If youre the type of person who desires to work/produce as little as possible--while receiving as many taxpayer-funded benefits as possible--Sherrod Brown for U.S. Senate is definitely your man.
Fact: the government will funnel nearly $1-trillion into so-called federally-funded" benefit and grant programs this year. Yes you read that right. Nearly 1-trillion.
Question: where did that nearly-one-trillion come from? Did our Founding Fathers print a magical ever-increasing heap of greenbacks for politicians then and now to distribute as they saw fit? Did they (our Founders) plant a perpetually-blooming for-government-use-only" currency tree?
Of course they did neither of these things. The truth is every one of the nearly-trillion dollars our beloved legislators now misspend originally came from you and me the taxpayers.
If you know nothing else about the government know this: it produces absolutely nothing of value. Instead it insidiously steals larger and larger portions of what we produce via taxing larger and larger portions of our hard-earned paychecks. Indeed it is we taxpayers who pick up the tab for the vast panoply of so-called government" or federal" benefits that larger and larger numbers of people take advantage of.
Dont get me wrong. I am more than happy to contribute to programs that offer worthwhile benefits to people who truly need them. I boldly confess my mom and dad needed the assistance of food stamps for a few months--in 1978--when my dad unexpectedly lost the job hed worked for more than two decades. (Note: both mom and dad were exceedingly grateful toward all the taxpayers who in essence made those stamps available.) But I digress.
Heres the problem: not enough of us realize how much our beloved Congress-members continually swipe from the fruits of our labor. And until we realize just thati.e. until we start voting true conservatives into office--that nearly-trillion will become more-than-one trillion then more than two trillion then more than three trillion with no end in sight.
So I suggest we all do the following from this point forward: each time we see or hear the phrase federally-funded or government-funded lets replace the word federally" or government" with the word taxpayer thereby creating the extraordinarily-transparent 100-accurate phrase taxpayer funded"--as in: taxpayer-funded Social Security Insurance taxpayer-funded Family Planning" services (i.e. no-cost contraception and abortion) taxpayer-funded Obamacare" (remember the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it is indeed a tax) taxpayer-funded Medicare taxpayer-funded Healthy Start" programs taxpayer-funded School Breakfast and Lunch" programs (some of which continue during the summer months when school is not even in session). And the list goes on.
Theres one Senator in particular who knows all about taking as much as he can from responsible hard-working Americans and giving it to the rapidly-escalating number of Americans who prefer to work as little as possible.
(Again I am not referring to those who need a helping hand" from time to time or to those who are truly disabled and cannot care for themselves.)
That senator is up for re-election--yet again--and his name is: Sherrod Brown. Take some time to surf his website and youll discover just how eager he is to spend your money.
Ever heard of a congressional directed spending item"? Neither had I until I read the following statement from Senator Brown (under the sub-heading Federal Spending") on his site: Thank you for your interest in requesting a congressional directed spending item from our office. My staff and I want to assist all Ohioans in their pursuit of federal dollars for worthy programs. If you are interested in seeking a congressional spending item please complete this initial request form . . ." (emphasis mine)
Translation: I havent wasted nearly enough taxpayer money yet so Im encouraging yall to request congressional-spending items. I long to give you as many goodies as I can so you will in turn vote for me (when Im up for re-electionas I relentlessly am). Indeed when you vote for me and enable me to remain in my position of power Ill keep spending (what your fellow-constituents earn) until you yourself are totally dependent on me (i.e. the government) at which point I will control every aspect of your life 24/7 and there will be nothing you can do to stop me."
Under the heading What We Can Do For You" Senator Brown states: As your United States Senator my top priority is ensuring the best constituent services possible . . . I can . . . help you navigate federal taxpayer-funded programs and interact with federal taxpayer-funded agencies . . ." (emphasis mine)
Similarly under the heading Grants and Federal Funding" he states: My office is able to assist Ohioans searching for federal funding and grants in several different ways. Please click here to find out more information." (emphasis mine)
I must say of all the sources of federal funding" the Senator so graciously provides links to--on the Grants and Federal Domestic Assistance" page--I ammost intrigued with (as well as most irritated by) the following two: benefits.gov" and grants.gov" the first of which I will henceforth refer to as B.G."
