Author: Jake

“The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.” John Adams

This premise was put forth to me today and I found it immensely thought provoking.  Why not think of your income as property?  What makes you more upset; when someone takes money your never tangibly see or takes a room of your home and gives it to someone else.

When politicians in Washington take your property weather it’s money or tangible goods and gives it to someone else that’s wrong!   I have no problem doing my fair share to fund the legitimate needs of this county.  But don’t take my hard earned income and give it to someone else for an Earned Income Tax Credit, 99 weeks of unemployment, or any other kind of government handout to able bodied people.  Your property (hard earned money) is taken from you constantly to fund items that you have no control over while elected officials are never held accountable and they certainly never have to do with less.

Please do your part to let your elected officials know they will be held accountable no matter what party affiliation they claim.

The unique liberties that our country offers are being taken away piece by piece.  This has to be stopped now!  Say no farther!

We are Americans blessed by God to have born in the most exceptional country he has ever blessed this earth with and I believe it’s worth fighting for!

The coming days ahead will be a turning point for this country.  Keep it as the founders intended or go further down the path of a socialist pseudo democracy.

The choice is yours.

The quotations below are from the WSJ Opinion Piece by Brian Bolduc.

Senator Byrd thank you for your service to this state.  Even though I disagreed with almost everyone of your political stances I have to believe that your heart was in the right place when it came to WV.  However the billions of dollars in Federal Money that you sent to this state only allowed it to sink deeper into poverty while allowing some mistakenly to believe that progress was being made.

The state now has to maintain a sea of asphalt and concrete that our tax base will never in the near future be able to support.  We now have to maintain large buildings and facilities that we never should have been able to build.  WV has been the beneficiary or victim depending upon your view of wealth redistribution.  You funneled money from other states to your own and allowed every single item to bear your name.  Yet all this money did nothing.

When Byrd became senator in 1959, West Virginia ranked No. 39 in median family income, and No. 42 in per capita income. Today, it’s No. 48 in both categories.

Your continuous flow of money allowed WV the luxury of not having to make the hard choices that needed to be made.  It allowed the budget to be balanced every year and hard choices to be continually put off.  Almost every single bit of “advancement” that came as a result of your work was just more federal money being brought into the state.  We have jails, the FBI center, large hospitals, but very little of the enormous amount of money that you robbed from other states created private investment.  For decades WV has needed to make changes to its tax structure and business climate that would spur private sector growth.  But we never did; the state just allowed Big Daddy to continue to write checks for money that was not his.

51.3% of the state’s economy relies on spending by the local, state and federal government—the highest level of any state. “We’ve created this culture of dependency,” warns Mr. Sobel, “Our human capital is not good at competing in the marketplace; it’s good at securing federal grants.”

I am both happy and sad at the days that are to come for my beloved state of WV.  I am happy that maybe finally the elected officials will be made to force changes that will hopefully allow the state to grow.  I am sad that it has to be done in such a compressed time frame.  With only about 20 to 30 years of coal excise taxes left we have less than a generation to make changes that could have started in the 60’s and 70’s.  WV’s workforce is strong and dedicated but they lack the opportunity to work and fulfill their potential. Until the business climate in WV is improved its economic status will continue to deteriorate.

An economy that grows because of government spending and not private sector investment is nothing more than redistribution of wealth.  The faucet has now been turned off its time for WV to make the hard choices.                  Jake Stapleton 07-10-10