TO: Nick Carroll, Editorial Page Editor- Berlin Citizen
FROM: Lou Arata
DATE: March 25, 2021
RE: What are we doing to ourselves?
Is everyone equal and deserving of a guaranteed basic “living wage” regardless of how hard they work, or if they work at all? Rome ended up needing “bread and circuses” to control its’ population so the rulers could enjoy their elite status lifestyles.
The wealth disparity in this country and globally is accelerating at a staggering pace due to the dismantling of the middle class. Entry into the middle class was the cornerstone of the American Dream and the avenue out of poverty, often via ownership of a private business. If you were told January 1, 2020 that later in the year the government would be deciding which businesses were allowed to be open or closed and what businesses were deemed “essential” or not, would you have believed it? Probably not.
It’s no surprise to anyone with open eyes and ears, that international agencies and corporations, and the anti-capitalist Democrat agenda are closing in on what has been so taken for granted: the American Dream. As reported by CNBC, according to YELP, an alarming 60% of the closed small businesses during the pandemic, will never reopen.
Have you noticed that everything we want is cheap, such as clothes, TV sets and toys? In contrast, the cost of everything we need is expensive, like health care, housing, education and food. We can also add gasoline to that list, thanks in part to the swift Biden executive order cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline. This was done supposedly in our national interest. However, the International Energy Agency projects our oil share of total energy production falling only 8% over the next 20 years, from 32% to 23% by 2040; regardless of how fast electric vehicles are employed.
So, in the name of safety and preventing a health care system being inundated with sick people, we have lived through COVID-19, its endless list of executive orders and profligate Congressional spending. The first stimulus bill, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act passed in March 2020 totaled $2 Trillion. In December, a second $2.3 Trillion relief package passed. Now we have passed the third “American Rescue Plan” (ARP), a $1.9 trillion “relief” package drafted by our elected brain trust in Washington D.C., all while over one half a trillion dollars still remain unspent from the first two bills. Alarmingly, only Democrats voted for the third overreaching bill and that pork package contains only 9% in direct COVID-19 relief. The remaining 91% is for pet “progressive” projects, with the funding printed out of thin air.
Making the ARP bill even more flabbergasting is that half of the money will not be spent until years from now, benefiting mostly Democrat-controlled state governments and their enablers, government employee unions. According to a New York Post article, monetary transfers to state and local governments amounts to $350 billion dollars, or 116 times more than the entire revenue shortfall for ALL state governments. State aid is being allocated disproportionally to the states with the highest unemployment rates. Interesting isn’t it, that the top 10 states with the highest unemployment are Democrat controlled states? The greed is sickening, as is bailing out and rewarding poorly managed fiscally irresponsible states and cities.
All this spending results in the bureaucrats of this country becoming a privileged and untouchable class. There exists an obvious growing difference between government and private-sector employment compensation and benefits. I can’t help but think of the comparison to the Soviet Union, where there were two classes of people: those in the government and those who worked to pay for them. What are we doing to ourselves in this country? Why are those in the private sector in this country putting up with the socialist power grab we’re witnessing in our nation’s capital?
As the wealth divide widens, at some point, unfortunately probably sooner than later, another catastrophic economic crash is waiting to happen because we cannot just continue printing paper money and spending it when there is nothing backing the currency. President Nixon took us off the gold standard in 1971. Every man, woman and child in this country now has an additional $17,000 debt wrapped around their neck, thanks to Biden’s “relief” bill. But the Democrats don’t care. It’s more important to fund foreign country initiatives, balloon payments to public unions and illegal immigrants than to do right for the American people.
The socialists and communists in the United States House of Representatives and Senate are making sure the National Guard and the barbed wire topped fencing surrounding the Capital Building is being kept so that votes on bills may be completed safely in the dead of night. If it wasn’t for the demands of GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., who forced the Senate clerks to read Biden’s COVID ARP bill aloud, all 628 pages, few in the chamber would have even read the bill before voting.
Another historical financial concern for every individual and company, both here and abroad, is in the works, championed by the World Economic Forum (WEF). With all consumer and national spending eventually accomplished through a new digital cashless monetary system, if the WEF, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Central Banks and the UN have their way, it will be catastrophic for your personal independence. This transfer to a global system of digital money, controlled by the government, will be the end of cash used in society. It would be wise to remember all of the gold held by individuals in 1933 was confiscated by the Federal Government under President Franklin D. Roosevelt to pay for our national debt. It could happen again. What would you do if the Fed and the US treasury cease to honor the cash you have saved in your 401K, retirement and savings accounts?
Some have called out legislators in Washington as closet socialists, voluntarily dismantling the freest country on earth. Why are we allowing this to take place? Perhaps the Democrats, who face two years of running Congress with virtually no room for error, have to push their fragmenting radical agenda through as quickly as possible.
Lou Arata has been a candidate for the CT 83rd House District and is Vice Chairman of the Meriden Republican Town Committee and the Meriden Public Utilities Commission.