B.G blithely offers a seemingly-endless smorgasbord of taxpayer-funded assistance" programs that fall into one or more of the following categories: public-housing assistance home-energy assistance childcare assistance education assistance healthcare assistance career-development assistance and federal-employee assistance.
Youll discover as you navigate" the B.G website that B.G not only helps people locate taxpayer-funded programs they might be eligible for-- benefits.gov was launched in an effort to provide citizens with easy online access to government taxpayer-funded benefit and assistance programs"but also encourages those people to return to the site on a regular basis to search for additionalprograms as they become available: . . . benefits.gov is free i.e. taxpayer-funded so feel free to visit us as often as you like . . . new benefit programs are created over time that you might also be eligible for." (emphasis mine)
Seriously?
Doubtless youll be as tickled as I was to learn (via the B.G Overview" page) that we now contribute to more than 1000" shall we say philanthropic programs--as compared to the 55" programs we contributed to when B.G was launched" in 2002.
Here are just a few of the absolutely-imperative dont-know-how-anyone-could-live-without programs our tax dollars make possible: the Architectural Barriers Act Enforcement" program" the Good Neighbor Next Door Sales" program"theTribal Recruitment and Retention" program the Longshore & Harbor Workers Compensation" program the Tax Relief for Divorced or Separated Individuals" program the Special Improvement Project" program the National Vaccine Injury Compensation" program" the Healthy Forests Reserve" program the Emergency Management Institute (EMI) Independent Study Program" the Clinical Research Loan Repayment for Individuals from Disadvantaged Backgrounds" program and the Migrant Education High School Equivalency" program.
Priceless!
Lets move on to grants.gov (G.G) the huge-hearted entity that provides access to approximately $500 billion in annual taxpayer-funded awards" from a mind-boggling menu of over 1000 taxpayer-funded . . . programs"
If youre not sure how grants" differ from benefits" (I was a little fuzzy on that one myself) heres the description I received from Grants.gov Customer Support": Grants are a form of federal assistance used to carry out a public purpose in support or stimulation authorized by a law of the United States. Although there are many grants on Grants.gov few of them are available to individuals and none of them are available for personal financial assistance student loans or starting a small business."
My first question after reading this was: In support or stimulation of what?" I still dont really know the answer to that question but I was able to locate via G.G a few of the supportive"/stimulating" grants our tax dollars are subsidizing:
The Great Apes Conservation Fund FY13" grant the NEH/DFG Bilateral Digital Humanities" grant the Development & Expansion of Economic Assistance Programs That Fully Utilize Cooperatives and Credit Unions" grant the Innovations in Gender Equality (IGE) to Promote Household Food Security" grant the Inspiring Ocean Stewardship Through Art Photography and Film" grant the FOA: Technology Research Development and Tools for Clean Biomass Cookstoves" grant the Enduring Questions" grant the Genetic Screens to Enhance Zebrafish Research" grant and the Sentinel Ecology and Pyric Herbivory" grant.
But wait! Theres more! We not only subsidize such grants here in the U.S. we subsidize them in foreign countries as well. Grants that include but are not limited to: the USAID/Indias Economic Development for Tibetan Settlements" grant the Yemen Responsive Governance Project" grant the Project to Reduce Child Labor in Burkina Faso" grant the Access to Just and Human Rights in Kyrgyzstan" grant and the Enabling Quality Access and Transparency in Education for Senegal" grant.
Something to ponder: should we be donating money to a country whose terroristsjust two days ago--shot to death a Yemeni man who worked in the security office of the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa"? A country whose terrorists likewise murdered nearly twenty of our sailors in an attack on the U.S.S. Cole in 2000?
Just sayin.
To sum it all up: if youre the type of person who desires to work/produce as little as possible--while receiving as many taxpayer-funded benefits as possible--Sherrod Brown is definitely your man. By all means vote for him--early and often" as the expression goes.
If on the other hand youre the type of person who feels the need to work who desires to produce and create and innovate with the skys-the-limit" abandon--the type of person who yearns for government to get out of your way so you can achieve whatever quality of life you desire--Josh Mandel is your man.
May every one of us have sense enough to vote for him and carry him victoriously across the finish line on election day.