Contributed by Bruce Walden
I was disgusted to see the enormous budget that just passed in DC. These folks, far too many of our “Republican” congressmen and senators were elected on the promise of shrinking the budget. Instead, they grew everything. Sickening. Let me reflect a bit here:
I wrote the book, “Wickedness in High Places”, two years ago and in it, I pointed out a few things. For one thing, we had had at that time 44 presidents all of whom were either career politicians or generals. ALL of them had put us $20 trillion in debt. Some did much better than others, some not as well; but they all managed to get us there with that last guy doubling the debt he was handed. I looked at Ben Franklin’s very right-headed philosophy that says if you watch your pennies, your dollars will see to themselves. I wondered, as that is true for individuals if it might not just work for the federal government. So, little Bruce, the author, and at the time a local planning commissioner, began going through the cabinet of the president at that time - but nobody gets a pass. Obama, pathetic leader that he was, just happened to be the guy at that time.
I went cabinet position by cabinet position and I began “eliminating” waste that was admitted to on Obama’s people’s own websites. And friends, before I got half way through the cabinet, I had eliminated the whole debt within six years or so. Doubt me? Read the book and check my math.
Now, if little old Bruce can do that at the national level - well, I’m pretty sure we can do it here. Do we see waste in the Borough? Let’s think about that. What is the Borough’s job? Neighbors, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough was created to see to it that our schools were working… well. As far as Alaska goes, we’ve got some good schools in the Mat-Su, but I heard somewhere the biggest room on earth is the room for improvement. Compared to other states, no matter how you calculate it, we are doing abysmally. We can do better there, and I can audit that borough and show you how.
They have the job of public safety. Are they doing it? With the rate of murder, drug dealing, all kinds of other crime and some other things I’ll go into further down the road, no realistic thinker is going to say this borough is really doing that job well.
Have they done a good job at maintaining our infrastructure? I say no. They’ve done a fine job of grabbing every dollar they can and building bicycle trails that are hardly used, and before you give me the examples of the folks that use them, just let me say, I’m okay with bike trails as long as we have all the roads we need… and we definitely do not. Paid for by user fees? When they are jumping through burning hoops to get at your tax money for trails in the mountains so we can enjoy the natural beauty of Alaska… well, I’m sorry I don’t see how that works. The critters made the trails I use. I don’t need a groomed trail to walk on. We’ve got enough of that.
We need to open up the Western Su, and I know how to do that at a reasonable cost - but not until we bring spending under control.
Oddly the Borough can afford to have “heavies” going around and walking on your property without permission, breaking with the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution, and Article 22 of the Alaska Constitution when they see wood smoke coming from your stove pipe.
Are you as sick of government controlling every aspect of your life as I am? If you are, then it is time to totally rethink the way we do business here. We are going to have to stop sending the same folks forward and believing they are suddenly going to begin changing their ways. It will not happen.
This is an election year. A lot of folks are up for re-election this year. We’ve got some good folks and we’ve got some ineffective folks who promise you the moon and deliver you cow pies. I believe it was Doctor Franklin who said that in a free republic you get the government you deserve. Neighbors, I think you deserve better than you’ve been getting. It seems we tolerate intrusion into every detail of our lives, but we do not demand the things that are the absolute minimum one might expect from government and which are actually necessary.
It saddens me that we really have gotten used to and are now okay with the notion that, “It is good enough for Alaska.” No, it is not.
