"It is jealousy and not confidence which
prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to
trust with power. Our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to
which, and no further, our confidence may go."
--Thomas
Jefferson: Draft, Kentucky Resolutions, 1798.
A Balanced Budget
Amendment institutionalizes legislative plunder by providing
the electorate a "False Confidence" in the fiscal
enactments moved by the elected officer sitting under OUR State and
Federal Capitol Domes.
Article V § 18
incorporated in the Michigan Constitution of 1963 enables the Legislature to
RAISE not only taxes, but the Debt of the State inclusive of the local
municipal authorities to “balance budgetary expenditures”.
A Balanced Budget
Amendment is a tool of false “confidence” that empowers the Progressive Ideology
of taxation in order to “fund balanced spending”. The
political fraud of the Balanced Budget Amendment is plain for those who
comprehend the nature of the Convention of the States that sat in Philadelphia
in 1787.
The Definition of the
“Balanced Budget Amended” is a Progressive feint that authenticates “Balanced
Spending”. The Article V § 18 of the Michigan Constitution DOES NOT
LIMIT the Size of government. In fact quite the opposite, as evidenced by
the size of the Taxpayer funded State Government labor pool which has grown
exponentially since 1964.
We Michiganders pay
out of our pocket 100 percent of the support for a governmental bureaucracy
that engages over 823 thousand public sector unionized employees from Lansing
to the local municipal authorities within our County, Cities,
Villages, and Townships.
We here in Michigan
support nearly 2,000,000 who line up as clients for the Family Independence Agency. If that is not enough, the 97th Legislature
enacted Obamacare, known as Medicaid Expansion that will put another 500,000
and growing Michiganders upon the Taxpayer funded Government Dole if we do not
stand up to stop this Progressive Madness labeled about as the “Balanced Budget”.
So we the Michigan
Working Taxpayers support nearly three millions who live off OUR private
wealth. The Progressives in the Federal and State Legislative bodies intend to
pursue their objective with the Affordable Care Act, euphemistically known
as “Obamacare”, which will dramatically increase the numbers of taxpayer
subsidized clients of the State Government here in Michigan by a million or more
over the next four years.
How do the Progressive
tax and spenders fund the ever growing presence of our State Government here in
Michigan?
Simple, Progressives
sitting under OUR State Capitol Dome in Lansing increase taxation alongside
increasing debt obligations issued by the State, and it’s locally authorized
municipal authorities, in the form of Bonds which are underwritten upon OUR
private property rights here in the lands of the Wolverine.
This Progressive political sleight of
hand, increased taxation, and debt, is authenticated under the
false premise of Article V § 18.
The Perfect example of
the Balanced Budget economics of the Progressive is found in Motown, which now
sits in a Chapter 9 Municipal Bankruptcy courtesy of the "Balanced Budget" oversight from Lansing, inclusive of the political deceit sitting
as the Detroit City Council.
Under the Balanced
Budget Amendment which took force during the 1964 fiscal year, Taxes increased,
as did the spending of OUR Private Wealth from 3.59 billion spendable tax
dollars, to the current State level of 50 billion and growing. Add
another 40 billion for the county, City, Villages,
and Townships; one discovers that Michigan Taxpayers are funding
a 92 billion dollar annual balanced spending spree here in 2013
Fiscal Budget enacted by the 97th Legislature.
Michigan’s Balanced Budget
amendment allows the Progressive political class to clamor for more taxation to
balance their governmental "spending spree”.
The Fiscal Funding
“crisis” of the 94th and 95th Legislature
should have warned all of the political chicanery of the “Balanced Budget
Amendment” here Michigan. During those two legislative sessions, the
Michigan Political class DID NOT ROLL BACK the size of
government. Quite the opposite by riding under Article V § 18 the
Progressives successfully increased their annual Spending Spree with tears of
joy flowing within their eyes, and OUR private wealth sliding off their
deceitful political hands.
State spending now
exceeds 92.1 billion dollars of OUR private wealth confiscated in compliance to
Article V § 18 to “balance the budget”. Outstanding Government Debt in
Michigan has grown EVERY YEAR for the past 50 years.
Senator Mike Green's
Testimony in the Government Operations Committee on October 15th,
2013 championing the Federal Balanced Budget Amendment substantiates his Progressive ideology of
refusing to make the hard decision to roll back State Government Largess.
It is far easier to wave the fictitious hands of the Balanced Budget Amendment when Mike Green fails to comprehend the fiscal reality of the
false promise enacted as Article V § 18 here in Michigan.
The exponential
growth in Taxation and Spending has been politically justified by the
Michigan State Legislature by waiving the legal
fiction incorporated as Article V § 18 in the Michigan State
Constitution in 1963.
This
has enabled the Legislature to increase the Debt of Michigan all under the
premise of enabling the Balanced Budget, which in reality is the Progressive
goal better defined as the "Balanced Spending Spree".
Those proposing the
“Balanced Budget Amendment” for the Federal Constitution under an Article V call
to a Convention of the States should reconsider their stance by learning the
history of the American Republic and Michigan.