 

The current crop of politicians running for President from the major parties have no concept of fiscal responsibility.  Their fiscal policies are based on what they believe is best for the Party and best to get them reelected, not for what is best for the country as a whole, both now and in the future.

 

A leader looks to establish policies that are best for the country in the long-run and for all.  I am running to be that leader.  We need fiscal responsibility and we will not get it from either major party.

 

"Anything is Possible in America"