Column By Mike Bibb
Like the old Texas Chainsaw Massacre flick from many years ago, President Trump and his buddy Elon Musk have used a similar analogy to reduce the costs and size of the federal government.
Even with a $36 trillion debt, the duo is meeting resistance virtually every step of the way.
Billions and trillions of taxpayer dollars are hard to give up, especially when the addiction has gone on for decades, involving Democrat and Republican administrations.
However, during the Biden Administration, spending became totally out of control, and indebtedness reached a point where if something wasn’t done soon to restrain the insanity, the country’s financial degradation seemed a very likely possibility.
Ridiculous COVID blunderings, the closing of churches and schools, working from home, rising inflation, and the three-year involvement in the Ukraine-Russia War significantly impacted our economy to such an extent that we still haven’t fully recovered. Everywhere you look — from fast food joints to the backs of 18-wheeler trailers traveling the Interstate Highways — you’ll see “Help Wanted” signs.
With the nation slipping a couple of trillion dollars a year deeper into the abyss and the interest on this debt now one of the largest expenditures in the annual budget, it will not be long before government departments are compelled to reduce their budgets to pay the interest.
The tail is now wagging the dog — and the dog seems completely helpless to stop it.
Unless drastic measures are taken.
Hence, the chainsaw parody.
A few news organizations covered the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C., Feb. 19-22 — a yearly gathering of non-liberal-oriented groups and individuals since 1974.
One featured speaker was Elon Musk, often called “the world’s richest man.” He recently collaborated with President Trump to remove excess fat from an overly bloated federal bureaucracy.
Ironically, it’s a couple of super-wealthy guys who are trying to lessen the government’s financial imposition upon the rest of us as if our few hundred dollars are as crucial as their billions.
Argentine President Javier Milei presented Musk with a brand-new chainsaw to symbolize the tool necessary to take on such a large operation. An ordinary doctor’s scalpel was insufficient.
Hoisting the saw, Musk boldly announced to the crowd, “This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy.”
The image was crystal clear — bureau and agency directors had better downsize their departments’ costs and size, or “Dr.” Musk would.
It’s uncertain if he will use an anesthetic before surgery.
Interviewed on stage by Newsmax host Rob Schmitt, Musk remarked, “People ask me, what’s the most surprising thing that you’ve encountered when you go to D.C.? And I said, well, the most surprising thing is the scale of the expenditures and actually how easy it is to cut, just when you add caring and competence, where it was absent before, you can actually save billions of dollars, sometimes in an hour. Like, it’s wild.”
Save billions of dollars in an hour? — which is about how long it takes the government to spend it.
For example, I’ve been around here long enough to remember when the Bureau of Land Management had a small office with only a half-dozen employees — or thereabouts.
Then, it moved to a more prominent location, and the staff doubled. Then, it moved again to a more prominent building, and the staff continued to grow. Then, it moved from East 4th Street in Safford (across from the bowling alley) to its present location on W. 8th St. and 14th Ave. The facility now sits on several acres with dozens of vehicles, SUVs, trucks, other equipment, a large employee parking lot, and I don’t know how many workers. But, a lot.
Currently, the U.S. Forest Service shares the complex with BLM. However, this is just a sampling — within our community — of how massive the federal government’s size and presence have become.
All of this costs enormous piles of money.
Yet, I don’t believe the government-supervised land has tripled or quadrupled. Its department payroll, operating costs, rules, and regulations may have been, but it is still the same desert, surrounded by mountains with the same sun shining. Only now, there are not as many trees growing on Mt. Graham, thanks to the Frye Fire in the summer of 2017, a 50,000-acre mismanaged forest calamity. It was, at one time, one of Arizona’s largest wildfires.
The lightning strike caused the inferno to be left unattended until winds eventually whipped it into a roaring blaze. The blaze lasted about three months and caused over $20 million in damages, probably closer to $30 million in today’s inflated money.
It will take the forest in semi-arid Southeast Arizona for many decades to recover.
Of course, reducing the size of government has produced the expected weeping, wailing, and cries of “The sky is falling!” or “It’s a Constitutional crisis!” or “Trump is going to wreck everything!” talking head experts constantly warn us. On and on and on . . .
Relax. If you go outside, you’ll probably discover the sky is just as blue as yesterday, the week before, the month before, and the year before. It will still be blue when the government is smaller and less expensive.
However, it may not seem as blue if the government defaults on its financial obligations. The bills have to be paid—just like you have to pay yours.
1st Rule of Economics: Don’t buy anything until you can afford it. Simple as that, whether you live in Graham County or Washington, D.C., where the nincompoops are recklessly funneling your money into every bogus swindle they can find or create!
Then, on April 15th, they demand that you “Pay your fair share” to keep the scams going.
There are only so many greenbacks, even when the government borrows and prints them by the trainload!
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author.
