Here’s a poll that could ruin your whole day. From Simon Black at sovereignman.com:
In a poll conducted a few days ago by NBC News / Wall Street Journal, a record 57% of Americans responded that they want MORE government in their lives, and that the government should be doing more to solve people’s problems.
That’s the highest percentage since they started asking this question in 1995.
In fact, 57% is nearly double what people responded in the mid-90s.
Furthermore, the number of Americans who feel the opposite, i.e. responded that the government is doing too many things that should be left to private businesses and individuals, fell to a near record-low 39%.
Bottom line: people want more government.
It’s hard to even know where to begin with this.
First- more government is nearly an impossibility.
As I’ve written several times in the past, the US federal government already spends almost all of its tax revenue on mandatory entitlements like Social Security, and interest on the debt.
They could literally cut nearly everything we think of as government– national parks, Homeland Security, even the IRS– and still not make a dent in paying down the national debt.
According to the US government’s own financial statements, their net operating loss in 2016 was an unbelievable $1.05 TRILLION.
Think about that– they lost more than a trillion dollars in a completely unremarkable year.
They weren’t waging world war, funding a major infrastructure project, or dealing with an economic crisis.
It was just business as usual. And they STILL lost over a trillion dollars.
More government is going to cost even more money that they don’t have… which means even more debt and even more pain in the future.
The usual refrain is to pay for more government programs by raising taxes on the rich, or big corporations, or whoever the evil villain du jour is.
Anyone who thinks this actually works needs to study history.
Simply put, RAISING TAXES DOES NOT RAISE TAX REVENUE.
To continue reading: New Poll: Record number of Americans want MORE government in their lives
