Suicide is Painless

Or so the song goes; two writers over at Townhall describe America's current course as suicidal.

When a democracy reaches a point where the politicians cannot say no to the people, and both parties are competing for votes by promising even more spending or even lower taxes, or both, the experiment is about over.

"Remember," said John Adams, "democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."

Pat Buchanan, "The Fatal Flaw of Democracies"

One answer is to be found in a new book by investigative reporter, educator and columnist Martin Gross. Gross summarizes in an easy to read and understandable style how and why government has failed its citizens. The book, to be released Sept. 1, is called "National Suicide: How Washington is Destroying the American Dream from A to Z." In addition to listing some of the more outrageous pork projects that are now well-known to anyone who has been paying attention ($107,000 to study the sex life of the Japanese quail; $150,000 to study the Hatfield-McCoy feud are just two examples on a long list), Gross touches on even bigger and equally outrageous expenditures.

Cal Thomas, "National Suicide"

Granted both are quoting others, but it is pretty grim imagery.

Complaining about $7,000,000,000,000 in debt and then bringing up $150,000 to study the Hatfield-McCoy feud strikes me as a big out of whack. That $150,000 accounts for 0.0000025% of the debt. Plus it's a history project; we should be doing more history, not less.