Book Review: To Save America - How to Prevent our Coming Federal Bankruptcy

To Save America - How to Prevent our Coming Federal Bankruptcy By Martin Buchanan

Martin Buchanan, a writer and a local Denverite working at a consulting firm wrote a book in 2007 to warn America of our countries impending bankruptcy. Mr. Buchanan, a former fan of President Bush, was tillywinked into believing the fiscal ‘conservative’ was a better choice for president than his opponent Al Gore. To Buchanan’s great dismay, he was wrong: dead wrong. According to Mr. Buchanan President Bush did not curtail spending, but instead “ran huge deficits in every year of his term in office.” By the end of Bush’s reign of spending he ran a total deficit of 1.5 Trillion dollars, more than 300 billion dollars of wasted taxpayer money a year.

To Save America is a great and easy read, with clear cut examples and an achievable way of fixing our current fiscal fiasco. As the title suggests, without any changes to the governments wild spending habits, America is setting itself up for impending doom. Bankruptcy is real. Bankruptcy has happened in many countries for centuries. Bankruptcy can happen to this country. As he explains on page 41:

"Nations have been going broke for centuries. In the hundred years from 1571 to 1670, Spain went bankrupt seven times; in the thirty years from 1633 to 1662, France went bankrupt three times. During the Napoleonic wars, half of Europe went bankrupt."

These bankruptcies occur in several fashions; one is by default, think about defaulting on a personal loan, another is by hyperinflation – imagine having to load up a wheel barrel full of cash in order to buy a loaf of bread.

Mr. Buchanan gives clear examples and illustrations of why we need to balance our budget (outside the obvious). Also, gives a thorough analysis of many of the causes of the problem, and a great explanation on how to understand the federal budget on top of the federal debt and deficits.

At the end of every section where the author suggests budget cuts, he includes a table that demonstrates the savings for each individual American, each family, and the country as a whole. His noble goal is to curtail the budget by a whopping one trillion dollars a year.


OVERVIEW

Each chapter is short, concise and thorough. Beginning with his introductions and explanations of our federal budget and the budget crisis, Buchanan then moves on and explains what needs to be done.

His chapter “Stop the Giveaways” discusses the many irrelevant and counterproductive programs our government initiates in and how to cut them.

Ending traditions such as pork spending – when individual members of congress spend money for their district, which alone would save 24 billion dollars a year.

Ending frivolous farm subsidies which neither make sense nor are economically feasible, the author explains these programs as “Robin hood in reverse.” Mr. Buchanan points out that most of the subsidies go to rich corporations and large farms. Other programs he suggests ending are: subsidizing debt, ending foreign aid, ending long term disaster relief and insurance, and ending corporate welfare.

A major unnecessary expenditure is our current military budget. Buchanan suggests declaring peace all over the world immediately. As well as keeping out of future conflicts not directly related to the U.S. specifically recalling all troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, keeping out of any and all civil wars, but most importantly cutting our military budget in half. For any hawks out there who would be worried about this budget cut, be put at ease; even if we cut our military budget in half we would still have twice the budget of any country in the world.

Next, he gives vivid and horrifying examples of the worsening budget problems occurring with Social Security and Medicare, instead of doing as some would like – the moral thing, cutting the programs slowly altogether – he suggests minor reformations that would be the difference between large deficits and a surplus.

Lastly, are the suggestions of getting rid of many non-essential programs such as NASA and restoring federalism.

Overall the book is a must read for anyone interested in the future of our country. Without change, there will be, not might, will be horrible consequences we must all face. The immoral way our government has been pursuing their goals has put the United States of America, once the freest country in the world, on the brink of financial disaster. Martin Buchanan is a clear voice that cuts through all the rhetoric normally seen in the nonsensical intelligentsia of our time. It is time people like Martin Buchanan are more listened to and appreciated for their grandeur and sense of American life.

Interested in buying this book?
$14 dollars on Amazon.com
Heres the link: To Save America - How to Prevent our Coming Federal Bankruptcy

Denver International Airport Monster

The government rarely gets anything right. In 1992 the Denver government continued the many millennium long failure of projects done in the name of the ‘public.’ The monstrosity I am referring to is the blue mustang located outside of the Denver International Airport. This project was commissioned to artist Luis Jimenez 17 years ago for $300,000. In a normal laissez-faire deal Jimenez would have to prove his artistic work to people actually interested in the money, since of course it would be their own. Instead, the government, with its deep pockets was issuing the money. There was no artistic ‘objectivity’ in their evaluation. More than likely Jimenez was merely adequate at filling out forms and meeting the right sorts of government cronies in order to procreate this savagely grotesque horse from his mind into the real world.

There is currently a quite popular facebook site called byebyebluemustang.com, where thousands of denverites and others have voiced their dissent. The site is full of complaints about the ‘ugliness’ of the artwork. They decry that this should not be the first thing visitors to our great city encounter.

My opponent may cry a different song. Pointing out a few facts and pulling on the emotional strings of their audience. In 2006, for instance, after spending more than twice the estimated budget, Jimenez was killed when a piece of his artwork fell on him. The Jimenez family finished the project and is adamant about keeping the horse where it stands.

The other issue, or moot point I should say, is the fact that the project was funded with municipal bonds rather than taxpayers money.

All of these points are of no consequence to the fact that the government once again misallocated scarce resources.

Although it is true that municipal bonds are issued in order to fund projects. It is also true that the projects could go to more needed venues, such as police, roads and more.

To allow the government to fund art in such a way is to make art an open forum for the pull-peddlers. This discourages true artists from even approaching the field of aesthetics. When pull-peddlers can gain the upper hand, this discourages more talented yet less social artists from attempting great work.

It is time to take art out of the realm of the ‘public’ good and into the realm of the individual good.

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