Istook’s Insights: Mandated citizen behavior, spending ‘crisis’
Published: October 21st, 2015
Be a good citizen. Or else!
Australia and other countries want to make good citizenship mandatory. Fail to vote and you’re fined $20. Fail to pay the fine and you get a criminal conviction.
Now the American Civil Liberties Union reports that China will go farther by giving everybody a citizenship score, linked to national ID cards. It’s like a credit score except it measures political correctness as judged by China’s Communist government.
Thanks to social networks, whatever Chinese citizens post online is monitored. They track hobbies, what you buy, your time online and what you do. And what your friends and family say and do.
If you spend time with the wrong people, your citizenship score suffers. And your score will be publicly posted. That’s to help people to shun you lest they run afoul of China’s government.
Big Brother will always be watching you—and judging you with that citizenship score.
And, what if you spend money that you don’t have?
Consistently, Washington spends more money than the Treasury takes in. Then proclaims we have a sudden crisis.
Borrowing more requires special approval from Congress, yet President Obama cries that borrowing is the only responsible solution. There is resistance, which is why there’s talk of not being able to pay government’s bills come November, including not paying off existing loans as they become due.
We might default on paying routine expenses, or default on making loan payments.
But even with record-high tax collections — $3 1/4th trillion — we’re spending $438 Billion beyond that. Our public debt has risen $6.8 Trillion during Obama’s presidency. And even as he declares a crisis, Obama also demands $74 Billion in new spending right now.
There would be no debt crisis if Obama and Congress had acted sooner—and actually brought down government spending.