The States Need Boatloads Of Federal Money To Keep From Sinking

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Email | RSS

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – The problem today is, and why your plan will not work under current conditions, because your State of Pennsylvania is in on it.  Your state, just like my state, cannot exist and cannot continue to pretend that it can afford all the vainglorious government services it provides without the general government borrowing $1 trillion plus every year and then sending it back to the states in the form of block grants.  Check out today’s audio and transcript for the rest…

 

This page is supported by your Founders Pass Subscriptions, please take our membership tour & consider a 1 year membership

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike:  Let’s try Barry in Pennsylvania.  Hello, Barry.  Have I talked to you, too?

Caller Barry:  Not yet, sir.  Good morning, King Dude.  I’m calling to get your thoughts about an idea I had where the states would act as a clearinghouse for the federal taxes.  As a citizen, you would mail your tax income returns or file your taxes through your local state for the federal taxes, by which the states would send those funds to the federal government.  Of course, that would allow the states to insert their authority and withhold funding from the federal government.

Mike:  That’s a novel idea.  You’re not the first to float it on this show.  I’ll give you the same answer.  Are you a new listener, sir?

Caller Barry:  In the last year, on and off.

Mike:  It was probably in another hour so you may not have heard this.  I’ll give you the same answer that I gave the last couple of gentlemen and ladies who have suggested that states ought to basically sequester income tax receipts and not fork them over to the general government.  Theoretically, that’s a wonderful idea.  That would obviously give each individual state some bargaining power with the general government if that’s what was actually going on today that was the problem.  That is not what the problem is.

The problem today is, and why your plan will not work under current conditions, because your State of Pennsylvania is in on it.  Your state, just like my state, cannot exist and cannot continue to pretend that it can afford all the vainglorious government services it provides without the general government borrowing $1 trillion plus every year and then sending it back to the states in the form of block grants.  At the end of the day, your state does not want to play Russian roulette or truth or dare with Uncle Sam.  The fact of the matter is, without all that money coming from Washington, DC, you are going to not be able to meet your current obligations.  You’re not meeting them anyway.

Don’t misunderstand.  You’re borrowing money to meet these, so you’re not meeting the obligations anyway.  It looks like you’re meeting them and it looks like your state can afford all these fancy roads and bridges.  It looks like your state can afford all manner of healthcare provided for its citizens free of charge.  It looks like your state can afford to hand out condoms to anybody that wants them and birth control pills and provide abortions and every other hell-forsaken thing.  It looks like your state can afford housing projects, as far as the eye can see in some cities, and all the dollars that are required to maintain and subsidize them.  It looks like your state can afford all of its state employees, all of its bureaus and agencies.  The entire damned thing looks like your state can afford it.

You take away what the Fed is pumping in in fake money and what is borrowed every year and then sent back every year in the form of block grants, and your state, if it’s anything like my state — I think all states are over their eyeballs in this.  The average Louisiana family of five would have to be taxed an additional $22,000 per year just to meet our Medicaid payments.  That’s how much free money, boatloads of federal money, that we’re getting from the Feds.  That’s how much it would cost a family of five in Louisiana just for Medicaid alone if we actually had to pay for the benefits we dole out and did not have the  borrowed, fake money from the federal government coming our way.  That’s how sick this is.

End of story, your state is in on it.  They cannot afford to threaten the federal government with anything for fear that the Feds will withdraw the borrowed funds.  Your state has to have a balanced budget every year and can’t borrow money.  They have to rely on Congress to do it for them and pretend as though Congress is the bad guy and that [mocking] “Congress is making us do all this.  We want to assert our sovereignty.”  No, you don’t, sir.  Sit down and shut up.  No, you don’t, you’re a liar.  You know it and I know it.  Now, if we can get enough citizens that will sniff out the game and demand that states actually live within their means without borrowed federal money and borrowed money in the form of block grants, then we’re going to be onto something, Barry.  Then your plan will work swimmingly.

Caller Barry:  In this great state, the commonwealth here, our Governor Corbett has just announced that he’s planning on spending, I believe it was to the tune of $111 billion more this year than last for various departments.  That’s okay, a burger today and I’ll pay you on Wednesday.

Mike:  That’s right, Wimpy.  [laughing]

Caller Barry:  You have a good day, sir.  Thanks for taking my call.

Mike:  You’re very welcome.  Thank you.  I’m glad you made it.  Thank you very much.

End Mike Church Show Transcript