The main major roadway through our city is called Sunshine Strip. For many years that name reflected the attitude of our citizens. We had a pretty bright outlook on life. We also felt we were sort of recession proof because a lot of our business came in from Mexico. It had a tendency to prop things up when times were bad. The drug wars now being waged across the border have thrown a shadow across that optimistic viewpoint. Border traffic has declined, business has faded and the safety net has become filled with holes.
Though Texas has weathered the economic storm much better than most of the country, the traditional low unemployment rates we usually enjoy have inched up to where the Lone Star State now reports an unemployed work force of about 8%. Even in the small city of Harlingen we have experienced some meaningful business failures. Mall stores have closed; realtors have either closed their doors or suffered major hardships. Even Papa John’s Pizza left town because there were not enough sales. At a churchmen’s lunch meeting this week a friend of mine told me he had his first encounter with the results of Obamacare. He had just received his healthcare insurance notice and the premium had been increased 30%.
While this micro-view does nothing to project what will be happening in America after the November election, it does paint a picture that even one of the brightest of our remaining good fortune areas is turning dim. On top of declining paychecks, large companies announcing they will end employer paid health coverage, increased insurance rates, closing stores and an unemployment rate that stubbornly stands at almost 10%, we now have the preliminary report of the President’s Debt Commission. Instead of looking at ways we can reduce the cost of growth killing government entitlements, this commission is recommending we increase revenue to pay off some of our growing national debt. How do we increase that cash flow to the government? Simple, cut out the exemptions or tax loopholes for individuals and businesses…. or in other words raise taxes. But, this same Commission suggests no changes or corrections for our high cost of entitlements or bloated government bureaucracy.
At a time when politicians should be telling us how we can reduce the cost of government by ending the operation of unneeded and ineffectual agencies, programs, and services we hear the same tattered old lines of “ending waste” and “plugging loop-holes” that stop the flow of money into governmental pocketbooks. At a time when we should be examining every spending line in the government budget, we are instead examining every benefit received by the tax paying public. At a time when we should be hearing new and creative ways to enhance our economy, we are hearing the same old blame game politics and hackneyed solutions that have been dragged out in every election since FDR.
Nobody in Washington seems to have any answers to our national concerns. So, is a brighter day coming? We hope so, but it is impossible to see it through all of the traditional political fog.
